I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you an article by Sarah Maddali entitled "You Are a Mini Tabernacle" about the connections between building ourselves and building a house for HaShem.
[...] Our Sages tell us that we are all microcosms of the Tabernacle. Just as in the Tabernacle, where each little intricacy, every minutia, every little detail was accounted for to optimize the Tabernacle’s holiness – God is orchestrating every detail of our lives to bring out our holiness as well. Every detail, interaction, circumstance, relationship, occurrence, in our life is perfectly crafted just for us to help bring about our highest, holiest potential so we can truly shine.
Our parsha also tells us that the dedication of the Tabernacle lasted seven days, in which Moses erected and dismantled the Tabernacle every day until the eighth day. Here too the Tabernacle is analogous to all of our lives. Every time Moses underwent the process of dismantling and rebuilding, he invested in us the strength and encouragement to rebuild ourselves at different stages of our lives. We all have times in our lives where we feel down and dejected but Moses infused within us the strength to get back up – to rebuild, to keep trying.
God knows that we are human and fallible. But God asked us, human beings, to create, build, and construct a place for God. The glory of God rested in the work of Man; the Tabernacle - what we, humans, built is shining bright with God’s radiance. We have the power to build and rebuild ourselves as well, no matter how far we think we’ve fallen. Each time we get back up, we shine a little brighter with God’s glory.
How was it that Moshe was able to undergo such a gargantuan task of assembling the Tabernacle? Seeing how heavy it was, he asked God, “How can anyone erect it?” A famous Torah commentary, Rashi, comments that God told him just to make the attempt, and the Tabernacle would stand on its own; this is reflected in the passive tense of “the Tabernacle was erected”. Herein lies the secret: we must only desire to create a space for God - to see His miracles and Hand in every intricate detail and at every stage of our lives – and want to grow and develop to fulfill our highest, holiest potential and thus we will succeed in creating an optimal space for God and truly be like the Tabernacle. [...]
Hoping and praying for a Shabbat Shalom in every sense of the term,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
