Vayakhel

Do people need a place to worship? After all, God may be everywhere but they want to find holiness in a single place. That is why they want to build a Mishkan. The root of the word Mishkan, literally “dwelling place,” has to do with the place where God can be found.


We build Synagogues for the same reason, it is a place to assemble and find God. In fact, we even have a name for the Lord comes from the same Hebrew root as Mishkan, Shechinah.   Shechinah is the name we use for God when we feel him most closely. Every name that we for HaKadosh Baruch Hu means something different. And this word comes closest to the aspect that is most proximate to us.


This Sidra is preceded by the laws of Shabbat.  The sages therefore indicate that we are to learn that even labors for God do not outweigh the holy Shabbat. While we may be involved in many activities that seem to be very important to us, even making a Mishkan, this one aspect of living the life of a Jew is critical to our being.

 

Ahad HaAm is said to have proclaimed, “more than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews. That is, when we observe what it means to be a Jew we remain a nation that endures throughout the epochs. In much the same way, it is not enough to feel American, we must also vote, pay taxes, supportive people.  Likewise, to be fully Jewish we need to act in a manner that Jews act. We need to behave like Jews. Then we feel even more Jewish, follow God mitzvot and breathe life and passion into our religion.

 

Consider:

Verse 1: Why does this sentence (pasuk) begin with “Every wise-hearted person…?”  What is implicit in this verse?

Verse 12: This pasuk references a curtain and an ark.  See how our modern synagogues mimic the Mishkan.

What would you have donated had you been there?

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