The Garden Within | VAYAKHEL-PEKUDEI וַיַּקְהֵל - פְקוּדֵי - Portion 22 & 23

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

#immlutheran #drchadfoster #christian #lcms #messianic

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Good evening, everyone, every to welcome to the garden within as we are continuing our year-long journey in the Torah, as we are looking at the 54 portions of the Torah. And this evening does bring us to what is known as a double portion. So sometimes because the uh Hebrew calendar uh is not evenly divided the way the Western calendar is. Uh so some years are longer than others, uh, kind of like our leap year, but it's much more uh frequent within the Hebrew calendar. So because of that, uh during some years, portions are combined. So you may have 52 portions in one year and so forth. And so uh this week is a double portion, and it also because of that will conclude our time in the book of Exodus. But we'll talk a little bit about that uh after the blessing as far as where we're at and so forth. But it is um one of those double portions. So let's begin with the blessing before the study of Torah. Baruchata Adonai Elohenu medekoelam, ashekidishano bomisvita, vesivanu lesok bidivre Torah. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and has commanded us to be immersed into the words and the matters of Torah. Amen. So this week is portion number 22 and 23 of the Torah's 54 divorce uh uh divisions, and it is known as uh and pechude. Uh and so it covers Exodus chapter 35, verse 1, and goes through the end of the book, chapter 40, verse 30. Uh and so that 22nd reading from the Torah called Vayachel uh literally means and he assembled, or and he gathered. You could translate it either way. Uh the name comes from uh the first words of the first verse of the reading, uh Exodus 35, verse 1. You could literally translate it as, and Moses assembled or Moses gathered together, uh, the congregation of the sons of Israel. It describes basically how the assembly of Israel worked together to build the tabernacle. And in most years, Viakel, as I said, is a double portion with the following uh one, Pekudeh, and this is one of those years. And so Pekude, uh the 23rd portion of the Torah and the last reading from the book of Exodus, means accountings, and it's a plural, and we'll talk about the significance of that. But accountings, uh, the first words of the first verse of the portion, Exodus 38, verse 21, could be translated. These are the accountings, or these are the accounts of the tabernacle. Uh, the last reading from Exodus begins with an audit, basically, of the contributions for the tabernacle and how those contributions were used. So it's an accounting uh of that. And the portion then goes on to describe the completion of the tabernacle and concludes by depicting how the glory of the Lord consumes it and fills it. Uh, so everything's been kind of leading up to this idea that uh God has this great intention to dwell in with and among his people. And so that's part of what building the tabernacle is for. It's so that heaven and earth can kiss, it's so that the creator and the creation can have fellowship with one another, uh, so that they can interact with one another. And so it's been a process of building that. Uh, those detailed uh instructions are all part of, you can think of it as blueprints, you can think of it as the hardwiring of it, you can think of it as, you know, when you pull out, open up a computer and you pull out like the you know the chip and it's got all the lines in there, electrical engineering and so forth. That's really what the tabernacle is. It's the spiritual engineering that is going to allow the interface of above and below to come together. And so at the very end of Exodus, when all of that's been completed, essentially Moses fires up the system, and the result of that is the glory of the Lord fills it. So it works, right? God comes and dwells in with and among his people. Uh, and that is how the book of Exodus ends, which is going to kind of lead us into how the next book, Leviticus, will begin, because even though it is a separate book, it begins with the coordinating conjunction and, right? Which lets us know it is intimately connected with what came before it, even though it's the first word of a brand new book, right? Can you imagine that? Right, the very first word of a book being and, right? It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to us. So it's letting us know it's connected to the last verse of Exodus. And so we'll talk about that a little bit next week, but just kind of tuck that away. Uh, so that's what the 22nd and 23rd portions are about in a nutshell, the last two portions of the book of Exodus. So let's kind of uh zoom in a little bit here and look at this idea of Moses gathering the people. Uh, and to do that, I kind of want to make use of a little bit of the parday system, right? The our time together in the Torah this year is called in the garden, right? And the idea of garden or orchard uh in Hebrew, uh the Hebrew word is pardays, um, which is also an acronym in Hebrew for a classic um rabbinical way of interpreting the scriptures. So you look at the scriptures from uh peat level, you look at it from a remes level, you look at it from a garash level, and you can even look at it from the sod level. So um, and we're gonna kind of see just that opening word of Exodus 35, verse 1, Vayakel, and kind of peel the onion with the garden and just kind of let it uh reveal uh how utilizing this system even takes just a single word and allows the scripture to open up into a multiplicity of meaning and application for us. Okay. Uh, so we're gonna do that again with this word vayakel, which means uh he assembled or he gathered. Now, from that Peshat level, which means that straightforward historical grammatical perspective, basically it means Moses assembled the people because according to Rashi, he had descended from Mount Sinai with a second set of tablets that day. So recall that Moses has been going up and down Mount Sinai and on those journeys, uh, in one of those, he has received the ten utterances, right? Um, the ten Devarim, uh, the ten words. We know them in English as the Ten Commandments, right? And when he came down with those utterances, those ten words, what does he discover? He discovers that the people have, in a panic, misinterpreted his return, uh, took him for dead, right? And