Timeless Torah

With the words, “And the glory of G-d filled the Tabernacle…throughout their journeys,” the building of the Sanctuary and the book of Exodus reach closure. In truth, the much larger narrative, the story of Adam’s fall from Grace in Genesis, is now also completed.

A key literary device in Torah is the chiasmus, a unit (verse, paragraph, or entire section) in which the second half is the mirror image of the first. The Biblical chiasmus should not be mistaken for mere creativity in storytelling. Instead, it is a supreme example of how substance dictates style. In this case, a chiasmus contains the basic principle of Biblical retributive justice: the rule of measure for measure (middah k’neged middah), or “As you act, so shall others act to you.”

This is more than an ethical tenet. It is fundamental to the Jewish interpretation of human history. Man enters into a harmonious world. His subsequent sin shatters that idyllic Paradise. To achieve atonement, he must restore the original harmony.

What does this have to do with the Mishkan? Originally, our perfect existence was most clearly felt in the world’s ‘Holy of Holies,’ the Garden of Eden. To reinstate it, man must set aside his own Holy of Holies. And there he shall, “Make two gold cherubs…on the ark…of the Tablets.”

We’ve encountered cherubs only once before: at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. “G-d banished man from the Garden…He…stationed cherubs at the east of Eden, and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” (Gen. 3: 23-24) The connection between the two sets of cherubs is strengthened when we recall that in the Sanctuary, they shielded the tablets of the Torah, which itself is called, “A Tree of Life to all who seize hold of it.” Or as the Midrash puts it, “G-d hid the tree that granted eternal life…and in its place He gave us His Torah. This is the tree of life.” If Eden was paradise lost, the Sanctuary was paradise regained.

The parallel is even clearer. The six days of creation were not merely a sequence of events, but two cycles of three. In the first G-d created domains, in the second He filled them.

Domains created Domains filled
Day 1: Day/night Day 4: Lights for day/night Day 2: Waters above/below Day 5: Fish below/birds above
Day 3: Sea/dry land Day 6: Creatures/man

This separation into three domains is mirrored in the Mishkan with its three key spaces: the outer court, the holy, and the holy of holies. In Genesis the divided domains were filled with life specific to each one, so too were the three areas in the Sanctuary filled by particular levels of holiness, as in, “The glory of G-d filled the Tabernacle.”

The concept of the Biblical chiasmus is also found in this Midrash. When G-d created the universe, He desired to have a dwelling place in this lower world, but Adam transgressed. So G-d withdrew His presence to the first heaven. Cain killed Abel, and the Shechina arose from the first to the second heaven. When the generation of Enosh served idols, G-d’s presence retreated to the third heaven. The generation of the flood caused a further ascent to the fourth realm. After the Tower of Babel, G-dliness was pushed back to the fifth. Sodom further removed His presence to the sixth and the Egyptians angered G-d all the way to the seventh heaven.

G-d said, “Until now the wicked have prevailed.” But Abraham’s good deeds brought the Shechina down to the sixth heaven. Isaac’s willingness to be sacrificed returned it to the fifth. Jacob restored it to the fourth, Levi to the third, Kehas to the second, and Amram to the first. When Moses built the Mishkan, G-dliness returned to earth.

From Creation on, successive generations helped banish the Divine presence. Abraham and those who followed in his footsteps reversed the process. The Shechina’s journey thus completed its full circle (chiasmus-like) finally arriving in the Sanctuary, the human counterpart to Creation. The first chapter of Genesis outlined how in the midst of the “Tohu vavohu - empty chaos,” the three physical domains were created by G-d. The final chapters of Exodus instruct how three spiritual areas in the middle of a “Midbar - bare desert,” must be man’s response.

Genesis and Exodus thus form a single vast narrative arch whose message is this: Just as human beings can cause the exile of the Divine presence, so they can bring about its return. To do so, they must themselves return from self-will to Divine will; from attempting to impose a human order to the recognition of the Divine order.

This is the Divine challenge to man: In all the universe there is only one creature on whom I have set My image, and that is you. What will you create: Harmony or chaos, a garden or a wilderness? So that you never forget that choice, I offer you the mitzvah to erect a Mishkan. It will be small and fragile, yet its significance will be cosmic. Here, infinitesimal man and Infinite G-d will meet.

The circumference of our universe and its uncounted galaxies may lie beyond our most powerful telescopes, but at its center is the perennial symbol of Eden regained, a Torah, the only ‘Tree of Life’ we need.