Few people in Tanach are more isolated than Moshe:
- In his youth, Moshe dwells in Pharaoh's palace.
- As an adolescent, Moshe is forced to flee to Midian – where he marries Tzipporah, a woman from a pariah family.
- Moshe returns from Midian to a nation that possesses neither the strength nor the patience for his religious mission; they wished he would return to Midian and leave them in their slavery.
Perhaps the presentation of the Torah gave Moshe his
long-awaited chance to join the nation, to be a teacher and grow to know his
people – but then Moshe descends from Har Sinai and discovers the Golden Calf, and
he becomes an outsider yet again:
- He is a wrathful judge, ordering the execution of thousands of people who had worshipped the Calf.
- He is a spiritual outsider, a pious third party pleading with G-d on behalf of the sinful Jews.
- He is a physical outsider, moving his tent beyond the tribal perimeter, a leper of sorts.
- He is distanced from his students, wearing a veil to obscure his radiance when teaching them.
- He is even distanced from family; as the midrash explains, he separates from his wife, Tzipporah.
Moshe is the Loneliest Man of Faith, and in this light, his
actions in the following midrash make sense:
After listing the items created for the Mishkan, the Torah
tells us “הוקם המשכן,” the
Mishkan was raised. But then, in the very next sentence, the Torah says, “ויקם משה את
המשכן,” “And Moshe raised the
Mishkan.” Why does the Torah mention the act of construction twice, but include
Moshe only in the second assembly? Our midrash[1]
explains:
היה משה
מיצר על שלא נשתתף הוא עמהן במלאכת המשכן... ולפי שהיה משה
מיצר העלים הקב"ה מהם ולא היו יכולין להעמידו... עד שאמר לו הקב"ה למשה
לפי שהיית מיצר שלא היה לך עשייה ולא חלק במלאכת המשכן לפיכך לא יכלו אותן חכמים
להעמידו בשבילך
Moshe was upset that he
had not personally taken part in actually building the Mishkan… Because Moshe
was upset, Gd hid information from the people and they could not make the
Mishkan stand… until Gd told Moshe, "Because you were upset about not
having an active role in the work of the mishkan, therefore, those craftsmen
could not assemble it in your place."
Like Yonah camped outside of Nineveh, like Eliyahu living in
the wilderness, Moshe had been excluded from the people he had led out of Egypt
and had saved from Divine wrath. Perhaps Moshe now wishes to re-join the
nation, via the symbolic act of participating in the construction of the
Mishkan.
However,
this midrash requires deeper examination, for that cannot be the whole picture
of Moshe's intent.
The
midrashic image of Gd watching the Jews blunder about clumsily like the Three
Stooges, putting up walls and having them collapse, is amusing (if theologically
disturbing). But the idea that spiritual Moshe, who just spent many weeks atop
Sinai without eating or drinking, now wanted to engage in physical construction,
is intriguing. Is he a forerunner of A.D. Gordon and Labour Zionism, insisting
upon working with his hands? If not, why is this, the act of building the
mishkan, the moment that Moshe seizes to re-join the community?
Let's make the question stronger – Why does Gd permit Moshe to
join the Jews who had worshipped the Calf?
- Moshe is meant to be apart, veiled, separate even from his wife!
- Recall that G-d did not speak to Avraham as long as he lived with Lot,[2] or to Moshe as long as he was in idolatrous Egypt[3] - why would Gd now want him to be with idolaters?
Why does
Moshe belong at the site of the Mishkan, at all?
The answer
may lie in the two Ohel Moed structures the Jews had in the wilderness.
The first אהל מועד was Moshe's tent, and it was for כל מבקש ד', for any individual who sought to meet Gd. After
the sin of the Golden Calf, as we read last week, Moshe moved that tent outside
of the camp.[4]
With the
construction of the Mishkan, though, there was a second, communal אוהל מועד. As described in our parshah,[5]
the new tent of meeting with Gd was part of the mishkan – in the middle of the
camp.