so they decided they needed a replacement mediator between them and the creator. And so they made themselves an Elohim uh in the fashion of a bull, which was a classic image of an Elohim at the time. And so when Moses sees that, he smashes the tablets. That is, you know, it's symbolic of the covenant being broken. Remember, it's like a wedding, and that's the ktubah, that's the the wedding covenant, right? The vowels, and it's been shattered. Um, but Moses uh acts as a foreshadowing of Messiah, he intercedes for the people, um, you know, restores the marriage, uh, and so he receives a second set of tablets, and he comes down with the second set of tablets. And so he gathers the people for this cause so that they can hear uh these words. So Moses in total has spent three sets of 40-day periods on Mount Sinai, totaling 120 days, with almost no breaks in between. And this was his first opportunity to assemble, to gather the people, to reassert his presence, his authority, and to inform them of God's mitzvot, right? His connections. This past week. Um, I was speaking with a friend from Israel, uh, you know, checking in on things over there, and we were talking again about an English, how that understanding people have an English of commandments and the negative connotation, and we've talked about that, right? The word mitzvah or mitzvot, the plural, it means connections, and that's a positive word, right? And so he said a lot of times whenever he's teaching in English, he will translate them as relationship opportunities. So I found that quite humorous. Um uh he he translates the word mitzvah, not commandment, but as relationship opportunities. So Moses has gathered the people to give them all the relationship opportunities that they have with their God. And uh commentators throughout the ages have noted that the word vayachel, uh, he gathered, he assembled, it is the same word uh that's used when the people gathered to demand that Aaron made for them what would ultimately turn out to be the golden calf. So this is where when you're reading the Bible as literature, because it is that, yes, it's the divine inspired and errant word of God, without a doubt, but it is also at the same time a piece of literature, so it makes use of literary devices. And so Vayachel is used when the people call to gather when this gathering of the people to make the golden calf. Um and so by linking that same word, it's letting you know that this is part of that repair, uh, part of God's repairing that and forgiving that and restoring the people and the relationship being made right. Uh since uh they had thought that Moses, again, remember that he was late or delayed, or maybe that he was even dead, that he would never descend from Sinai, they demanded Aaron to make for them an Elohim, a god. And by using the same word Vahel, then we're going to the second level of Pardais. We're moving beyond the Peshat and we're seeing a remes. We're seeing it hinting at something, right? By using the same word, you're getting a verbal tally, you're letting the word connect you. And so it's hinting, that's what remes means. It's hinting to the fact that by gathering the people to build now not an idol or a Elohim of a different sort, but a tabernacle for their one true God, the sin of the golden calf is to some degree being rectified. It's a tukkun ulam, it's being repaired. It is God rectifying that. It is important to note that the commentators have a lot of discussion in this area. Uh, they disagree over whether the children of Israel would have ever been commanded to build a tabernacle had they never worshipped the golden calf, because some of the commentators feel that the children of Israel would have been on and remained on such a high spiritual level that they would have had no need to worship God in this specific physical location, that they would have been on a higher spiritual plane. His presence would have been more perceivable and accessible in all times and in all places to them. Others argue that even if they had not made the golden calf, the children of Israel would have still been commanded to build the tabernacle, because as we've discussed, God's ultimate desire, right, as he is expressed to them, was to dwell in with and among them, to have that intimacy, of course, which for us as believers becomes ultimately fulfilled in the incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but for them was becoming partially fulfilled in the tabernacle system. In any event, clearly much of the symbolism associated with the tabernacle is also, as I said, has been uh connected to that sin of the golden calf because of the word Vayakel. But then we can, we've talked about the P for Peshat, the R for Ramez. We can even look now to the D, the Dirach, the homiletical, the allegorical, the that kind of application and interpretation, which adopts uh a metaphorical approach and it focuses on the intricate connection between Mount Sinai and the tabernacle. One of the prerequisites for receiving the word of God at Sinai was the people's unity. We had talked about that in previous classes in the garden within, and even in previous years, Torah classes, that when the people came to Mount Sinai, you remember in Hebrew the subjects were plural for the people, but the verbs were in the singular, right? It was grammatically incorrect. It was grammatically an intentional anomaly, which this is an important axiom for you in biblical interpretation. If it's weird, it's important. If it's weird, it's important. Uh, and so that's weird, right? To to purposely use the wrong tense verb over and over again. But that was done because it was trying to stress the unity of the people at that time, that they were as one person with one heart. Only this extraordinary unity among the people prepared them to be the fitting receptacles or vessels for the revelation that was going to be coming at Sinai. Recognizing this, Moses then gathers the people not only to instruct them on how to build a sanctuary, a tabernacle for God, but also to teach them that this task can only be accomplished when unity, when peace prevails among them. Rebbe Natan, who was Rebbe Nachman of Brezhov's foremost student, taught that the tabernacle, one of the reasons it was so holy, because in this week's portion of Vaya Kel, it describes that how all of the materials they were brought with willing and loving hearts. In fact, the text is very clear on