Torah Portion: Vayakhel/Pekuday ("Moses convoked ...")/Shabbat HaHodesh
Exodus Chapter 35:1-40:38; Exodus 12:1-20

Haftarah Portion: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

On a deeper level, the Tabernacle was a perpetual symbol of Jewish unity. The Zohar, the classical text of Jewish mysticism, notes a fascinating parallel between the mishkan and the Eternal One. Each day in the Shema we proclaim: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one (ehad)." Now the Tabernacle was made up of many different parts--the tent and its furnishings, the Ark and its poles, the table and all its utensils, the pure lampstand, the golden and copper altars, and other parts. Yet the Torah tells us: Vayehi ha-mishkan ehad. All of the parts were put together "so that the Tabernacle became one whole" (Exodus 36:13).

The Zohar notes that God who created human beings in the Divine image ordered the creation of the Tabernacle in the Divine image. Just as the human body possesses many organs, higher and lower, some internal and not visible, while others are external and visible, and yet they all form one body, so also was the building of the Tabernacle. All its individual parts were formed in the pattern of that above, and when they were all properly fitted together, "the Tabernacle was one."

Hence, the Tabernacle stands as a primary symbol of Jewish unity. For we are, above all else, a people of "ones": one God, one Torah, and one Tabernacle. And, in each case, the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of its individual parts. The mystery of the mishkan is no less impressive than the mystery of the Divine revelation, or the mystery of the workings of the human body.

And what of the mystery of am ehad--one people? Despite centuries of relentless persecution, somehow the Jewish people has managed to preserve a core belief in the essential unity of the community of Israel. There is an almost mystical connection between Jewish people who have been scattered to the farthest reaches of the planet. The fate of the Jew in Los Angeles is bound up with the fate of the Jew in Jerusalem...and Paris...and Riga...and Addis Ababa. Kol Yisrael arayvim zeh la-zeh. "All Israel is responsible for one another," states the Talmud. Throughout the ages, our extraordinary ability to translate those words into deeds represents one of the greatest achievements in human history.