Timeless Torah

Have you ever sat down with an architect to design your new home? Or gone house hunting? You walk in and orient yourself from the front door. In your mind you want the bedrooms somewhere to the back, the family room off to the side, etc.

But have you ever built a house for G-d? Or gone synagogue shopping? Instead of using the entrance and lobby by which to fix your perspective, try looking at it from G-d's point of view. After all, it is His House! An example of this can be drawn from this week's Biblical portion.

In the desert Mishkan, as well as in the Temple in Jerusalem, the most sacred part was the Holy of Holies. Only entered into by the High Priest on Yom Kippur, it contained the Ark and the Tablets. It was at the western end of the Sanctuary where Hashem's Presence "resided". From His perspective, the south side of the Tabernacle was on the right side and the northern sector was on the left.

King Solomon writes, "Length of days on her right hand, and on her left hand wealth and honor." According to the Sages, "length of days" refers to the Torah and the spiritual reward of the World to Come, which is represented by the Menorah which was on the south or right side. "Wealth and honor" however, are suggested by the Shulchan (Table) with its abundance of bread, which was situated on the north or left side.

On the other hand, to someone entering the Sanctuary at the eastern end, in fact, the front door for human visitors to G-d's House, the view was reversed. The Torah, symbolized by the Menorah would be on the left while prosperity as delineated by the Table would be on the right.

A human being, bound as he is by the dictates of his physical subjectivity cannot always see the world from G-d's vantage point. We might argue that financial success is more important than spiritual achievement. We might even say to our Rabbi, "Just look at the world. Can't you see. It's so obvious." This week's Biblical response is, "Turn around."

This concept is not as difficult to swallow a you might think. Do we not realize that was of consequence to us as children is of little worth today. Don't we truly see that as we grow older and hopefully wiser our values and priorities change. So why are we so sure that our present frame of reference will last any longer than our previous thinking?

Maybe it's time to walk over to His side. I hear the view from there is magnificent.