that. You could only give from your heart. Nothing was under compunction, nothing was compelled. There was no you have to give 10% or you have to give something. You only gave if you wanted to. And so that meant if you did not want to, or you did not believe in the project, you didn't have to give anything, and that was not held against you. And God didn't hold that against you, and Moses didn't hold that against you. You only gave from your heart, you only were a cheerful giver. So all the gifts received that built the tabernacle only came from cheerful givers. And Rebbe Natan says that's one of the reasons it was so holy, because it was the people's very best. And he even says, goes on from a darash point of view to say their very best wasn't just their physical or material very best, it was their good points. It was what was the best of them. Uh, it's what made them their best. It was their best gifts, it was the best of their personalities, it was the best of who they were as unique creatures of God and image bearers of God. That's what they brought to the building of the tabernacle. And because it was the best of who they were as unique individuals, their good points, every part of the tabernacle became a vehicle for God's light and holiness. And so the peoples gathering to build the tabernacle recreated the image, energy that was present at the giving of the Torah and the Word of God at Sinai. And this energy was integrated into the holy mission of building the very dwelling place for God amidst his people. And so we once again see how a Hebrew word like Vayakel, and he gathered or he assembled, can be viewed from various interpretive perspectives, from the very practical and obvious to the homiletical, from the literal to the allegorical. The parday system allows us to delve deeper and consistently expand upon the notion of what, according to the Bashat, would seem to be just the mere gathering of a group of people, but from the perspective of Remez and Durash, gives the illusion of a deep vision for the unity of God's people. Right. So that's just another example for you to see, kind of practice so that when you're reading the Bible on your own, you can find a word there and focus in on it. And sometimes, you know, it's it's a word you catch on your own. So, like this past uh week, for instance, Pastor Nikolai did this. He came into my office because he was excited that he had discovered something weird, right? Because he's learned if it's weird, it's important. And so the thing that stuck out to him very fittingly was before the fall, all of creation is good, right? It's perfect, right? Nothing is tainted, everything's good. In fact, you have God every day of creation going, it's good. In fact, he has one day where he says it's good, good, right? You hear it as very good, but literally in the Hebrew, it's tof tov, right? It's good, good. Right? And but yet before the fall, you have this statement from God saying, it's not good. Well, how can something not be good in a perfect world? Right. And so that was like what, you know, and that was like boom, that's perfect. That's supposed to it's it's supposed to stick out like that, right? It's supposed to make you wonder that and delve into that. And so we had a great discussion of why that is weird, right? So then we started using things like parades to peel it back and to see, oh, well, it's sticking out so that you'll peel back the layer, go beyond the obvious meaning of the Peshat, right? And then look into this and see what it's really saying. And and then you can dive into it a little deeper. So you can do that with Vayachel, especially when you know Vayachel is the word used to gather the people to build the golden calf, and then it's the word used to gather the people as they inaugurate or hear the words of the Ten Commandments and inaugurate the very beginning opening service of the tabernacle, right? That that draws these two incidents together and what might the Torah be trying to teach us. All right, let's keep going in our text here, the good heart. Exodus chapter 35, verse 5. It says, Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord's contribution, gold, silver, and bronze. So when Moses announced the plan to build the tabernacle, he did not hire any fundraising consultants, he did not need a high-pressure pledge drive, he did not send out to all the children of Israel little special envelopes with a expensively designed logo on them. Moses asked only those who had willing hearts to give to the work of the tabernacle. In other words, God does not want your giving to be transactional. It's a very important Torah principle. God does not want your giving or your generosity to be transactional. If you give and you keep score, Then you might as well not give because God is not going to bless that. Whether that's you giving to God or giving to your church or your nonprofit, or whether that's you being generous to your fellow human being, if you are being generous and yet keeping a tally so that at some point later you can say, I've done A, B, C, and D, therefore you owe me E, F, G, and H, God will not bless that because that is not what the Torah requires of someone when they give. It's certainly going to explode in your face because that's not the spiritual technology of generosity. The building of God's holy house was not to be sullied with contributions that had been pried loose from people who were reluctant to donate to the work. So in Exodus 35, verse 21, it says, Everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him contributed freely. No one had to give, nor was anyone guilted if they didn't give, nor was anyone told, because you didn't give, you can't participate in the services, or anything like that. Moses just made it clear, God wants the cheerful giver. So there probably were many among the children of Israel who did not contribute to the work, right? You know, human nature hasn't changed. People were the same then as they are now. Somebody was probably like, you know, we could build this thing for half the price. We don't have to use the expensive blue dye for everything, right? We could probably get away with using a lot less of that and use this kind. We don't have to use linen. We can use this cheaper fabric, right? You you would have that now? Well, what makes you think you didn't have it then, right? Of course you had that then. People are people, right? Well, they didn't