Mah Tovu: The Simple Jew's Tent Becomes a Mishkan

1“How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov, your dwelling places, O Yisrael!”¹ Notice how the wording changes. The verse first calls the people “Yaakov,” the name that stands for the lower level of Israel,² and then calls them “Yisrael,” the name of the higher level. Likewise, why does it say ohel, “tent,” of Yaakov, and mishkan, “dwelling place,” of Yisrael? We must also ask a question raised by the early authorities:³ why do Jews open the day's order of prayer with the verse Mah tovu, “How goodly,” when it comes from the words of the wicked Bilam? What is so great about it that we begin the day with this verse of all verses?

2We may explain it this way. As is well known, there are two kinds of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. One is service on a lower level: a simple deed, done without kavanah, inner intention, or thought. The other is service on a higher level, with a spiritual grasp. This is how the Tiferes Shlomo explains the verse “And Bnei Yisrael did according to all that Hashem commanded Moshe and Aharon; so they did.”⁴ Rashi comments: “What is ‘so they did’? Moshe and Aharon too did so.” The Tiferes Shlomo asks what is so remarkable in Moshe and Aharon doing it as well, since they too are part of Bnei Yisrael. He explains that Bnei Yisrael brought the Pesach offering as a deed alone, without entering into the inner secrets of the mitzvos as Moshe and Aharon did. Moshe and Aharon, for their part, surely performed the mitzvah with all its kavanos and with the grasp it called for, completely and as it should be done. This is the meaning of “Moshe and Aharon … so they did.” Since Moshe and Aharon performed the mitzvah of the Pesach offering with all its proper kavanos, “all Bnei Yisrael did” it with all the kavanos that had been revealed to Moshe and Aharon.⁵ Because of this, Bnei Yisrael too were credited as though they had done the mitzvah with the fullness of its kavanos and secrets, for the tzaddikim have the power to raise up the prayers and mitzvos of Israel. That is the gist of his words.

3This lets us understand our verse, “How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov.” The lowly among the people, who do the mitzvos on a lower level, are “Yaakov,” and so their mitzvos have only the power of a “tent,” something temporary. Even so, how goodly these mitzvos are! In the end they will rise to the level of “your dwelling places,” through the power of “Yisrael”: the tzaddikim, who are called by that name and who perform the mitzvos with a spiritual grasp and complete kavanah. Through them the mitzvos become a mishkan, a permanent place for the Shechinah to rest, and this raises up and rectifies those on the level of Yaakov as well.

4This explains why we begin the day's order of prayer with Mah tovu. Many Jews are on the level of “Yaakov,” and they may think to themselves, “What worth do my deeds, my Torah and my mitzvos have?” So, to strengthen weak hands, we begin with this verse, to show that “your tents, O Yaakov” are truly very goodly: every deed of every Jew, whoever he may be, is very precious before Hashem. It is told that the holy Rebbe R' Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, zt"l, once saw a Jew fixing his wagon in the middle of his prayers. The Kedushas Levi, as he is called after his sefer, said of this: “See, Holy One, blessed be He, who is like Your people Israel! Even while they are busy fixing the wagon, they pray as well!” For truly, everything is precious before Hashem, and this is thanks to the tzaddikim, who raise up the good deeds of the Jewish people so that those deeds become a mishkan for His Shechinah.

5May Hashem grant that we be privileged to serve Him wholeheartedly. Amen, may it be His will.