parashat vaiyaqhel Partnership in Creation
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The Torah portion read in synagogues around the world this week is parashat vaiyaqhel. Parashat vaiyaqhel runs from Exodus 35:1 to 38:20. You know, the Torah speaks to us in many ways. Sometimes our Torah conveys a message without spelling it out in so many words. Like a living, breathing teacher, what Torah does is just as instructive as what Torah says. A good student doesn’t just listen to the teacher; a good student watches the teacher’s every move. To catch the whole lesson you gotta pay attention to what the teacher does, even the details the teacher might not call your attention to.
I want you to notice the special endowments that enable those who carry out the work of the sanctuary to implement HaShem’s commandments. Exodus 35:30-36:2.
“And Moshe said to the children of Israel, ‘See, HaShem has called Btzalel ben Uri ben Chur of the tribe of Judah by name, and has filled him by God’s Spirit with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with every workmanship, to design designs, to work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, in cutting stone for inlay, in cutting wood to work in every workmanship of design, and to instruct He has gifted his heart, his and that of Aholiav ben Achisamakh of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with wisdom of heart to do every workmanship of the cutter, of the designer, of the embroiderer in blue, in purple, in scarlet, in fine linen, of the weaver — those who do every workmanship and who design designs. And Btzalel and Aholiav and every person wise of heart in whom HaShem had put wisdom and understanding to know to do every workmanship did the work of the sanctuary, according to everything which HaShem had commanded.”
The beginning of the passage says that God filled Btzalel bchokhma, bitvuna, uhvdaat “with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge.” The conclusion of the passage says everybody involved on the project received these three special endowments chokhma utvuna ladaat “wisdom and understanding to know.” The second time around daat is a verb rather than a noun, but both times the word is daat. To summarize, in parashat vaiyaqhel everybody involved in building the sanctuary receives three special endowments: wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
This week the haftara which accompanies the Torah portion is particularly suggestive, because those who build Shlomo’s temple receive the exact same endowments as those who built the sanctuary back in the wilderness: wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
The Jewish people have the longstanding custom of publicly reading a portion from the prophets each week. In your Bible this will be 1Kings 7:13-14.
“And Shlomo the King sent and took Chiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow woman from the tribe of Naftali. His father had been a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was filled with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge to do every workmanship in bronze. He came to Shlomo the King and did all his workmanship.”
It’s not all that surprising Chiram receives the same three endowments to build the temple as Btzalel and Aholiav earlier received to build the sanctuary. After all, either construction project would require special wisdom, understanding, and knowledge from on High. But the next passage in Scripture where the three endowments are mentioned together in the same sequence is more surprising. Proverbs 3:13-20
“Privileged is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For her trade is better than the silver trade, and her proceeds than fine gold. She is more precious than pearls, and all your desires cannot equal her. Length of days is at her right hand, at her left are wealth and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those taking hold of her, and her supporters are privileged. By wisdom HaShem founded the earth, he established the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge the subterranean depths burst, and the clouds dripped dew.”
What’s Proverbs chapter three talking about here? What’s the construction project underway that requires wisdom, understanding, and knowledge? What is it that God builds with his wisdom, understanding, and knowledge? ANSWER The world! Proverbs chapter three is describing the creation of planet earth.
“By wisdom HaShem founded the earth, he established the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge the subterranean depths burst…”
Now that’s a startling biblical concept: the three endowments required to construct the sanctuary in the wilderness, or for constructing Shlomo’s temple, are exactly what God himself employed to construct his world!
What’s our Torah teaching us in parashat vaiyaqhel? To build either the sanctuary or the temple is a kind of miniature creation. To build the sanctuary or the temple is a creative act in some way comparable to God’s workmanship on the six days of creation week. To build the sanctuary or the temple is to somehow participate in God’s own work of creation.
Our Torah nowhere spells this out in so many words. We learn it from the way the Torah treats the subject. In parashat vaiyaqhel this lesson is only taught by implication. So maybe I’ve drawn the wrong conclusion from the three endowments? Maybe the use of this language is only a coincidence?