give. That doesn't mean they didn't get to participate in the tabernacle. That's nowhere recorded in there, right? Of course they get to participate in it. It's still for them as well. They didn't have to give. But those that had a willing heart gave. Those who were stirred, gave. Those who the Spirit moved, gave. Isn't that the way it is now? Right? And when it's not that way, and when people do give by keeping score, don't we raise an eyebrow when they try to cash in on their generosity? Those who were unwilling to give, they did so of their own selves. And all they did was exclude themselves from sharing in the building of God's house. That's, I mean, that's all they did. Um, this story teaches us also that there are two types of people, those with willing hearts and those with unwilling hearts. Once a rabbi named Johanin bin Zekai, which is John, the son of Zacchaeus, and lived in the first century. He asked his disciples this What is the best kind of character that a person should try to be like? The first of his disciples answered, a man with a good eye. Of course, a good eye in rabbinic Judaism is an idiom. It means to be a generous person. To have a good eye means to be generous. To have a bad eye means to be stingy. Keep that in mind when you read the gospels and Jesus parables. The second disciple answered, a man who is a good friend. The third disciple said, a man who is a good neighbor. The fourth disciple said, a man who looks ahead to consider the consequences of his actions. The fifth disciple said, A man who has a good heart. Rabbi Johanan replied, I like the last answer the best because it includes all the other answers. And so, according to this story from the Talmud, a good heart is demonstrated by four characteristics generosity, devotion in relationships, kindness towards others, and consideration of the consequences of one's own actions. Those who gave toward the building of the tabernacle demonstrated all four of these qualities. They showed themselves to be generous. They showed themselves to be devoted to their relationship with God and that they were willing to personally sacrifice in order to accommodate him. They showed themselves to be kind to their fellows and that they gave for the betterment of the entire community. And they showed themselves to consider the consequences of their actions because they chose to invest from their resources in the internal instead of hoarding things for the temporal. And like many situations that test our hearts in these areas, are we generous when we are confronted with need or are we unwilling to give? Do we prove ourselves loyal to those that we are in a relationship with, whether they're family or friends? Or do we disappoint our family and friends by our behavior? Do we love our neighbors as we are commanded to do, or do we slander them behind their backs and treat them with indifference? Do we consider the ramifications of our actions before we commit them? Or do we want what we want and do what we want to do regardless of the outcome? This is the difference between a good heart and a bad heart, a willing heart and an unwilling heart, a heart that is stirred and a heart that is not, and a spirit that is moved and one that is not. And many of the children of Israel proved themselves to have willing hearts, and they gave to the work of the tabernacle generously. In fact, when you read through the portion, they gave so generously Moses had to say, Stop. We have more than enough. In fact, if you give any more, we don't know what we're going to do with it. Like we don't even have enough storage for it. Like you have to stop. Right? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine your campaign having to stop because the people are so generous? But that's where their hearts were. Right, let's keep looking here. I thought I would bring forth something from the early church tradition. Um one, because it helps explain a lot of very early church art that you will see of Mary, um, as well as um some of the things we think we know of things like from even the Nativity. Um, and again, things we think we know of like what Mary wore and all of that, aren't biblical. They come from another source. Um, and I'm gonna share that source with you. Um, but just because it's not in the Bible, nor, by the way, for the record, am I arguing it's supposed to be in the Bible? I am not, right? That's on the record, but just because it's not supposed to be in the Bible doesn't mean it's not historical. Doesn't mean it doesn't have value. Something doesn't have to be inspired to be valuable. Something doesn't have to be inspired to be true, right? I think we probably most of us would agree the Declaration of Independence is a at least a pretty okay document, right? It's not inspired, it's not supposed to be in the Bible, but it's definitely historical, right? It definitely really exists, definitely really helped shape a country, right? And it's again, it's at least pretty good, right? All right. So the same thing can happen with religious documents and including writings that early, early Christians used. We can look at them and we can take value from them, we can learn from them without me saying it should be in your Bible, or that it's on the same level as the Gospels, which again, I am not saying that before we get into this. Okay? So, early church tradition, Mary and the Temple of Ale. Exodus chapter 35, verse 25. All the skilled women spun with their hands and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen. So the Torah says here that the women of the assembly spun the fabrics for the tabernacle veils in blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. In the days before the birth of Jesus, Herod the Great was involved in a massive remodeling project. So these instructions for the tabernacle eventually become the instructions for the temple. Because in many ways, all the temple is, is a permanently fixed tabernacle, right? Tabernacle is a mass unit. It's made to move around. Right? The temple, once it gets to its designated location, as it says in Deuteronomy, it's to set anchor, right? But all the instructions and stuff still hold. So Herod the Great, after or before the birth of Jesus, he goes in this massive rebuilding project. And so without actually interrupting the temple service, the craftsmen and builders completely renovate the temple inside and out. And recall that during the time of Jesus' ministry, this