Once, when I was studying in yeshiva, one of the rabbis stayed with his family in the yeshiva for Shabbat.
The whole time, I kept seeing his youngest son eating candy. I was both amazed and jealous — his father never gave him candy, so where did he get all of it from? I tailed him for a half hour, and what did I see? He asked everyone he saw the same question: “Do you have something sweet for me?” It sounds better in Hebrew. It was so simple that it worked. I tried it myself with mixed results; whereas he was scoring just about every time, I had only a 50% success rate. Still, I was getting candy, which I was not getting before I started asking. I came to realize that while I may not always get what I want when I ask for it, if I don’t ask, I won’t get anything.
We have had the most amazing run of riveting parshiot since we started the Torah over four months ago. Each week has been a rollercoaster ride of murder, sex and natural disaster. Well, that’s all over now; this week, get your rod and ruler cause we are diving into divine architecture. This week, G!d begins instructing Moshe how to build the Mishkan, G!d’s traveling house. For the next few weeks, the process of the fabrication of the Mishkan will occupy our attention, with a brief break for the sin of the golden calf. Why does Moshe spill so much ink on a tent that was used for only 54 years?
For all of its amazingness, revelation at Sinai was essentially a failure. Not that G!d wasn’t able to reveal the Torah to the Children of Israel, but that the revelation failed to create the relationship that G!d wanted with the children of Israel. The failure was due to the overwhelming power of G!d; it left us unable to play an active role in the relationship.
The Mishkan is the exact opposite. The Mishkan was a project that all of Israel contributed to, so much so that Moshe had to tell us to stop. It placed G!d’s presence squarely in the center of our camp and consciousness. The people followed it wherever it went in the desert as opposed to running away from Sinai during the revelation.
What was the secret that made the Mishkan so effective? G!d asked us for what He wanted and He defined it specifically. G!d gave us the ability and desire to love Him by telling us precisely how to do that. What courage it took on G!d’s part to be so vulnerable, but the results are a love that has spanned all of history.
Shabbat Shalom, and how about them Chiefs!
Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis grew up in Overland Park and attended HBHA, was an Eagle Scout with Troop 61, and helped restart AZA Chapter #2. He currently is a rabbi in the Jewish Community of Warsaw, Poland, and Chief Rabbi of Katowice, Poland. He can be reached at .