The best way to check whether we’re on the right track is to come at the same subject with a different set of data. If we come at it from a totally different angle and the two angles converge, then it’s more likely we’re actually on the right track. What I propose to do now is to compare the Genesis creation account with the description of building the sanctuary. If the description of the building the sanctuary picks up on the language of the creation account, it will bear out what I’ve inferred from the three endowments.
The creation account has a six days/seventh day dynamic going. Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember the Shabbat day to sanctify it. Six days you shall work and do all your workmanship. But the seventh day is the Shabbat of HaShem your God.”
In the description of the sanctuary, Moshe waits for the pattern six days, and on the seventh day God reveals the pattern. Exodus 24:16.
“And the glory of HaShem tabernacled on Mt Sinai and the cloud covered it six days. And he called Moshe on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud.”
As is well known, the Genesis creation account attributes the verb “he made” to God exactly seven times. Now, when we get to the description of building the sanctuary, the language picks up on the creation account in a concentrated way. From the point where God commands, “And let them make me a sanctuary, and I will tabernacle among them,” [Exodus 25:9] until the end of the Book of Exodus, the children of Israel, or Moshe, or Btzalel, are recorded as having made something for the sanctuary some 200x.
In the Genesis creation account God is a master workman who inspects his work as he proceeds. God sees and beholds. He exercises quality control. Genesis 1:31
“And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
The description of building the sanctuary picks up on that language of seeing and beholding. Exodus 39:43
“And Moshe saw all the workmanship, and behold, they had done it as HaShem commanded.”
The Genesis creation account notes the creation was finished, using the passive voice. Genesis 2:1
“And the heavens and the earth were finished and all their hosts.”
The description of building the sanctuary picks up on that language, using the passive voice. Exodus 39:32a
“And all the work of the tabernacle, the tent of appointment, was finished.”
In the Genesis creation account God further finishes his workmanship. Genesis 2:2
“And God finished on the seventh day his workmanship which he made and sabbathed on the seventh day from all his workmanship which he made.”
The description of the sanctuary says that Moshe finished the workmanship. This comes in Exodus 40:33
“And Moshe finished the workmanship.”
In the Genesis creation account God blesses. Genesis 2:3
“And God blessed the seventh day.”
The description of the sanctuary notes that Moshe blesses the children of Israel. Exodus 39:43
“And Moshe saw all the workmanship, and behold, they had done it as HaShem commanded, and Moshe blessed them.”
The Genesis creation account ends with God sanctifying His work of creation. Genesis 2:3.
“And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it he sabbathed from all his workmanship which God created to make.”
The description of the sanctuary ends with God sanctifying it. Exodus 40:34
“And the cloud covered the tent of appointment, and the glory of HaShem filled the tabernacle.”
What are we to make of all these verbal connections between the Genesis creation account and the construction of the sanctuary? For me, they confirm the observation I made on the basis of the three endowments. Our Torah presents the construction of the sanctuary as a kind of miniature creation. In making the sanctuary, Israel imitates her Creator. In making the sanctuary Israel in some way becomes a participant in God’s own work of creation.
This concept of participation is hard for us to accept. We realize the initial work of creation was uniquely God’s; human beings had nothing at all to do with it. Human beings only came onto the scene at the tail end of the story! So how can the construction of the sanctuary in any way be comparable to the workmanship of the Master Workman? What do wooden boards, animal hides, embroidery, and polished pebbles really have in common with the marvels of this vast universe? I, for one, would never think to compare a tent in the desert, or even Shlomo’s permanent temple of cut stone, with heaven and earth and all their hosts. In my estimation there’s no comparison. I’d be inclined to think puny human beings aren’t real participants in God’s work of creation.
But when we look at it from the Torah’s perspective, participation isn’t so difficult to accept. God’s creation at the end of creation week was finished and was very good, but it was still incomplete. The completion of creation is dependent on further life-affirming choices, responsible development, nurturing love, and cooperation with God. Completion depends on God’s partner.