is in John chapter 2, verse 20, the people actually said it took 46 years to build this temple. Well, I mean, that temple had been standing since the time of like Ezra and Nehemiah. It'd been around, you know, for centuries. So what they're talking about is Herod's remodeling project. That means that the temple remodeling project of Herod had begun at least a decade before Jesus was born. And part of the remodeling project required the creation of new fabrics and curtains and veils. And they would have been made according to, as Exodus 35 has it here. According to the apocryphal gospel, which is known as the Proto-Evangalium James, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was one of the women chosen to work on the veils. Now, this particular work, the Proto-Evangalium James, it shows up in early church liturgy. Again, it never was part of any early Bible. I'm not claiming it should be in any Bible, nor am I claiming it was ever part of anybody's Bible. I am telling you it was a very important document to a lot of Christian communities. Remember, something does not have to be inspired for something to be important. Something does not have to be inspired for something to be true. A squared plus B squared equals C squared is not in your Bible, but it's a true statement. Okay? The Proto-Evangalium James is in early liturgies, and it's still in the Orthodox Church in liturgies. Especially like in um, I think it's like the Great Sabbath before Easter, as well as the Christmas Eve liturgy, and a few other places, it definitely comes up. Okay, so it had an impact on the early church. And this is one of the things that it records. And there was a council of the priests saying, Let us make a veil for the temple of the Lord. Okay, because again, the context is, which is historically correct. Herod's remodeling the temple. They need some people to make the fabric and all that stuff for it. So a council of priests say, We gotta do this. And the priest said, Call to me the undefiled virgins of the family of David. The officers went away and sought and found seven virgins. And the priest remembered the child Mary that she was of the family of David and undefiled before God, and the officers went away and brought her. And they brought them into the temple of the Lord, and the priest said, Choose for me by lot who shall spend the gold and the white and the fine linen, and the silk, and the blue, and the scarlet, and the true purple, just like what we just read in Exodus. And the true purple and the scarlet fell to the lot of Mary. Now, Proto-Evangalium James is probably in the 200s. Probably. It's pseudo-epigraphical. James didn't write it. Um, it purports to tell the story of the conception and birth of Mary, her betrothal, betrothal to Joseph, and the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus. And in many ways, much of our nativity scenes and all the little animals and all that around it aren't in your Bible, but they are in the Proto-Evangalium of James. Okay. But Orthodox Jewish scholar Shmueli Safre has suggested that the Proto-Evangalium James actually contains historically based non-canonical traditions about real events. And he points to some of that I've already listed, like the Christmas story and other things. But he also points to this tradition of Mary weaving the veil and fabrics for the temple. He deems it may actually have a kernel of historical truth because it has a direct parallel in the Tosefta Shachalim, a Jewish writing of the same period, where it says women used to weave the veils of the temple, and they were paid from the monies donated to the temple. But thanks to the story in the Proto-Evangelium James, church artwork from a very early point in time, and then especially as it moved on, and you think about the icons, right? They often depict Mary before the birth of Christ, almost always show her wearing a long bolt of scarlet cloth. Think about that. You're probably going, oh yeah, I know. I think about that. Yeah. Well, now you know why. It comes from the Proto-Evangalium James. Consider for a moment, though, the ramifications. Mary may have been employed weaving together the fabrics for the temple of God. At the same time, the Heavenly Father chose her, the one who was the weaver of curtains, to be the one within whom Jesus, the living temple, was to be fashioned. Within the weaver of the temple veils, the Messiah's flesh was being woven. Hebrews 10, verse 20. You wove me in my mother's womb. Psalm 139, verse 13. It further says, the veil that is his flesh. In other words, Jesus in the scriptures, both in Psalms and in Hebrews, is described as the veil. Isn't that fascinating? Jesus is described in scriptures as the veil. Wouldn't it be amazing if his mother was the veil maker? The veil is his flesh, and when he died, the veil of the temple, which very much could have indeed been the work of his mother's hands, was torn. I just thought you might find that interesting. Let's move into the last portion of the book of Exodus, Pekuday, or accountings. So the meaning of this final portion, Pekudai, as I said, means accountings, provides a detailed account of exactly how much gold, silver, copper were used in the tabernacles, various ritual objects, vessels, the sockets, the pegs, the hooks, as well as the wool, the linen, the stones, the gold, how much were used in the priest's garments, and so forth. It's kind of very much a very minutiae audit of the building of the tabernacle. And so a very obvious Peshat lesson we can learn from this is that even a great leader like Moses still must be accountable. And he has to provide an accounting for how he disperses the public funds. No one is above the law, nor can anyone deal lightly with what they have been entrusted with. And since the Torah's lessons apply to each person directly, we can extrapolate and conclude that this lesson applies not only to leaders, but to each and every person. The Torah is teaching us here that each and every person is held accountable for his or her thoughts, their speech, their actions. A fundamental notion intrinsic to all Torah-based thought. And just as the nation's ability to erect a tabernacle and to keep it functioning is predicated upon its maintaining an appropriate communal level of righteousness and accountability, so too accountability is a prerequisite for an individual fulfilling his or her life's mission. But it is worth noting as we move beyond