Efrat, Israel – This week’s Biblical portion describes in great detail the construction of the first Jewish Sanctuary (Mikdash or Mishkan) – forerunner of our Holy Temples as well as of our Synagogues, known as “Sanctuaries in Miniature.” I believe that a proper analysis of the Biblical description of the construction will teach us volumes about the Biblical view of the sacred: what it really is, and how it is to be achieved.

Rav Elhanan Samet, in his masterful studies of the Biblical Portions, provides a verse-by-verse outline of the construction of the Sanctuary which (with only minor variations) I would like to utilize as the basis of our discussion.

Introduction: Ex.25:1-9
The necessity of community fund-raisingfor the achievement of thegoal of the Sanctuary  -a Home for the Divine Presenceon earth: the materials which must be donated, for the precise of implementation “following the (architectural) plan that I (G-d) am showing you” (25:9)

TWO MOST ESSENTIAL FEATURES  Ex 26:31 – 27:8  (15 verses)

1.    PARTITIONS FOR THE ARK
Holy of Holies (EX 26:31 – 37)
2.    ALTAR FOR SACRIFICE (EX 27:1-8)
“You must make it as you were shown on the mountain” (ibid 8)


What becomes stunningly clear from the Scriptural diagram herein provided is that the Biblical design for the Sanctuary construction is very precisely ordered and detailed, with every conceptual decision concluding with a reference to the Divine nature of the architectural plans. The introductory verses stress the most positive aspect of fund-raising: it enables the entire nation – at least, whoever brings a donation – to feel part and parcel of the most important structure in Israel. “They – the nation, not merely the leadership or the priestly class – shall build for Me a Sanctuary so that I may dwell in the midst of (all) of them.”

What follows is a detailed description of the major vessels – the Sacred Ark, the ShowTable, the Menorah (candelabrum); in an almost equal number of verses (31-30) comes the exterior structure of tapestries and wooden beams which will house these holy appurtenances. Anyone who has been involved in the construction of Synagogues and Jewish institutional buildings understands that while the internal activities are the essence of the enterprise, without a building to put them in, the desired result could never be accomplished.

But I believe the most important contribution of this nature of Biblical Scriptural analysis is that it places at obvious center stage the major focus and the two most important objects of the Sanctuary: the partitions for the ark, separating it (and of course the tablets of the Covenant) from the rest of the Sanctuary as the Holy of Holies, and the altar, upon which the sacrifices were to be offered. These are the concluding “pieces de resistance” of the Sanctuary, these are the apex and zenith of the construction, and these are the “last for which the feast was made.”

Indeed, there is a difference of opinion between Nachmanides and Maimonides (Ramban and Rambam) as to whether the Sacred Ark or the Altar was the most important aspect of the Sanctuary – but everyone would agree that these two were the most central. If the common folk and conventional wisdom would have it that the Sanctuary housed the Divine, what object could “stand –in” for G-d in a better fashion than the Holy Ark and the Tablets of Testimony?. G-d dare not be represented by the sun, or moon, or by any other material symbol. G-d can only be conceived – and communicated with – on the basis of His own words, the teachings which He taught the nation at their very incipient stage of development. The Sanctuary – and ever sacred structure of Judaism – must have as its centerpiece the teaching of Torah, the communication of G-d’s words, the Divine message of love, ethics, morality and peace.

Maimonides opens his “Laws of the Chosen Temple” with the words: “The place of the altar was the most specified and pre-ordained, and must never be changed…. There is an oral tradition accepted by all that the exact spot where Kings David and Solomon erected the altar was the same spot where Abraham built an altar upon which he bound Isaac. And this is the location where Noah built an altar when he left the ark, which was where Cain and Abel brought their sacrifice. From this very location, Adam was created…” (Laws of the Chosen Temple 2:1,2). If the purpose of the Sanctuary, the essential goal of Torah and G-d’s covenant, is the perfection of the world (tikkun olam), such a lofty goal cannot be achieved without personal sacrifice, daily acts of commitment even to the point of sacrificing one’s life. One of the most distinguishing features differentiating humans from animals is our ability to sacrifice. Hence the second focus of the Sanctuary, alongside of the Words of G-d, is the altar of sacrifice.