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Quote from the Rosh Yeshiva Parashat Teruma the Mishkan Selected and Adapted by Rabbi Do\l Karon Quote from the Rosh Yeshiva The Torah tells us ... that the Mishkan is to be built through Bnei Yisrael's donations .... One gets the impressi on that the Torah here encourages good will and voluntarism, that it praises the Jewish people for their unsolicited contributions. However, Rashi (25:2) writes that the sockets, which supported the beams of the Mishkan, were manufactured not from voluntary donations, but from the mandatory half-shekel tax levied from the people regardless of their generous contributions .... One's service of the Almighty must be based primarily upon an ingrained sense of obligation, duty, commitment - not good will and voluntarism. One must feel obligated to fulfill the mitzvot, and cannot perform them merely because he finds them interesting or appealing. Some people think that a good Jew is one who fully identifies with everything he does .... Rashi here teaches us that while the Mishkan required voluntary donations, the sockets - the basis and foundation of the Mishkan - were built not from voluntary contributions but from mandatory taxation. One must inculcate in himself, before anything else, a profound sense of commitment. -Harav Yehuda Am ital zt"I Parashat Teruma The Mishkan Based on a Sicha by Harav Baruch Gigi Based on : https://www.etzion.org.il/en/mishkan-O The commentators are divided over the question of when it was that Bnei Yisrael were commanded to build the Mishkan. Some maintain that the parshiot of Sefer Shemot are recorded in chronological order, such that the command precedes the sin of the golden calf. Others believe that the command was given after and in response to the sin, after it was clear that for Bnei Yisrael - at least at that time - God's transcendental reality in the world was not sufficient; they could not maintain a complete physical severance from God and needed some tangible manifestation of His Presence in their midst. Rash i's well-known position (31:18) is that "The Torah does not follow chronological order. The sin of the golden calf preceded by far the command to fashion the Mishkan." Ram ban (33:7) disagrees: "Rashi wrote .. 'and the Torah does not follow chronological order.' But this does not seem correct to me, for what reason is there to mention this [the command to build the Mishkan] here, in the middle of the narrative [if it did not take place at this point]?" Ram ban's position, here as elsewhere, is that the order of the Torah does follow the chronology of the events that it records. His approach in our context implies that the construction of the Mishkan is a fundamental, essential component in the life of the nation, rather than just an act of repair following the sin of the golden calf - since, in his view, the construction of the Mishkan had already been commanded before that incident occurred. In his introduction to Sefer Shemot, Ramban develops this idea: When they left Egypt, even though they had emerged from the house of slavery still they were considered exiles, for they were in a land that was not their own, wandering about in the wilderness. And when they came to Mount Sinai and built the Mishkan, and the Holy One, blessed be He, restored His Presence to their midst, they regained the level of their forefathers, who had enjoyed God's Presence ... , and they became His chariot, [as it were], and then they were considered truly redeemed. And therefore this Book (Shemot) ends with the completion of the matter of the Mishkan and of God's glory filling it perpetually. Thus, the redemption of Am Yisrael did not end with the Exodus from Egypt, nor even with the giving of the Torah . Redemption means a life lived before God, and on the national level - Am Yisrael representing a "chariot for the Divine Presence." A person who lives a full and interesting life, but bereft of any consciousness of standing before God, is not redeemed. Thus, the Mishkan is an essential part of the national life of Am Yisrael, granting the nation the title of "chariot for the Divine Presence." The presence of the Mishkan is a continuation of the experience of Sinai, and a foundation for God's perpetual presence in the midst of the encampment, creating a life of holiness. Without the Mishkan, Am Yisrael is not living that life of holiness before God. "Then they regained the level of their forefathers" - which forefathers? Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, who "hosted" God in their tents, as it were, as a matter of course: "And God appeared to him at Alonei Mamrei while he sat at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day" (Bereishit 18:1)! God cannot be revealed to every individual in the nation of Israel; hence He chose to let His Presence rest in one place - the Mishkan - in order to offer every individual member of the nation the possibility of a redeemed and holy life with an awareness of God's Presence in their midst: "Let them make Me a Mishkan, that I may dwell in their midst" (25:8) . (Translated by Kaeren Fish) Parashat Teruma Mishkan, Mikdash and Ohel Mo'ed By Harav Yaakov Medan Based on: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/concerning-mishkan A. "Mikdash" vs . "Mishkan" We generally use the terms "Mishkan" and "Mikdash" as names for the structures in which God's Shekhina rested. The Mishkan (Sanctuary) refers to the portable structure that Moshe established in the desert, as well as to the temporary edifice that Bnei Yisrael established in Shilo under Yehoshua 's leadership following 14 years of conquest and division of the land. The Mikdash is the building that King Shlomo built in Jerusalem and which Nevukhadnetzar destroyed (the First Temple), as well as the building that Zerubavel and Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak built with the return of the Babylonian exile under Persian rule (the Second Temple); King Herod renovated this building and Titus destroyed it. It is this building that we pray will be built again speedily in our days, and it will stand forever - Amen, and so may it be God's will. However, these terms sometimes have more specific significance. Regarding the term 'Mikdash ,' the Gemara (Eruvin 2a-b) points out that a verse (Bemidbar 10:21, see there) referring to Mikdash is actually speaking of the Ark of the Covenant. Accordingly, perhaps we should reinterpret the verse mentioning the "Mikdash" in our parasha: "THEY SHALL MAKE ME A MIKDASH and I shall dwell in their midst. As all that I show you, the form of the Mishkan and the form of all its vessels - so shall you fashion [them]. AND THEY SHALL MAKE AN ARK of shittim wood, two cubits and a half long, and a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high." (25:8-10) From verse 10 onwards the Torah specifies the form of the Ark, referred to in verse 8 as a "Mikdash." Verse 9, dividing between these stages, is the conclusion of the first section (w. 1-9) - a sort of summary of the sections that follow in the paras ha (compare 25:40 and 26:30). As such, in the next verse, the word "Mikdash" again refers to the Ark of the Covenant. This is comparable to the description in Divrei Ha-Yamim {I, ch . 28), where verse 2 describes David's desire "to build A HOUSE OF REST FOR THE ARK OF GOD'S COVENANT," and then verse 10 refers to that construction as "A HOUSE FOR THE MIKDASH ." A comparison of the verses shows that the "Mikdash" means the Ark, and the entire edifice is named after it. The "Mishkan" in its more specific sense refers to the bottom layer of curtains: "YOU SHALL MAKE THE MISH KAN OF 10 CURTAINS, fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet, [with] artistic keruvim shall you fashion them" (26:1) . Thus, regarding the construction of the boards, we are told: "You shall fashion the boards FOR THE MISH KAN ... " (26:18). The boards are FOR the Mishkan, while the curtains themselves are the Mishkan. 2 Indeed, when the Mishkan was established in Shilo, it was built of stone; the boards were put away, since they were not essential to the Mishkan. But the stone edifice in Shilo was built without a permanent roof; the curtains of the Mishkan that Betzalel and Oholi'av had made in the desert were placed over it. These curtains gave the building its name - Mishkan. Let us now address the relationship between the specific references of the terms "Mishkan" and "Mikdash." The Mikdash, as we said, was the Ark - the ARK OF TESTIMONY (Aron ha-Eidut), named after the Tablets of Testimony it housed. The Mishkan is also referred to as the "Mishkan ha-Eidut" (Mishkan of testimony), named for the Tablets of Testimony within it: "These are the accounts of the Mishkan, the MISH KAN OF TESTIMONY, as they were counted by Moshe's word, the work of the Leviim being by the hand of ltamar ben Aharon the Kohen" (38:21). The rest of the shiur will focus on this name for the Mishkan. B. "Mishkan" and "ohel" As we have noted, in Sefer Shemot and in Sefer Bamidbar, the name by which the building is usually known is "Mishkan." In Sefer Vayikra, on the other hand, it is referred to as the "ohel mo'ed" (tent of meeting). Sometimes both names appear together: "He abandoned the Mishkan of Shilo, the tent (ohel) where He dwelled among people" (Tehillim 78:60).
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