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TORAH STUDY
Creating a mikdash
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February 11, 2005/Adar 12 5765, Volume 57, No. 24

Creating a mikdash

Torah study

MADELYN MISHKIN KATZ
Terumah, Exodus 25:1-27:19
And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. Exactly as I show you - the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings - so shall you make it" (Exodus 25:8-9).

This past October, I was fortunate to celebrate two special occasions: my daughter's and my niece's bat mitzvah. When I sat on the bimah in my own sanctuary for my daughter's simcha, there was no question for me that God was "among us."

Three weeks later, as I looked out over the sanctuary in my brother's synagogue at my niece's bat mitzvah, I felt the same way. These are two sanctuaries that look as different from one another as possible. It was clear that different hands had built each sanctuary, each with a different vision for worship.

I began thinking of the myriad of sanctuaries in which I have felt God's presence: the one in which I grew up, the church chapel that had been transformed for use when a synagogue was not yet available, the public school auditorium used for Kabbalat Shabbat services by a congregation in its formative years and many more. Each one of these is a mikdash (sanctuary), each different from the rest, yet all serving the same purpose.

Many commentators address the fact that this text reads "so that I may dwell among them" as opposed to "in it." Others question why God instructs all the people - both men and women - to build the mikdash.

Up until this point in the Torah, our ancestors prayed to God wherever they felt moved to pray. Abraham and Isaac prayed on Mount Moriah, Jacob in the desert, and Moses at an ordinary bush and then on Mount Sinai.

However, once the people receive the Ten Commandments from God at Mount Sinai, the prayer experience changes.

Commentator Umberto Cassuto points out in leaving Mount Sinai, the people are fearful that their connection to God might fade as they move onward in their journey. They want assurance that God will always be with them.

Rabbi Mordechai Katz comments that God knew the limits of humankind and that the people were not capable of understanding that God is everywhere. Therefore God instructs them to build the mikdash - not for God to dwell in but to serve as a tangible symbol, for the people, of God's presence.

In Terumah, God sets forth instructions for the building of the mikdash, including elaborate details for the blueprint and materials to be used. By attending to the specifics we read in the verses that follow, we become active participants with God, rather than simple recipients of all that God has bestowed on them. God's message was this: Yes, I will be with you always, but you must be willing to work hard for that assurance.

But according to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the original mikdash was more than just a building: it was a symbol of the covenant relationship. The mikdash was created when the people sought to live their lives according to Torah. The result of fulfilling those commandments is God's presence in our lives.

The Israelites who received the Torah from God at Mount Sinai needed reassurance that God would be with them always. They did not build the mikdash so that they would have a place in which to find God. They were committed to fulfilling the mitzvot, and the mikdash was a visible reminder of God's promise to be with them as they lived that life of Torah.

Our sanctuaries cannot become the only places we go to find God. Yes, they can certainly be places where we can quiet our minds and hearts, or where we find comfort and community when loneliness diminishes our spirit. And they may be places we may go to find answers to life's questions or to atone for our mistakes. But God did not intend for us to build the mikdash so that we could find God in it. God's presence is meant to be felt in living a life of mitzvot - the mitzvot that were entrusted to us when our ancestors stood at Mount Sinai.

Madelyn Mishkin Katz, R.J.E., is the director of Student Services at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles. Torat Chayin of the URJ is at www.urj.org/torah.
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