Vayakhel / Pikudei: Remembering Minas Tirith … I Mean Mikdash

Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/11/26 titled: Vayakhel / Pikudei: Remembering Minas Tirith … I Mean Mikdash. Saadia Gaon states that contemplating the architecture of the Mishkan earns us reward. What is the nature of this reward? How should this shape our reading? And how does this relate to Boromir?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello, I'm Rabbi Matt Schneweiss, and this is the audio version of the one-page article I wrote and published on my Substack at Rabbi Schneweiss.substack.com on March 13th, 2026, and the article is titled Vayachel Pikude, Remembering Minas Tirith, I mean Migdash. My brother is friends with an LDS family. Their church has a youth program in which participants study a different part of scripture each year. This year's curriculum includes, quote unquote, the Old Testament. When I heard this, I wondered how it would be possible for them to cover every chapter and verse of Tanakh in addition to their own books. Apparently it's not like that. They select portions and skip the rest. I knew the first half of Exodus would be a shoe'un, but I figured that much of the second half would be skipped. My brother confirmed this. One of his friends justified these omissions, saying, It's all this many cubits, that many cubits. I got a real kick out of that. In my 2012 article, Vayaakel Bakude, Tedious by Design, I focused on why the Torah repeated much of the material already covered in Turuma Titsabe. This time I'd like to examine a slightly different question. What experience are we meant to have while reading this? Presumably it's not, it's all this many cubits, that many qubits. I came across an intriguing comment attributed to Sadigone. After a lengthy digression in which he details the architectural specifications of the second basemikdash, he circles back to the Mishkan and concludes, quote, every time we return and contemplate the description of the Mishkan, we receive reward for this from before him, from before God. Since we thereby fulfill what he commanded, quote, go around Sion and encircle her, count her towers, set your heart to her ramparts, pass through her palaces, that you may recount it to the final generation. End quote from Tehilim 48, 13 through 14. And we believe that he will return us to his mikdash and to the days of our youth, as it is written afterward, quote, for this is God, our God, forever and ever, he will guide us into youth. End quote from Tihilim 48.15, and end quote from Sadigon. If these Psukim sound familiar, it's because they're from Monday's Shir Shayom. If the last puzzle sounds unfamiliar, it's because the version we say differs from Sadigon's. Ours concludes, Hu yenahagenu al-mus, meaning he will guide us until death, reading Al-Mus as two words. Sadigon read them as a single word, Hu yenahagenu alumos, meaning he will guide us into youth. He elaborates on this reading in his Tihilim commentary. Quote, I have explained Yinahagenu Alumos to mean that he will restore us to the state of our youth, from the root ulame, young man or almah, young woman. Thus it says he will return to the days of his youth. Scripture has already likened the days of our exodus from Egypt to the days of youth, as it says in your Yahu 2, too, I will recall I recall for you the kindness of your youth, and it says in Hoshea 11:1, for Israel was a youth and I loved him. End quote. Perhaps an answer can be derived from a scene in The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001, in which Boromir recalls to Aragorn the gleaming vision of Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor. Quote, Have you ever seen it, Aragorn, the white tower of Ekhilion, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, its banners caught high in the morning breeze? Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets? One day our path will lead us there, and the tower guard will take up the call. The lords of Gondor have returned. Borumir's reminiscence is framed in sensory details, the sight of the architecture, the feel of the breeze, the sound of the trumpets. His yearning for their future redemption is rooted in vivid sensory recollection of the past. Perhaps this is the reward mentioned by Sadhyagon for contemplating the architecture of the Mikdash. It tethers our belief that Hashem will return us to our glory days to something we can feel. Unlike Boromir's recollection of Gondor, we cannot recall the Mikdash from lived experience. Instead, we must construct it in our imagination through its detailed descriptions. By immersing ourselves in the manifold details of the Mishkan or the first Mikdash or the second, the third becomes a reality in our minds. Only when our imagination attaches to it are we able to translate intellectual belief into emotional yearning.