Mishkan Ha-Edut: The Dwelling of the Testimony
D’var Torah for Parashat Pekudei
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
March 2, 2022
In the last portion of the book of Exodus (Pekudei, “Inventory,” Exodus 38:21-40:38) we finally reach the happy—and seemingly perfect—conclusion to the story of the exodus. In the first part of the book, the Israelites are redeemed from Egyptian slavery. The second half is all about building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle representing God’s Presence in their midst. A striking question, however, rises in the reading of the very first verse of Pekudei: “This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony” (NKJ version). Why the repetition of the word “tabernacle?”
It’s possible that Moses—dreamer that he was—thought that the Ten Commandments would be enough; that from the moment he came down from Mount Sinai with the Tablets of the Covenant, the people would become righteous and live a life of holiness. He was, of course, wrong. They needed more than stone and rock. They needed something beautiful and glorious as fitting and appropriate evidence of God in their midst.
This became the purpose of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, and it was to this end that the Israelites contributed whatever they could. Some gave material goods—from goat skins and fine wool to gold, silver and copper. Others offered the work of their hands, from weaving and carpentry to working with precious metals and expensive gemstones. Given exact measurements and instructions, it took the Israelites three months to construct the Tabernacle and all its sacred implements—including the altar, the Menorah (the seven-branch candelabra that stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle), and the amazing Holy Ark in which Moses placed the Ten Commandments. In this portion, Moses goes over the checklist one final time, making sure that God’s instructions were followed to the letter, that not one piece, not one hook, not one tiny silver bell from the High Priest’s garments, was missing.
By all accounts, it was a magnificent edifice.
Yet for all its outer glory, the most sacred object for which the entire structure was intended, and which now was placed in its innermost chamber, was no golden statue, no treasure chest filled with gold and diamonds. Inside the Holy of Holies, Moses placed the Holy Ark, and inside that, the two tablets of The Pact, the Ten Commandments. This was the edut, (עדות) the witnessing document, the Covenant between God and the People of Israel.
The first time the word mishkan appears, it refers to the outer structure; the second time, mishkan ha-edut (משכן העדות), to its sacred contents.
More than a thousand years later, a Roman general, Hadrian, took it upon himself to desecrate the Temple of God in Jerusalem. As he entered the Holy of Holies, he must have expected to find untold treasures. To his amazement, however, he saw nothing at all. Possibly looted by the Babylonians, possibly hidden (or maybe lost, as Hollywood would have it), the Ark and the Stone Tablets were gone. The Holy of Holies was completely bare.
Yet the contract—the edut—had not disappeared; it had transformed.
The first Mishkan—the Tabernacle in the Wilderness—was a portable tent. Later, it was replaced by a magnificent structure of timber and stone. Over time, the Covenant at its heart also evolved. No longer an object of stone, it became a living document. Its new home is now in every Jewish community, housed within every Jewish heart and mind. Taught and explained, publicly read every Shabbat and holy day, the Torah—symbol, witness and testament of the bond between God and the People of Israel—has finally found its permanent home. Our temples and synagogues are the new mishkan. And we, through our lives and the work of our hands, have become Mishkan Ha-Edut, the sacred Dwelling of the Testimony.
© 2022 by Boaz D. Heilman
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