This week’s Torah reading begins with the end of the ‘opening ceremony’ of ‘Project Mishkan’ – each day for the last seven days Moshe had erected the Tabernacle, performed the entire service himself, then disassembled the Tabernacle. But until day eight Hashem’s presence was noticeably absent. On day eight the inauguration period climaxed with the consecration of Aharon and the Cohanim, and the arrival of the Divine Presence, “and the glory of Hashem appeared to the entire people! A fire went forth from before Hashem and consumed upon the Altar ….. the people saw and sang glad song and fell upon their faces” (Vayikro 9:24-25).
Having waited anxiously for seven days the Jews had wondered if Hashem would actually return to them, or had the Sin of the Golden Calf ruined such lofty opportunities. But on day eight they were finally blessed with His Divine Presence – Hashem was most literally and tangibly in their midst again. The Talmud tells us that it was a day with as much happiness as the day Hashem created the world.
The Rabbi’s also point out that the opening words describing the events of day eight contain a touch of sadness. “vayehi – “and it was on the eighth day” – the word “vayehi” is used when introducing an event that is tinged with some form of sadness. What sadness could there possibly have been on that joyous first day of Nissan?
Several reasons are put forth by the Medresh and the commentators. R’ Yisroel of Rizhin suggests the following reason, based on the words of the Seforno [1475-1550] who writes that until the sin of the Golden Calf, there was no room for a centre of holiness; every Jew was worthy of Divine Presence. After that calamitous national downfall, it became necessary to build a Tabernacle as a resting place for the Divine Presence. If so, it was truly sad that the Tabernacle was dedicated, because the joy was mixed with the realisation that the people had forfeited their opportunity for even greater holiness. In the present situation it was truly happy but we could have been somewhere else, somewhere higher!
Similarly the Talmud tells us that if we would have behaved as we should, we would have only been given the five books of the Torah and the book of Joshua. We are privileged to have the unbelievable richness of the ‘NaCH’ (The prophets and the Writings) because our situation required it – Hashem provided what was needed to deal with the deterioration of the Jewish Nation.
We became ‘high maintenance’. Allow me to explain with the following parable.
Imagine you are visiting a friend when suddenly he gets a headache. He promptly shows you his medicine cabinet – something you have never seen before! “What is, and why do you have a medicine cabinet?” you asked with a puzzled look. Your friend is equally shocked at your lack of a medicine cabinet. “You see, if I have a headache I have various tablets that I can take. For stomach-ache I have this array of medicines to take”. He proceeds to give you a tour of his cabinet and bemoans the fact that you are lacking such commodities – how can you live without a stocked medicine cabinet? Who then is better off, the one with an empty medicine cabinet or the one with a stocked cabinet? Of course the one who manages without even needing the cabinet! Our ‘extra products’ are to our detriment. We have become ‘high maintenance’ and therefore need all these extra things.
Rav Yaakov Weinberg [1923-1999] explains so beautifully [although painfully!]. “When human beings come up with new ideas and institutions, it is inevitable that, with the passage of time and experience, there will be improvements. Every generation can improve on the work of the generation before it; there is constant growth. But this is not the case with us Jews. We did not begin with a human idea and understanding; we began with perfection, with laws made by G-d Himself, and there is no way that we can improve on those. The only possible changes we can make are those that fix flaws that we ourselves have created. As a result, every Takanah, was made to deal with a deterioration or loss in the Jewish Nation”
Rav Yaakov brings two examples. Twenty five hundred years ago we suffered one such tragedy, and with it saw a new medicine in our cabinet – the school system! The Talmud describes to us how back then children learnt Torah from their homes. Mother and Father provided all the children needed to know. Every home was a yeshiva and seminary! The sound of Torah was an integral part of the Jewish home, and the sanctity of the home was built on the fact that the whole family lived in a yeshiva! But a terrible thing happened. The orphans were being left out of the system. So, the High Priest, Yehoshua Ben Gala made a revolutionary Takanah (institution) – no longer should children be taught Torah at home! The first ‘cheder’ came into existence. What a ‘nebach’ state! But that was what was needed. Education became a communal responsibility not the responsibility of individuals.
Another example he brings is the institutionalisation of davening and Brochos. We lost the ability to daven properly so our Rabbis formulated prayers for us. What a blessing our davening is! What richness and heritage! But it was only because we lost the ability to daven ourselves. Similarly with the blessings we make – before the Men of the Great Assembly formulated them, every Jew understood how to thank Hashem before he ate or derived some other pleasure. But we lost touch of how to say ‘Thank You’, and so we needed formal ‘blessings’.
Understanding how various institutions were initiated helps us understand the role that the institute is supposed to fill. As parents we can readily see what the Jewish home is supposed to be. Let us not ‘pass the buck’ to the school entirely, rather see to it that our homes resemble in some way how it looked before we became ‘ill’ and needed the ‘medicine’ of a school system. Yes the inauguration of the Tabernacle was a joyous occasion, but we could have done better, we could have had Hashem permeating our lives without the need to make a specific location for attachment. And as with the examples we have brought we should strive to bring Hashem into our midst not just at the points of formal contact – shuls, the Tabernacle of today – but to attempt to bring Hashem into every aspect of our lives like we could have done before the Sin of the Golden Calf.
Good Shabbos, Yaakov