kind of the peshat of doing an accounting or multiple accountings, right? How many pegs did you use? How many hooks did you use? How much fabric did you use? How much copper did you use? These are all multiple audits, so it's plural. That's the peshat. The remes, right? What's being hinted at, right? It's written in the plural, hints to a deeper message. Each person is subject to two different levels of accounting. Many explanations throughout the ages have been given for these two levels of accounting, some providing spiritual guidance, some exploring the theological aspects of faith, some entering into the more deeper mystical realms. Attempting to provide some spiritual guidance, Rabbi Shlomo Karlbach teaches that there is one type of accounting for what we have done wrong, and another kind of accounting for what we did right, but that we did in a very unenthusiastic or kind of performance manner. Similarly, he has also taught that we are judged for both of those things we did and for those things we could have or should have done, but refrained from doing because we were lazy or lacked conviction or were callous. But on a deeper level, a little more mystical, Rabbi Shlomo Karlbach, as well as his mentor, deeper back, the Slonomor, Rebbe, taught that each person enters this world charged with performing a certain task. That is, we all come into this world unique, and God wants us to accomplish our own unique role in this world. And even if an individual does everything right and can account for this, the primary accounting that he or she will have to give for is whether that purpose for which or she entered this world was ultimately carried out with passion. Did they care about it? Did they do it with joy? Did they do it with love? Did they do it because this is who they knew they were to be? And as the people completed the tabernacle's construction, prepared for its inauguration, prepared for God to fill it with his presence, it's quite fitting that Moses had to provide an accounting of his actions. For this also teaches us that accountings take place at every major junction in a person's life. Whether the person provides the accounting, him or herself, or God renders the judgment with or without that person being aware. Ultimately, each person also gives the final accounting of his or her actions to God upon leaving this world. And these multiple accountings all are alluded to by the plural form of pekud day, accountings at the beginning of the portion. So again, when you think about living in the times, reading your Torah portion in the week, and you know, you're journaling or you're praying or you have someone you read the portion with or that you talk it over with, right? That's something you can think about, talk about, pray about, journal about, like the multiple levels of accounting. Like, do you what are you what do you feel your calling in this world is? Like, how do you feel God wants you to make a difference in this world? Is it as a parent? Is it as a friend? Is it as, you know, what is it? And are you doing it with joy? Are you doing it with passion? Or are you doing it just because you feel you have to, right? Are you are are you doing certain things just because it's performance? Right? That seems to be based upon hanging out with two of my kids from college that are home for spring break. And therefore, my high schooler hanging out with them, being around three young people, that seems to be. a new term they like to use performative but like if you're doing something for show there'll be like you're just being performative dad right you're just you don't really mean that you're you're just putting that on a show like what what things in life are we doing that are performative right that if if we weren't trying to be seen or weren't trying to get credit right or you know we could get away with not doing it what would we do away with and would that matter and would it matter with God like so like it's a good time to take in accounting keep looking in our text the divine presence Exodus chapter 40 verse 2 on the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting an ancient Midrash on this subject helps explain the theology behind the tabernacle by connecting the tabernacle with Eden. So there's lots of ways you can go with the tabernacle it's a fractal or a microcosm of a lot of things it's a fractal or a microcosm of the universe it's a fractal or a microcosm of the human body it's a fractal or a microcosm of Eden the Garden of Eden. When God first placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he also placed his divine presence his shekinah in their midst the sin of Adam forced God to withdraw his presence from the earth until Moses erected the tabernacle. And so here is a midrash from Midrash Berashit section nineteen verse seventeen says when Adam sinned the dwelling presence of God departed from the earth to the first level of heaven don't get too bogged down in the details we'll unpack a slight a bit of it. When Cain sinned he withdrew and ascended to the second level of heaven when the generation of Enoch sinned he ascended to the third when the generation of the flood sinned to the fourth with the generation of the tower of Babel to the fifth with the Sodomites to the sixth with the Egyptians in the days of Abraham to the seventh. In other words as time progressed and as humanity became more and more sinful it drifted further and further away from God that's in general what's going on. But opposite these sinful generations there arose seven righteous men Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses, and they brought the divine presence down again to earth. In other words, each generation that pulled away from God and pulled people away from God and pulled creation away from God there would always arise in that generation a Messiah figure that would foreshadow Messiah predict messiah portend Messiah if you will that would bring back God's presence that would bring back would bring in redemption right um and so forth. Abraham brought um the divine presence down from the seventh to the sixth Isaac from the sixth to the fifth Jacob from the fifth to the fourth Levi from the fourth to the third Kohat from the third to the second Amram from the second to the first while Moses brought him below into this world right because of the tabernacle right that's in the tabernacle when Moses completes it and he turns on the computer