From Tent to Mishkan: The Instant Power of Teshuvah

1“How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov, your dwelling places, O Yisrael!”¹ The holy Ohr HaChaim asks why the verse uses the word ohel, “tent,” which is not permanent, and afterward mishkan, “dwelling place,” which is permanent. He also takes up the difference between the names Yaakov and Yisrael.² The Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Torah, renders the verse “How good is your mishkan, Yaakov.” So the Targum reads “tent” as a kind of mishkan, and this needs explaining.

2We may explain this through a teaching of my holy ancestor of Shidlovtza, zt"l, on the verse “As far as east is from west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”³ Just as a person facing east can be facing west a moment later, since all it takes is to turn around, so has Hashem, blessed be He, removed our transgressions from us. In a single moment a person can turn himself around and become a complete tzaddik, if only he turns, faces the other way and returns in teshuvah. As Chazal say: “If a man betroths a woman on condition that ‘I am a completely righteous man’ …”⁴ Those are his holy words.

3We can understand this through a teaching of the holy Rebbe R' Baruch of Mezhibuzh, zt"l, the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, on Chazal's comment on this verse: “He saw that their entrances were not aligned,” that is, the openings of their tents did not face one another.⁵ He explained that this refers to the openings of which the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: “Open for Me an opening like the point of a needle, and I will open for you an opening like the entrance of a hall.”⁶ Even when Jews are only beginning to return in teshuvah and stand at the very start, with an opening as tiny as a needle's point, Hashem already opens for them a great opening like the entrance of a hall. He desires them and draws them close to Him at once, in the spirit of the words of Ne'ilah, the closing prayer of Yom Kippur: “You extend a hand to transgressors.” Though they were transgressors only a moment ago, Your hand is stretched out to them: You accept them at once. It is like what the Rambam writes of one who repents: “Yesterday this man was hated, detested and abominable; today he is beloved and desirable, close and a dear friend.”⁷ When Bilam saw the great power of teshuvah and how Israel draws close to Hashem, he could not bring any accusation against it.

4We may say that this is also the meaning of our verse, “How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov.” You may be on a low level, the level of “Yaakov,” and only at the stage of a “tent,” which is not permanent: you are just beginning to return in teshuvah and to engage in Torah. Even so, you reach the level of “your dwelling places, O Yisrael” at once. For from then on the Holy One, blessed be He, rests His Shechinah upon you permanently, since for a small opening like a needle's point He opens a great one like the entrance of a hall. This is what the Targum means when it renders “How goodly are your tents” as “your mishkan.” As soon as a person reaches the level of a “tent,” he is transformed by it into a complete tzaddik and already stands at the level of a mishkan.

5aThis also lets us understand the continuation of the verse, “Like streams stretched out …,” and the Gemara's teaching: “‘Like streams stretched out’: just as streams raise a person from impurity to purity, so synagogues and study halls raise a person from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit.”⁸ Here too we see that in a single moment a person can turn himself from impurity to purity and from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit. He need only resolve from now on to do nothing but good, and begin to engage in Torah and prayer. How can this be? It is like the reason Chazal chose streams in particular and not other bodies of water, even though it is water that purifies. For “all the streams flow to the sea.”⁹ Streams are small, yet from a small and quiet beginning, like a little stream, they soon reach the sea, where the force is far greater, as the verse says, “More than the sounds of many waters, mighty …”¹⁰

5bThe same holds for the words “like gardens by a river.” A river flows swiftly and is drawn at once toward the sea. So too the beginning of teshuvah draws a person at once toward the good. It is like the opening the size of a needle's point: in response, the Holy One, blessed be He, accepts him and draws him far closer, just as the mighty waters of the sea surpass the streams and rivers that flow into it.

6So may we be privileged to have the Holy One, blessed be He, bring us back to Him in complete teshuvah. Amen, may it be His will.