(1) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him. (3) And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; (4) blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair; (5) tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; (6) oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; (7) lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. (8) And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (9) Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you make it.
A midrash imagines Moses’ shock and confusion at God’s instructions: “When God said to Moses, ‘Let them make Me a sanctuary,’ Moses responded, ‘Master of the Universe, the highest heavens cannot contain You, and yet You say, Let them make Me a sanctuary?!’” God seeks to reassure Moses, and replies, “Moses, not as you think. Rather, twenty boards to the north, twenty boards to the south, and eight to the west—and I will descend and contract (metzamtzem, from the same root as tzimtzum) My presence (shekhinah) among you below” (Pesikta DeRav Kahana, 2:10).
...A real divine-human relationship depends on God making space for humanity. The covenants between God and Israel and between God and humanity thus depend upon a kind of tzimtzum. In order to summon us as partners, God needs to affirm and respect our independence. This is not absolute, ontological independence, to be sure—we still depend on God for our being—but it is a form of independence nevertheless. Jewish theology insists that God wants relationship, and the possibility of relationship only emerges when both partners are honored in their separateness, and then choose to come together.
That I may dwell among (within) them: It does not say "within it," which means that the place that God will sanctify to dwell there is within the children of Israel that encircle the Tabernacle with four banners.
The Shechinah was dwelling [shochenet] with Israel from the time of the making of the Mishkan, always, as they said "and they will make Me a Mishkan and I will dwell in them" (Exodus 25:8).
...The First Human came and sinned...and the Shechinah removed herself and the connection broke itself apart. Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov, peace be upon them, came and began to continue her [the Shechinah] below...but the Shechinah did not continued in the world as in a fixed residence, rather, it was a temporary residence, and she was sitting on their backs...We find that on their days the Shechinah was flying in the air, and had no rest for her foot on the land, as [she did have] at the beginning of Creation.
Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, and all Israel along with him, came and made the Tabernacle and its vessels...made the Shechinah dwell again among the Lower Ones, in the Tent, but not on land as it was on the beginning of Creation, and the secret of this is "And they will make Me a Tabernacle and I will dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8).
And the Shechinah was found to be like a lodger/guest that goes from place to place, and regarding this it is said: "and I will dwell among them", and it is not said "and I will dwell below", rather "among them", as a lodger/guest. That is to say, to every place that Israel goes I will go with them and I will dwell among them, but not as a permanent home.
How could we give something to God Who created the world and to Whom we and our possessions already belong? When we give a gift, make a contribution to God, we are not giving God something that God does not have or that God could not produce for Himself. So God says, “Take from what is Mine and give it back to Me as a gift.” This is like when a young child has a sibling with a birthday coming up, and their parent gives that child money to purchase a birthday present for their sibling. The child who gives is not giving the material gift, not shouldering the financial burden. They are only giving their desire to share, their thoughtfulness, and their willingness to be generous. One could look at this gift as inferior, since the child doesn’t really purchase the item themselves with money that they have earned. But one can also look at this gift as being more pure. The physicality, the cost of this gift is meaningless, since the giver did not absorb that cost. But the love that the giving encodes is just as genuine and comes through even more clearly.
We are like this child. We want to contribute, even to God, compared to Whom all of our generosity is irrelevant. So when we give to God, our giving to God is not really something that we give to God, but rather a privilege that God affords us. God allows us to feel that we have an impact in the world that God creates. God allows us to make an investment and to thereby feel invested...God presents as needy, as lacking, so that we can feel good when we provide for God.
...God models for us the importance of stepping back and letting other people give their piece, so that those people can hold on to their portion. Just as God was willing to leave the world unfinished and ask for our help in completing it, so too we need to make space, so that we can form partnerships and work with others to sustain and improve the world.
Another interpretation (of Num. 8:2), “When you set up [the lamps]”: This text is related (to Ps. 139:12), “Even darkness is not dark to You; for night shines as the day, and darkness becomes like the light.” Yet You are saying to us, “When you set up the lamps!”