and boots up and the software works and the hardware is firing and all of that God fires into the system and the glory of the Lord dwells in there right the fullness of the Shekina has once again entered into creation just like it was in Eden before the fall now this is an intriguing teaching for several reasons. First it recognizes that the presence of God is withdrawn on account of sin. So we should keep that in mind in our own personal lives that each time we drift from God, right, sin and make these choices, right, we're drifting further away from God. And the further we drift from God, the more that creates a very dark vacuum that can be filled with even more darkness. Second it recognizes that the righteous draw God's presence into the world. So just like when we start drifting into darkness it makes it very quick to go to level one and then level two and level three and level four drifting away from God when we begin to infuse holiness into that studying scripture praying surrounding ourselves with a good teacher and so forth right it closes that gap and it draws the presence of God to us and so forth. And so it recognizes that and the teaching culminates with Moses who builds the tabernacle brings the dwelling presence back into the midst of humanity fulfilling again what was God's ultimate goal let them construct a sanctuary a tabernacle a mishkan for me that I may dwell among them Exodus 25 eight the notion of God's dwelling presence withdrawing in consecutive stages is very biblical. In the book of Ezekiel the prophet Ezekiel sees this grand vision of God's presence leaving the temple in Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 10 he sees the glory of the Lord in the midst of his cherubim withdrawing from the temple and coming to rest at the threshold of the temple. And then the glory departs from the threshold and moves to the east gate of the city. So he sees the presence in the temple and then it's at the door of the temple and then it's at the gate entrance of the city right by Ezekiel 11 the glory continues the departure and he's removed himself all the way outside of Jerusalem. Ezekiel's vision ends with the glory of the Lord hovering over the Mount of Olives which is even further out overlooking the city of Jerusalem and the temple signifying that its destruction is near. Thirty-two chapters later Ezekiel is given a future a vision of the future messianic era with a rebuilt temple and that vision he sees the glory of the Lord enter the temple from the east just as he left it and he has this vision again of things coming back right and flowing back into the temple. Ezekiel's vision goes on to describe an Eden like state in which a river pours forth from the temple just like the rivers of Eden. In the days of the Exodus the divine presence of God returned to dwell among humanity through the agency of Moses who was for that generation their redeemer and in that sense Moses was restoring things to an Eden state where God and humanity shared intimacy and communion. And in some measure Moses accomplished this reunion of the dwelling presence of God descending from the heights above Sinai and filling the tabernacle on earth but remember an important axiom we have in Torah the last Redeemer the final redeemer the ultimate redeemer that is the Messiah will be like the first Redeemer that is what you saw in Moses the first Redeemer that pattern you will see repeated in the final Redeemer Messiah but only in a greater more elevated more fulfilled sense Messiah is like Moses just as Moses was the one to finally usher the presence of God back to earth through the creation of the tabernacle so too Messiah Jesus brought the dwelling presence back to earth in two respects and will do so again in the future so I want to just kind of highlight three ways in which Messiah Jesus returns the dwelling presence to the world. First Jesus brought the presence of God the Shekinah to dwell among humanity in himself in his perfect holiness and righteousness and the very essence of his being Jesus came to us as a vessel in which the dwelling presence of God resided while he walked among us he walked among us as a living tabernacle a holy place through which the glory of God dwelt among men. This is why in John chapter one verse fourteen you have and the word became flesh and literally in the Greek tabernacled Mishkaned among us and we saw his glory remember the end of the Exodus the glory of God fills the tabernacle it's the same language here he tabernacled among us and we saw his glory as one as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. A second way the Messiah ushered in the Shekinah the dwelling presence was by bestowing the same anointing spirit that was upon him onto his disciples. When the Holy Spirit filled the temple and the tongues of flame rested on the believers the spirit came as a partial fulfillment of Ezekiel's vision of the divine presence returning to the temple. But this temple is the temple of believers the body of Messiah and just as the Shekinah the dwelling presence dwelt with Messiah so too it now dwells within the disciples of Messiah and third when Messiah comes again he will gather the scattered children of God and he will gather them to Jerusalem and reestablish the mountain of God's house as chief among the mountains and he will restore the ancient ruins and swing the eastern gates open and manifest the dwelling presence of God so that all may enter in and experience the full presence of God. Ezekiel's vision will then be literally fulfilled and the work of the final redeemer will have exceeded that of the first a picture of Messiah Exodus chapter 40 verse 33 as we're getting at the end of the book of Exodus it says thus Moses finished the work so in Exodus 40 Moses assembled the tabernacle each of these components can be related to the Messiah the sockets the boards the bars and the pillars of the tabernacle could be said to correspond to the bones the joints the tendons and the ligaments of the Messiah the coverings and the curtains and the veil correspond to Messiah's skin and flesh. The ark corresponds to his heart the very throne of God. The tablets of testimony within the ark correspond to the Torah that is written upon Messiah's heart. The table of bread speaks of him as the bread of life the lamps of the menorah speak to him as the light of the world. The incense altar illustrates his role as the intercessor in prayer. The