Shiurim

Back to Shiurim List

Parshat Terumah

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Tobie Harris

Ideas massively inspired by The Halachic Man

The Ramban, at the beginning of this week's parsha points out the parallels between Matan Torah and the Mishkan, explaining that the Mishkan was intended as the forum for a continuation of the Matan Torah experience. The Shechina that had dwelt on the mountain would now be transferred into the Mishkan, and would speak to Moshe from atop the Aron so that, as Ibn Ezra points out, he would no longer have to climb up Har Sinai to talk to Hashem.

These parallels seem only moderately significant, until we realize the context of this parsha. At the end of Mishpatim, Moshe went up to Har Sinai to receive the Luchot. The next two and a half parshiot- all talking about the Mishkan and matters related to it-are spoken to him there, and the narrative recommences in the middle of Ki Tisa. (I am here following the simple order of the parshiot and the view of the Ibn Ezra, as opposed to those commentators who hold that the Mishkan was only ordered after Egel HaZahav had happened, as a way of atoning.)

According to this reading, the parallels between Matan Torah and the Mishkan are immensely significant. Immediately following the grand revelation of Hashem, amid thunder and lightning and so forth, Moshe ascends to heaven. And what he is told there is not lofty metaphysical ideas, but instead two and half parshiot of nitty-gritty measurements and architecture. The very concrete things that Hashem wants to bring the Har Sinai experience down from heaven, into the midst of the people, and the very concrete things that He wants them to do to achieve this. And this does not happen after time, but as the inevitable and immediate follow-up to the awesome experience of Har Sinai. The lesson is obvious- the point of inspiration cannot simply be to listen, but rather to actively bring G-d's presence into the world, through the means of concrete, technical, detailed actions.