“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”
Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508) asks on this Torah section of Terumah: Why did God command the
Hebrews to build a sanctuary? As it says: “That I may dwell among them?” One might deduce that the
Maker has physical properties and that a sanctuary can fully contain Him.
Preposterous. Hashem is non-corporeal. Thus, no chamber – no matter how high and spacious – can
accommodate Him. Yeshayahu pegged it: “The heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you may build unto Me? And where is the place that may be My resting place?”
Wise Shlomoh, the builder of the First Jewish Temple, props the prophet’s proclamation: “Behold,
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this house that I have built!”
Does our verse in the first aliyah of Parashat Terumuah challenge the words of the prophet and wise
king?
It should be plain. The Almighty’s command to build the Tabernacle or Mishkan and its vessels had to do
with His desire to tightly interweave His holiness and holy presence or Shechinah with the Chosen
People. Of no consequence was the fact that this intimate relationship commenced between man and
God in a desert wasteland (and not lusher or more picturesque environs).
What mattered most was the goal it accomplished. Providence coddled God’s nation, in exchange of
their keeping the divine Torah. A marriage made in heaven. Never would His people contemplate the
fundamentally false, but near-ubiquitous, premise that the Creator abandoned earth. Nor would they
adopt the attitudes of the Gentiles, one based on the assumption that God retired to the heavens
above, remote from man. Moreover, the Jews would repel heresy built upon a denial of divine
providence interfacing with man. Such skewed philosophy leads to bitter consequences, namely, a
mindset that precludes the Maker from paying man back according to his evil deeds and ways.
On this topic of erroneous, theological assumptions, let us elaborate. Gentile thinkers posit that it is not
possible to attain in-depth understanding of the world, other than by sense perception or other physical
stimuli. Since God is non-corporeal, these theologians surmise, He does not tune into man’s daily doings.
Nor does He apply providence to people. Incorrectly, they believe that the Creator sits upon high, aloof
from man.
The Maker does not abide such false teachings. For a moment. In efforts to redress such misinformation
from among the Jewish ranks, God commands: “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell
among them.” The verse conveys that the Almighty Himself takes up residence amongst the Jews. This is
a religious tenet and imperative. The Creator resides in their midst. Divine providence is the vehicle or
manifestation of faith.
We return to an earlier reference to a verse in Yeshayahu, making better sense of it: “The heaven is My
throne and the earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you may build unto Me? And where is the
place that may be My resting place?”
Unequivocally, the Creator has zero need for a Temple or Tabernacle. In the very next verse in
Yeshayahu, we read: “For all these things has My hand made.” Why, then, did God command the Jews
to build the Mishkan? The answer resounds unmistakably: to etch within the Jews’ psyche the principle
of divine providence, as per Yeshayahu: “But on this man will I look, even on him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembles at My word.” This is precisely what wise Shlomoh meant in his prayer, on
the solemn occasion at the dedication of the Holy Temple.
