“Alongside
the holiness of place and person is the holiness of time.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
ZT”L
According to
Judaism, G-d is the creator of both time and space. The apogee of the act of
creation is the establishment of Holy time. “The first thing G-d declared holy,”
writes Rabbi Sacks, “was a day: Shabbat, at the conclusion of creation.” Unlike
other religions in the ancient near east, in Judaism, holiness of time preceded
holiness of space or place.
It was not only the Shabbat that G-d sanctifies. The consecration of Time as an
“essential medium of the spiritual life,” explains Sacks, the sphere where the
encounter between the Divine and humans transpires to forge the holiness of
time, runs like a golden thread through our Jewish tradition.
The Torah repeatedly stresses the prominence of Holy time. Prior to G-d’s
directive to build a dwelling place, a “Holy space,” for Him, He commands Moshe
to create “Holy time” by forming a calendar (Shemot 12:1-2). “Holy time itself,”
asserts Rabbi Sacks, comes in two forms……There is Shabbat and there are the
festivals…..Shabbat,” continues Sacks, “was sanctified by G-d at the beginning
of time for all time. The festivals are sanctified by the Jewish People to whom
was given the authority and responsibility for fixing the calendar.”
This week’s Parashah,
Pikudei, the last one in the Book of Shemot presents the completion of
the dimension of Holiness of space. Whilst in the story of creation, unlike
time, no space was depicted or sanctified, in this Parashah, a Holy space for G-d,
the Mishkan, His dwelling place among His People has been completed. Now,
there is a Sacred space wherein Am Yisrael could practice their Holy times for
which G-d has been preparing them.
The connection
between Holy time (Shabbat) and Holy space (Mishkan) has already been
established in a previous Parashah Ki Tisa (Shemot 31:1-:17). The reasons
behind the insertion of the commandment regarding the Shabbat in that
particular Parashah has engaged Jewish sages such as Rash”i and Ramba”m. The
message that Torah wishes to convey to us there is to stress, yet again, the predominance
of Shabbat and that regardless of how important the construction of the MIshkan
is, it does not override the sanctity of the Shabbat.
We have already learned about the prohibition to perform any kind of work (melachah) on Shabbat and the
importance of keeping it Holy in the Ten Commandments. “Six days you
shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is Shabbat to the Lord
your G-d. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or
daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner
residing in your towns” (Shemot 20: 9-10). In Ki Tisa, the Torah even
mentions death as the form of punishment for not observing the Shabbat (Shemot
31:15).
The repeated pairing of building of the Mishkan with the Commandment to
observe Shabbat in the last few Parashot of the book of Shemot is done for a
reason.
As we have seen in these Parashot culminating with the detailed allocations of the funds donated for the construction of the Mishkan, in this week’s Parashah, there is no doubt that the expenses of this magnificent building and its upkeep are enormous. What then, we need to ask ourselves, would be the purpose
of such an opulent dwelling place for G-d without human involvement to worship
Him? Without readiness to observe Holy time, what meaning is there for erecting
a Holy place? What use is there to a structure with miraculous architecture if
it is devoid of the human element? A sacred place on its own is nothing but a façade
which could not and would not preserve our heritage and our unending quest for
a sublime future.
According to Rabbi Shavit Artson, Judaism is unique in the sense that, unlike
other cultures in the ancient near east, it recognized “that holy space without
holy time was mockery of true religion.” Rabbi Artson explains “that even a
religion as profound and as joyous as Judaism cannot hope to transform our
lives, let alone the world, if we will not invest the time necessary to let it
work its wonders on our hearts. “If we don’t sanctify the Shabbat,” concludes
rabbi Artson, “if we don’t regularly attend our synagogue’s worship services,
if we don’t put aside time for Jewish learning on a regular basis, then we can’t
hope to realize the potential that Judaism offers. “
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