altar of burnt offering alludes to his atoning sacrifice the labor symbolizes the purification that comes by way of him the living water the source of our purification after telling us how Moses erected the tabernacle with all of these furnishings it says thus Moses finished the work and likewise with his dying breath Jesus uttered the words it is finished Exodus forty verse thirty four then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle this will many ways lead us into next week when we begin Laekra, the book of Leviticus. So at last the tabernacle was finished from the book of Hebrews we learn that the tabernacle on earth was a copy a shadow a fractal a microcosm of the real dwelling place of God in heaven as above so below below was a shadow of the one above its gold its silver its bronze glimmered brightly in the sunlight its curtains and veils flashed boldly still it must have seemed small and insignificant next to the towering Mount Sinai over which God's glory burned like fire and cloud? Would God really dwell in a makeshift portable tent tabernacle? Would the glory that had encompassed Mount Sinai that filled the heavens that split rocks would it really be contained by the work of human hands? Wood and metals animal skins and curtains it seemed impossible that God would take up residence in this type of place. Could this be the dwelling place of the living God? And no doubt was the question everyone was asking will the Lord really come down and dwell in a tent it's a question that probably was vexing Moses before he hit the on button while still on Sinai he had glimpsed the heavenly sanctuary Moses was able to see the tabernacle above the one not made with hands when compared with God's real eternal dwelling place what was this little tabernacle of Israel in the heavenly tabernacle above the sages say the angels continually immersed themselves in rivers of fire that flowed out from under the throne of God to purify themselves before joining their voices to an eternal chorus of praise and John in his revelation when he's also gifted that glimpse into the Jerusalem above the one not made with hands and the temple above the one not made with hands reflects the same image and the same chorus of voices singing holy holy holy singing the song of Moses and so forth compared with the heavenly glory the little tent on earth must have seemed some kind of pale two-dimensional pathetic reprint listen to Midrash Shemot Rabbah. This is what God said to Moses see that you make the furnishings of the tabernacle after the pattern for them that's quoting Exodus 25 verse 40 so God lets Moses see like the real McCoy and says now you go down there and make a model after that and you know just like when Moses his speech problem wasn't that he stuttered and all of that his speech problem was he saw something that was unexplainable if you've ever had something where you've experienced something and you come back from it and they're like well how was your trip and you're like well if I tell you it was great that's that's that's it's not it wasn't great. Like it's beyond great right it's life changing it was more than life changing right but you tell them or you show them pictures and you're like yeah the picture's not doing it justice and they're kind of like that's nice right and you're just like it was amazing right you you don't have the words for it. That was Moses's speech problem how do you put into human words something that's not human and now God's saying see this heavenly thing you know take some sticks take some you know stuff from the earth I mean we think gold's awesome but take some metal take some sticks take some dirt skin some animals you know and make that yeah okay when God showed him the heavenly furnishing Moses objected saying King of the universe am I an Elohim? Am I a God that I should be able to make a dwelling place exactly like this one? Like that's Hebrew for you gotta be kidding me right God replied make it after their pattern there but in blue and purple and scarlet in other words the deeper meanings found in what the blue means and the purple means and the scarlet means. Just as you have seen it here above copy the pattern below in other words you're not to make the exact thing you're to get the pattern the meaning if you will make it below a replica of that which is above I will leave my heavenly assembly and I will cause my shekinah my dwelling presence I will dwell among you in other words I'll leave this house I'll dwell in that one and when the tabernacle was finally assembled that dwelling presence of God descended from atop Mount Sinai filled the tabernacle God entered his dwelling place on earth. God did live in that tent Messiah may be likened to the tabernacle his human body was only a copy in an earthly shadow of the eternal radiance of his exalted being in heaven as the divine son the exalted son of the council hence he's called the man from heaven the son of man Jesus the human being stripped of the eternal glory he shared with the Father since before the world began a skin suit must have seemed utterly insignificant right a skin tent bones tendons organs one can imagine the dismay of the angelic host who witnessed the descent of the Son of God the Messiah the Son of man as he took on the frailties of a human being born in this world and wrapped in swaddling cloths nonetheless that simple human body was the very dwelling place of God on earth. When Messiah came the dwelling presence of God utterly filled him even as it had filled the tabernacle in the wilderness God had come as he had always desired and always promised to dwell in with and among us and for us. And we will close there for this evening we will pick it up next week with portion vayikra the 24th portion of the Torah but let's close with the blessing Baruchanay elahinu mela koilam notein hatorah blessed are you Lord God who has given to us the gift that is the Torah. Amen shalom shalom go in peace hi everyone thank you for engaging this teaching you know we in Emmanuel have as one of our goals to make our teachings available online to anyone everywhere at any time whether that's through a podcast or our YouTube channel or an MP3 download. It is our gift to you and we want you to use it however you see it so if you are motivated or desired to support future teachings you can do so with the donate button at the bottom of our T Town I am teaching somehow some way somewhere