Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  They shall make Me a Sanctuary so that I may dwell among them. [Shemot 25:8]

The verses surrounding ours discuss the creation of a physical building as a Sanctuary,

so our verse could easily be understood in that vein. But is that really what it is discussing?

Rashi says that this verse cannot mean the people are going to give something to God

that He did not already own since He owns everything. Ramban explains the two phrases

of our verse, that making a Sanctuary means building and implements "like a palace of a

king and house of royalty", and dwelling among them "in that house and on the Throne of

Glory that they will make for Me there", which clearly refer to the physical building idea.

But there are other approaches. Rashbam points at the word mikdash, Sanctuary, and

says it means ohel moed, the Tent of Meeting that will be used in the desert. He calls it a

"place where God would be sanctified and from which He would address the Israelites."

Nachshoni says that it refers to its future mission. Abarbanel points out the obvious, that

constructing a building is only symbolic since God resides both in heaven and on earth

and dwells among us already. Talelei Oros follows Abarbanel that the Mikdash is not

necessary for God to dwell in this world, that He can be in it without a building of such

specific proportions, or in fact without a building at all. So what is this Mikdash about?

Or HaChayim writes that mikdash is a set of instructions for all the future Sanctuaries,

Tent, Temples, whatever. Talelei Oros describes its purpose as enabling the Jews to

bring down God's Presence through their acts, to which the Sefer HaChinuch adds,

"Righteous acts perfect the heart spiritually."

But there is yet another approach, one that makes very good sense. Beginning with

Onkelos, his translation of our verse is "They should make before Me a Sanctuary and I

will cause My Presence to dwell among them." This is, as usual, his way to get around

the anthropomorphism issues of God needing a material item for anything. We can also

read into this that the people were to make something other than a building. Rav Moshe

Feinstein says that the holiness of a Sanctuary has to come from God, that people can

only build a physical structure. Our verse teaches that if man builds it, God will fill it, that

the people cannot make an actual holy Sanctuary, just the building to house it.

Rav Yosef Soloveitchik brings his ancestor Rav Chaim to explain what this means. The

physical housing is not what is important, only the act of preparing for God to fill it. The

real Sanctuary is within us, where the Divine Presence resides if we prepare ourselves

for that. The last word of our verse, b'tocham, can be read as "in them".