Chapter Two

The Blueprint of Creation in the and Its Allegorical Interpretations

The Biblical Link between the and Creation

The conceptual basis for the link between the Tabernacle and Creation is inherent in the Bible itself and the notion of equating the structure of the Tabernacle with the plan of the universe clearly developed through interpretations of the biblical text. The first verse in Genesis, “In the beginning God created the and the Earth” (Gen. 1:1), and the command to , “According to all that I show thee, the pattern, tavnit, of the Tabernacle and the tavnit of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Exod. 25:9), are the bases for voluminous commentary on the subject of the “Blueprint of Creation.” The connection between these two verses rests on the meaning of the word “tavnit,” the pattern that God revealed to Moses on .1 The opening verse in Genesis 1 is unique. The other verses in the chap- ter relate to the order of Creation describing what was created each day, whereas the first verse does not give a chronological description, but is rather a general introduction that expresses the idea that “in the begin- ning” God created an entity that encompassed the entire Cosmos—the and the Earth—that is, He created the blueprint, the tavnit, of Creation. Thus, when God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded him to build the Tabernacle, “According to all that I show thee, the tavnit of the Tabernacle,” what was shown to Moses was the same pattern that God drew for Creation.

1 Sarna 1991, 159 (in his comments on Exod. 25:9) states: “The Tabernacle and its vessels are either earthly replicas of celestial archetypes or are constructions based upon divinely given blueprints and pictorial representations” (n. 28 in connection with Exod. 25:40; 26:30; 27:8; Num. 8:4). The Hebrew word tavnit usually refers to an imitative reproduc- tion of a material entity that exists in reality (cf. Deut. 4:16–18; Josh. 22:28; 2 Kings 16:10; Isa. 44:13; Ezek. 8:3, 10; 10:8; Pss. 106:20; 144:12). But tavnit here could be understood as an archetype model. Both notions are found elsewhere in the Bible, e.g., 1 Chron. 28:11–18, where David receives specifications from God; Ezekiel’s vision on a very high mountain, Ezek. 40–42; celestial Temple (cosmic Sanctuary) as described in Isaiah 6:1–8, Micah 1:2, 3, Psalm 11:4.” 34 chapter two

In the Creation story we read that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six days. The biblical account of the construction of the Tab- ernacle emphasizes that God enjoined the to build the Taber- nacle and shape its vessels according to the divine plan that had been created in the beginning. We are told that a cloud covered the mountain for “six days”2 and that it was only on “the seventh day” that Moses was called to go into the cloud and to view the tavnit of the Tabernacle and its ­vessels. The verses that describe the manifestation of God’s presence and the Revelation on Mount Sinai seem to be deliberately couched in terms that parallel those in the Creation story. In this light, the words used in the Bible to describe the Revelation reflect a unique relationship between Creation, the Revelation at Mount Sinai, and the construction of the Tabernacle (see Addendum—Table 1). The cloud that was the manifestation of God’s Glory on Mount Sinai is the same cloud that filled the Tabernacle as well as ’s Temple, as is told in the Book of Kings in the description of its consecration:3 “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the Glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord.” Mark Smith suggests that these verbal correlations between the account of Creation in Genesis and the building of the Tabernacle in Exodus were meant to portray both the created Cosmos and the desert Tabernacle as spaces sanctioned by God for the Divine Presence.4 Umberto ­Cassuto, in his commentary on the Tabernacle,5 notes that in the phrase, “And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai,” at the end of the description of the Revelation (Exod. 24:16), Scripture uses the Hebrew word “abode”—“vayiskhan,” which is the verb form of the noun for the ­Tabernacle, the “mishkhan,” introduced in Exodus 25. According to Cas- suto, using this verb before beginning the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle established both a stylistic and a topical association between the two chapters. The mishkhan was to be the physical repre- sentation for God’s Presence, the shekhinah, that accompanied the Isra- elites once they left Mount Sinai. The word “shekhinah,” which is another

2 Exod. 24:16. 3 1 Kings 8:10, 11. 4 Smith 2010, 76. 5 Cassuto 1967, 316.