Audacious as it sounds, God risks his whole creation on his partner. In order to make sense on our level, the Creator of the universe actually joins us. In joining us our Creator is obliged to accept many of our limitations. Out of love for the creatures of his hand, he has accepted those limitations. The Creator has stepped into his own creation. He has entered the time/space continuum. By entering our reality, by becoming a personal individual capable of interacting with the likes of us, the Lord of the universe has renounced power to a fearful extent. By taking on such partners he has permanently compromised himself. Partnership means God’s plans are now subject to major setback due to bad choices and bad behavior on our part. Even though God thoroughly condemns our bad behavior, he has taken the consequences upon himself. God allows the decisions of his partners to affect the course of his salvation. He is prepared to suffer the tribulations of human history in order for his reality to penetrate our reality.
Not only has God staked his creation on us, he has staked his own good reputation on us. When Israel constructed the sanctuary, God agreed to be sanctified in Israel. That’s why that little building is called the sanctuary. HaShem agreed that from here in out his great name should be sanctified, that is either acclaimed or defamed, by his partners. God has changed the locus of his glory. Rather than lightning and thunder and spectacular flashes from the peak of Mt Sinai anymore, God decided his glory should be visible in his covenant partner.
We live in an era in which God’s personal intervention is less apparent. Some people view this as a loss. They long for the time when God’s glory was direct, when his action was unilateral, when miraculous intervention was the order of the day. They complain that today God is an absentee landlord.
But in another sense, God’s apparent hiddenness, God’s indirect mode of operating, God’s divesting himself of micromanagement, means a new level of partnership. Instead of raining down manna in the wilderness, God’s partners now play a more active part in providing for their nutritional needs. Furthermore, they’ve been charged with feeding the hungry. Instead of clothes that don’t wear out for forty years in the wilderness, God’s partners have learned to manufacture synthetic fiber and weave on computerized looms. Furthermore, they’ve been charged with clothing the naked. Instead of Jesus healing a few blind men, God’s partners have put prescription lenses on a billion eyes. Furthermore, they’ve been charged with healing the sick. Entrusting his partners with greater responsibility doesn’t mean God is any less present in his world or that he is shirking on the job or that his work of creation has ground to a halt. It means, in deference to his partners, that God has chosen to complete his creation at a human pace.
We might prefer God to complete his creation instantly. As demonstrated during the first six days, he’s perfectly capable of creating at the speed of verbal utterance. The Psalmist says,
“For he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood.” [Psalm 33:9]
But God knows we will not reach our potential unless we exercise greater responsibility. In order to develop character, human beings require the experience of caring for one another, the experience of cooperating with one another, the opportunity for invention to improve their condition, the opportunity of transmitting their accumulated wisdom, knowledge and understanding to their offspring. We were all created in God’s likeness and image. But in order to grow up into his full stature, we must learn unselfish love by putting the interest of others ahead of their own immediate gratification. God rules his universe by the principle of self-giving love, and in order to become his co-rulers, human beings must also learn self-giving love. That’s how this universe works. Like an anxious parent, God sometimes has to resist the temptation to interfere. Obviously, creation could be improved quicker and better if God just went ahead and did everything himself. But unilateral action would deprive us of the experience we need. The process of completing his creation at a human pace takes a very long time. Nobody suffers more for doing things the slow way than God. But God has committed himself to us in just this slow way.
You learn about your responsibility as a co-creator with God in parashat yaiyaqhel. Puny human beings really are important in the great scheme of things. We aren’t important because God admires our tent-making skills or our building technology, but because he has graciously joined himself to us. Your Creator hasn’t endowed you with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge merely to work on construction. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge aren’t just tools for doing a job. He has endowed you with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in order to take you on as a partner. Let’s be true partners.
When we humans went wrong, he calculated we were worth redeeming, because at creation he had already invested himself in us. As redeemed people we naturally prefer to talk about redemption more than about creation, but creation is the basis of our redemption. Let us sanctify his great name in everything we do. Being God’s visible glory is a very great honor.
