Two Dwellings in One: Torah with Yiras Shamayim

1“These are the accountings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of the Testimony, which were counted at Moshe's command …”¹ Rashi addresses the doubled word, “the Mishkan, the Mishkan.”²

2Further on, the Torah says, “Moshe saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as Hashem had commanded, so had they done. And Moshe blessed them.”³ The holy Ohr HaChaim asks about the doubled wording. Why does the verse go back and say, “and behold, they had done it; as Hashem had commanded, so had they done”? It has already told us that Moshe saw all the work, and that includes the fact that they had done everything they were commanded. Indeed, the verse just before says, “According to all that Hashem had commanded Moshe, so did Bnei Yisrael do all the work.”⁴ Notice, too, the words “and Moshe blessed them.” The verse is already speaking about Moshe, for it opens, “Moshe saw …” “And he blessed them” would have been enough, and we would understand that Moshe was the one who blessed them. Why, then, does it name Moshe Rabbeinu again?

3Let us first cite the Noam Megadim, by R' Eliezer HaLevi Horowitz of Tarnogrod, on the doubled wording “the accountings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of the Testimony.” The doubling, he writes, teaches that the Mishkan had two purposes. The first was to be a dwelling for the Shechinah, as the verse says, “And they shall make Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them.”⁵ The second was to be the place from which Torah and halachic rulings would go out to all Israel. As is known, the Chamber of Hewn Stone, seat of the Great Sanhedrin, from which rulings went out to all Klal Yisrael, stood at the site of the Beis HaMikdash. On the verse “You shall rise and go up to the place,” Chazal taught that the place itself makes a difference,⁶ for that place helped them find “the way where light dwells”⁷ in Torah and in rulings. So “These are the accountings of the Mishkan” hints at the first purpose, a dwelling for the Shechinah. The words that follow, “the Mishkan of the Testimony,” hint at a further praise and distinction: it was also a dwelling for the Torah, which is called “testimony,” as the verse says, “He established a testimony in Yaakov.”⁸ All this was so that they could arrive at the Torah's exact truth, just as it was given to Moshe at Sinai. That is the meaning of “which were counted at Moshe's command.” Those are his holy words.

4aWe can explain this further. Tosafos, the classic commentators on the Gemara, cite the Sifrei, an early halachic Midrash, on the verse “so that you may learn to fear …”⁹ The Sifrei speaks of the second tithe, the portion of produce that was eaten in Yerushalayim: “Great is the second tithe, for it brings a person to Torah study. When he brought his tithe, he would stay on in Yerushalayim until he had eaten it, and there he would see great holiness, with the Kohanim engaged in the service and everyone occupied with the work of Heaven. So he too would turn his heart to yiras Shamayim, the fear of Heaven, and engage in Torah. Of this it is said, ‘For Torah shall go forth from Tziyon.’”¹⁰ That is the gist of their words.

4bWe see, then, that the Beis HaMikdash, the place where Hashem was served, brought with it a special power: the power to learn Torah with yiras Shamayim. And this is the goal and the heart of Torah study, that it be learned together with yiras Shamayim. As the verse says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem,”¹¹ and Chazal teach the same.¹² That is why the Chamber of Hewn Stone, from which Torah goes out to all Israel, was placed at the very site of the Beis HaMikdash and its service. From there Torah was to spread through Israel, so that Israel would learn Torah with yiras Shamayim. For when Bnei Yisrael went up to that place to ask their questions, they received yiras Shamayim, and from then on their Torah study was joined with it. This is why the word “Mishkan” is said twice. The doubling teaches that the Mishkan's two purposes are bound up with each other. Torah study is tied to its other purpose, the resting of the Shechinah among Israel, which corresponds to yiras Shamayim, because Torah study is truly what it should be only when it is learned with yiras Shamayim.

5This is the meaning of the verse “Moshe saw all the work.” Moshe saw that the physical work of making the Mishkan was finished. But the verse adds, “and behold, they had done it as Hashem had commanded.” Through making the Mishkan they had learned that everything they do must be “as Hashem had commanded,” done at Hashem's command, in the sense we have explained: Hashem's Mishkan includes Torah study with yiras Shamayim. When Moshe Rabbeinu saw that they had been privileged to join “as Hashem had commanded” to the physical work, “Moshe blessed them,” for this made them worthy of blessing. Why did the verse not say simply “and he blessed them”? Naming Moshe hints that his blessing also included this: when they learned Torah, they would be privileged to receive something of Moshe himself. Chazal speak this way when they tell a sage, “Moshe, you have spoken well,”¹³ for when people engage in Torah with yiras Shamayim, the power of Moshe Rabbeinu clothes itself in them. Moshe Rabbeinu brought this power down for all generations when the Mishkan was set up, so that they would have the strength to learn Torah with yiras Shamayim. And then the light of Moshe Rabbeinu's soul would be revealed to them from the Source of blessing, the soul that constantly gives understanding to Bnei Yisrael, to everyone who learns Torah for the sake of Heaven, as the Tikkunei Zohar explains.¹⁴

6This lets us explain what the Gemara relates about R' Ami and R' Asi.¹⁵ Although they had thirteen synagogues in Teveryah, they would pray only “between the pillars, where they learned.” In other words, though there were many synagogues in their town, they prayed only in the place where they studied. This is puzzling. Why was it recorded for all generations that their place of learning was “between the pillars”? It would have been enough to say that they prayed where they learned. We must also ask about the practice itself: what is the point of praying in the place of learning? We may say that in prayer a person stands before his Maker and is brought to awe. So it is fitting to pray where one learns Torah, so that the prayer offered there will carry over into one's Torah study and the learning will be done with yiras Shamayim. In this way Torah becomes bound up with prayer. That is the hint in “between the pillars”: by binding prayer together with Torah, they set up pillars, as it were, for avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem.

7May Hashem grant that we be privileged to serve Him with fear, to keep and to do, and to bring near the time of our redemption. Amen, may it be His will.