Humility Before the Shechinah: Taking the Mishkan Apart

1“And it was on the eighth day that Moshe called to Aharon and to his sons …”¹ This was the day after the seven days of the Mishkan's inauguration. The Gemara records Reish Lakish's teaching that wherever the Torah says vayehi, “and it was,” it speaks of nothing but distress.² The Gemara then challenges this from our verse, “And it was on the eighth day,” for that was a day of joy. A Baraisa, a teaching from the time of the Mishnah, says: “That day there was joy before Him like the day on which heaven and earth were created. It is written here, ‘And it was on the eighth day,’ and it is written there, ‘… and it was morning, one day.’”³ The Gemara answers that there was distress that day too, for Aharon's sons Nadav and Avihu died on it. The holy Ohr HaChaim finds a difficulty here.⁴ Granted that Nadav and Avihu died that very day, he says, a problem remains. The Gemara itself learned from that verse, “And it was evening and it was morning,” that this day too, the day of “And it was on the eighth day,” was a day of joy like the day heaven and earth were created. If the verse is speaking of a time of joy, why does it use vayehi, a word of distress?

2A few verses later the Torah says: “Moshe said, ‘This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you.’”⁵ The Midrash asks: “What is ‘this is the thing’? It refers to milah, circumcision, as it says, ‘This is the thing for which Yehoshua circumcised.’”⁶ The holy Ohr HaChaim calls the Midrash's words “closed and sealed,” beyond our understanding.⁷ Did Moshe circumcise them that day? Did he command them about circumcision that day? If neither, what does the mitzvah of milah have to do with completing the work of the Mishkan?

3To explain all this, let us first cite the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l. The holy sefarim, the Tiferes Shlomo among them, ask how Moshe could add a day of preparation on his own before the giving of the Torah.⁸ All the worlds were waiting eagerly for the Torah to be received, and Bnei Yisrael had prepared themselves thoroughly to receive it. Why, then, did Moshe Rabbeinu put it off and add to the words of the Holy One, blessed be He? My holy father explained that Moshe Rabbeinu was worried. Bnei Yisrael had risen to great heights; the verse itself had said of them, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation.”⁹ Perhaps this would make them proud, and in that state they could not receive the Torah, which endures only in one whose spirit is humble.¹⁰ As is well known, that is why Mount Sinai was chosen: it made itself low.¹¹ So Moshe Rabbeinu acted wisely and told them that they still needed to prepare further. When they heard that they were not yet ready, they became humble, and that humility is what made them ready to receive the Torah. Those are his holy words.

4aAlong the same lines we can explain what happened when the Mishkan was set up. On the verse “And it was on the day that Moshe finished setting up the Mishkan,” Chazal say: “The verse tells us that throughout the seven days of the inauguration, Moshe would set up the Mishkan, and every morning he would anoint it and take it apart. On that day he set it up and anointed it, and did not take it apart.”¹² What was the point of this?

4bThe answer is this. Bnei Yisrael had been privileged to set up the Mishkan, a work as great and awesome as the creation of heaven and earth.¹³ Its purpose was the one the verse states: “And they shall make Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them.”¹⁴ But having built so great and holy a structure, Bnei Yisrael might, Heaven forbid, have let pride into their hearts. Then Hashem's words about the proud would apply to them: “I and he cannot dwell together,”¹⁵ and the whole point of building the Mishkan, the resting of the Shechinah, would be lost, Heaven forbid. So the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moshe to take the Mishkan apart on each of the seven days after setting it up. This showed them that they had not yet reached completion, for each day Moshe took it apart as though he were unsure whether it ought to be built differently. So they never knew for certain whether the Mishkan had been made properly and completely. Israel stayed humble in spirit and did not grow proud, and Hashem's Shechinah could dwell in the Mishkan, as He intended.

5Bnei Yisrael were humble at heart and full of distress, afraid that they might not have fully carried out Hashem's will in making the Mishkan. That is why the verse says vayehi, the word of distress. This answers our first question. Over the making of the Mishkan itself there was joy before Hashem like the day heaven and earth were created. Bnei Yisrael, however, were not joyful, because they still did not know whether they had been privileged to set it up properly.

6This also explains the verse “This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you,” which, as we saw, Chazal apply to the mitzvah of milah. Milah is performed on an eight-day-old infant, who has no awareness that could make him proud, so it is done without any pride at all. With these words Moshe was commanding them to do all their mitzvos the same way, free of ulterior motives and of pride. Then “the glory of Hashem will appear to you” would come true for them: the Shechinah would rest among them.

7The same idea explains a Midrash on “And it was on the eighth day”: “R' Yirmeyah bar Ilai opened with a verse he applied to the creation of the world: ‘Wisdom has built her house’: this is the Holy One, blessed be He, of Whom it is written, ‘Hashem founded the earth with wisdom …’ ‘She has sent out her maidens, she calls’: this is Adam and Chavah. ‘Upon the heights of the city’: He lifted them up and called them divine, as it is written, ‘And you will be like God.’ After all this praise, ‘Whoever is foolish, let him turn in here’: they left the will of the Holy One and followed the counsel of the serpent. Because of this, ‘to one who lacks understanding she says’: ‘For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’”¹⁶ At first glance the Midrash seems to have nothing to do with the verse “And it was on the eighth day.” In light of what we have said, though, we can explain the connection. Just as Adam stumbled into sin after Hashem had called him divine, so the same could have happened, Heaven forbid, on the day the Mishkan was set up, after all they had been privileged to attain. But Hashem prepared the cure before the blow: He had the Mishkan taken apart every day, and so they remained humble.

8This also explains a later verse: “Moshe and Aharon went into the Tent of Meeting, and they came out and blessed the people …”¹⁷ Rashi explains that they said, “‘May the pleasantness of Hashem our God be upon us …’: may it be His will that the Shechinah rest upon the work of your hands.”¹⁸ But why did Moshe Rabbeinu give them this blessing only now, when the work was finished? Surely it would have been far more fitting to bless them before they set their hands to the holy work, when they needed the blessing more in order to succeed. In light of what we have said, we can explain that he held back from blessing them at the start because he was concerned about pride. Only after they had finished all the work did Moshe Rabbeinu bless them, saying, “May the pleasantness of Hashem be upon us,” so that the Shechinah would rest among them. Before this he had said, “This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do,” warning them against pride, as we saw with milah. And then, “the glory of Hashem will appear to you”: at that point the blessing “May the pleasantness of Hashem be upon us” would come true.

9May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us always to engage in Torah and mitzvos with humility, and may we be privileged to see the redemption. Amen, may it be His will.