Mishkan. Tabernacle. From the root “to dwell.” A dwelling place for God among the people, a meeting of two worlds…
At the time of the writing of this week’s Torah portion, T’rumah, the mishkan was something very physical and tangible, an imposing tent filled with precious metals, colorful weavings, aromatic incense, mesmerizing gemstones, a golden menorah, and (lest we forget!) dolphin skins. Fierce golden cherubim spread their wings over the Ark of the Covenant--a dramatic finishing touch. The biblical mishkan, the meeting place between the divine and the mundane, was designed to fill each heart with awe.
Clearly, the mishkan has had some facelifts through the years, and with the destruction of the Second Temple came a complete re-thinking of the concept, making each Jewish home its own tabernacle, a sacred place where the divine is invited to dwell and which provides a sanctuary from the outside world. For some people who are more spiritually minded, the mishkan can even be conceived of as the human body itself, the place that is made beautiful and pure in preparation for divine connection, an inviting sanctuary for all that is loving and creative.
The elaborate instructions for the historical mishkan can inspire personal reflections on how we experience the divine, the ways in which we connect ourselves to our purpose and feel the presence of something greater. While we probably don’t feel the need to make “forty silver sockets under […] twenty planks,” for example, it can add meaning to our lives to fill our spaces with evocative objects, vibrant colors, and a beautiful menorah.
And deep inside our beautiful dwelling places, perhaps we have made a place for an inner sanctum, a Holy of Holies, a physical or metaphorical space that we can enter when we need to quiet the clamoring noises of modern life and connect with spirit and source. In this quiet space, perhaps we will hear the resonance of the divine promise found in Exodus 25:22: “There I will meet with you.”
Shabbat Shalom!
Rebecca Abbate