To what is the matter comparable? To a king who had a friend. The king said to him, “You should know that I am dining with you; so make ready for me.” His friend went [and] prepared a commoner's couch [and] a commoner's table. When the king arrived, attendants came with him. They set around menorahs of gold before him on either side.
When his friend saw all the splendor, he felt ashamed and concealed everything that he had prepared, because everything was [of the type used by] commoners. The king said to him, “What is this? Did I not tell you that I was dining with you? Why did you prepare nothing for me?”
His friend said to him, “My lord king, when I saw all this splendor that came with you, I felt ashamed and concealed everything that I had prepared for you, as it consisted of commoner's utensils.” The king said to him, “By your life, I am rejecting all my utensils which I have brought with me, and out of love for you I only wish to use yours.”
So it was with the Holy Blessed One. He is all light, as stated (in Dan. 2:22), “and the light dwells within Him.” When he says to Israel, “Prepare a menorah and lamps for Me,” what is written there (in Exod. 25:8, 31)? “And let them make Me a sanctuary and I shall dwell within them; And you shall make a menorah of pure gold.” When they had done so, immediately the Divine Presence arrived.
(1) ועשו ארון, “they are to construct an Ark;” it is noteworthy that the Torah, in these instructions about construction of the furnishings of the Tabernacle, addresses the artisans as individuals, i.e. ועשית, you, the individual, shall construct, whereas when speaking of the Holy Ark, it uses the impersonal plural of ועשו, “they shall construct.” The reason is that seeing that the Holy Ark, repository of the Tablets and the original Torah scroll, is to be something that every Israelite must feel that he had a part in making its construction possible. (Sh’mot Rabbah 34,2).
There was a certain man who was saying about his marriage as he walked: When our love was strong, we could have slept on a bed that was the width of a sword. Now that our love is not strong, a bed of sixty cubits is not sufficient for us.
Rav Huna said: Verses are written that convey these sentiments. Initially, it was written: “I will meet with you there and I will speak with you from above the Ark Cover” (Exodus 25:22), and it is taught in a baraita: The Ark of the Covenant was itself nine handbreadths high, and the Ark Cover was one handbreadth thick. There is a total height of ten handbreadths here. At first, when God had great affection for Israel, the Divine Presence was revealed within the confines of this limited space. And it is written: “And the house that King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (I Kings 6:2). And at the end, when Israel sinned, the whole of the space of the Temple was not expansive enough for the Divine Presence to rest within it, as it is written: “Thus says the Lord: The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that you may build for Me? And where is the place that may be My resting place?” (Isaiah 66:1). In times of discord, the Temple is an insufficient resting place for the Divine Presence.
(1) ועשית שלחן, the table represented the kings of Israel who entertain the Torah scholars at their table... The Torah, in describing the table in the Tabernacle as overlaid with gold, illustrates that the function of Royalty was primarily to make a great impression on the outside world...All the details that the Torah writes about in connection with all the vessels of the Tabernacle contain similar allusions of a moral-ethical nature. The Ark represents the righteous people. The table corresponds to the kings of Israel. The Menorah corresponds to the scholars of Israel. The golden altar corresponds to the priests, whereas the copper altar corresponds to the people at large.
The Gemara cites other statements concerning the ark. Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And you shall make the boards for the Tabernacle of acacia wood, standing” (Exodus 26:15)? This verse teaches that the boards of wood used for the Tabernacle should stand in the same direction in which they grew from the ground as a tree. Alternatively, “standing” means that they supported their gold plating and prevented it from falling. Alternatively, “standing” is written to hint at the following: Perhaps you will say that now that the Tabernacle is no longer in use, their hope is lost and their chance is abandoned, and after being stored away the boards will no longer return to use. Therefore, the verse states “standing” to indicate that they stand forever and ever.