The private
ohel moed, for individuals, was moved outside the camp; individuals, even
Moshe, were unworthy of connecting with Gd in the domain of those who had
worshipped the Calf. This Divine denial of entry was the fate of Avraham with
Lot, and of Moshe in Egyot. However, the community as a whole could greet Gd in
the public ohel moed, the Mishkan, even within the camp. טומאה הותרה בציבור, a community approaches
Gd with a power far beyond that of the lone Jew, overriding the impurity of
their recent idolatry. The moment when a nation approaches Gd, rising from the
ashes of its failings to soar toward its spiritual destiny, has a power which
no past calamity could undermine.
This image of the Mishkan as a site in which the community
of stumbling Man could meet with sacred G-d, in which holiness could be present
despite the coarseness of sin, is seen in a nuance of the law of shaatnez. As
Jews, we are prohibited from wearing shaatnez, garments which mix wool and
linen. Traditionally, we have considered this law a rule above rational
explanation, but Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, the 13th century author of
the Rokeiach, suggested in a mystical vein that wool represents the purity of
the heavenly domain, and linen represents the coarseness of the earthly domain.[6]
Normally, we recognize a distance between those two realms – but wool and linen
meet in the אבנט, the belt worn by the kohen when working in the
Mishkan and Beis haMikdash.
Moshe
understood that in the Mishkan a community could bond with Gd despite their
flaws and errors. Beyond wanting to simply "fit in", Moshe
longed to participate in this process. To Moshe, the Mishkan presented an
opportunity to join with the nation in their pursuit of national atonement, an
auspicious venue in which to bend the curve of heaven a bit closer to earth and
elevate the human being to the limits of his plane; this warranted cooperation
with a nation that had violated its covenant with G-d mere months earlier.
The mishkan
unites Jews of every level, from the purity of the heavens to the coarseness of
the earth. This is where Moshe wanted to
be – not off in his tent, secluded with Gd, but part of the noble, national
Jewish experience, building a home for Gd on Earth. Moshe was pained by
the thought that he might be excluded from this venture.
We wear Moshe's shoes; Jews who observe halachah are
compelled to stand apart from the rest of the Jewish community in so many ways.
We eat in kosher restaurants and kosher homes. Our Friday night is dedicated to
celebrating Shabbos. We dance differently, we sing differently, we learn
differently.
At the same time, we dare not become Yonah balefully glaring
at Nineveh from the distance of his hut, or Eliyahu off in the wilderness
complaining to Gd of the sins of the nation. Rather, we are summoned, it is our
destiny, to be like the אבנט of the kohen, to work
as Moshe did, to find ways to be משתתף,
to partner with, the world around us, when they unite as a community in service
of Gd. To make our shul part of a Federation, a JCC, a Jewish Family Service, a
Limmud. Not because this will win us adherents, but because we see our shul,
our mishkan, as a place to bring stumbling man closer to sacred Gd, together.
I happen to believe in A.D. Gordon's Labour Zionism; physical
work does have a redemptive character – and especially in building up our
homeland. But Moshe's message here is not about the physical act of putting up a
building. And Moshe is not only trying to defeat the isolation he had
experienced for much of his life. Rather, Moshe is articulating a message of
sublime beauty: Stand apart as you must - but in the mishkan, stand together, contribute
to that noble, national enterprise.
In last week’s parshah, after the חטא העגל, HaShem performed the ultimate act of
separating Moshe from the rest of the nation: Gd declared, “I shall destroy the
rest of them, and inaugurate a new nation with you.” This is it, Moshe – you
are going to be the new Avraham, and your descendants will begin again.
Moshe dramatically rejected this Divine offer, standing his
ground and insisting that his fate would lie with the nation.
Moshe saw his spiritual identity intertwined with that of his people, his spiritual home located in the Mishkan that played host to the entire population. May we, in our own mishkan, remain committed to do the same.
Moshe saw his spiritual identity intertwined with that of his people, his spiritual home located in the Mishkan that played host to the entire population. May we, in our own mishkan, remain committed to do the same.
Your footnotes don't work (on my computer); they redirect to a login page instead of the note.
ReplyDeleteNice piece!
ReplyDeleteD-
ReplyDeleteThanks; they should work now.
Bob-
Thanks!