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http://www.torah.org/learning/perceptions/5774/vayakhel.htmlParshas VayakhelThe Achdus of the Jewish PeopleMoshe gathered the congregation of Israel and told them, “This what God has commanded you to do. (Shemos 35:1)There is power in numbers. There is extra power in synergy. There is even greater power in achdus-—unity. Just see the difference between a family in which there is shalom bayis—household peace—and one in which it is sorely lacking. More than likely members of the family in the latter situation will require some kind of therapy just to be “normal,” and will probably have their own shalom bayis issues when trying to build a family of their own.
For the Jewish people, however, it goes beyond even achdus. For there is a Kabbalistic concept called Knesses Yisroel—the Assembly of Israel—and it refers to the Jewish people in their ideal state of existence:
Rebi Chanina ben Papa said: Anyone who takes pleasure from this world without making a blessing steals from The Holy One, Blessed is He and Knesses Yisroel . . . (Brochos 35b)
Rebi Chizkiah began by saying, “It is written, ‘Like a rose among the thorns’ (Shir HaShirim 2:1), the rose referring to Knesses Yisroel . . .” (Zohar, First Introduction)Therefore, when Moshe Rabbeinu gathered together the Jewish people in this week’s parshah, he wasn’t just unifying them. He was elevating them to the level of Knesses Yisroel. The question is, why was it specifically necessary here, when teaching them the laws Shabbos and about the Mishkan? There are a few ways to describe what Tikun Ma’aseh Bereishis, literally, Rectification of the Work of Creation, fixed up. However, Kabbalistically it is described as going from the state of Reshus HaRabim to the state of Reshus HaYachid—from Public Domain to Private Domain.
With respect to the laws of Shabbos the terms are familiar ones. One of the prohibitions on Shabbos, learned from the work done to build the Mishkan, is carrying in a public domain. If one wants to carry in an area that has the Torah status of being a public domain he must make an eiruv to transform the public domain into a private one by halachically unifying all of its elements into a single area.
In terms of Creation this meant something similar, but more profound. As mentioned in the past, Creation as described in the Torah was not the beginning of the story, but the middle of it. As the Zohar explains, our world emerged from a pre-Creation state of existence called tohu, or chaos, which was the result of another stage of existence called Sheviras HaKeilim, or the Breaking of the Vessels.
The difference between the pre-Creation state of existence and the one after Tikun Ma’aseh Bereishis, was that prior to rectification the world existed as a Reshus HaRabim, that is, there was no relationship or connection between the pre-Creation sefiros, the spiritual DNA of Creation, so-to-speak. It was “every sefirah for itself,” and therefore, quite chaotic.
Tikun Ma’aseh Bereishis, therefore, rebuilt the sefiros with the missing relationships and interdependencies. As a result, the 10 sefiros were modified into a single structure called that Kabbalah calls a Reshus HaYachid, resulting in unity and seder—order.
This is essentially the difference between a public and private domain. A public domain is chaotic, being “every man for himself,” whereas a private domain, being private, includes people who are connected to one another in some way, usually sharing common concerns. A private domain brings order to the chaos of the public domain.
That’s what God did too when making Creation. He ordered Creation and unified all aspects of it so that everything would be interdependent and work towards a common goal. For the sake of free will, however, and to give mankind a chance to complete the tikun of Ma’aseh Bereishis, God also left it possible for people to undo what had been previously rectified, and bring chaos back to Creation.
Shabbos, of course, represents the tikun. The six working days of the week are, by their very nature, chaotic, often pulling people in different directions at once. Shabbos extracts a person from all of that, focusing the person on the singular task of rectifying himself and the world around him or her, while at the same time enhancing his or her relationship with God.
The Mishkan worked exactly the same way. Everything about it was geared towards unifying the Jewish people, and the Jewish people with God, as it says:
Ya’akov wanted to rectify [the Malchus with the yichud of] b’Raza d’Yechuda below and established the 24 letters, which are “Boruch Shem kevod Malchuso l’olam va-ed.” He did not complete it with 25 letters since the Mishkan had yet to be rectified. Once the Mishkan was built and completed, the first word that went out from it, once it was complete, had 25 letters, to show that [the Malchus was] complete [with 25 on a level] like [that of Zehr Anpin] Above, as it says, “God spoke to him from the Appointed Tent, saying” (Vayikra 1:1), which has 25 letters. (Zohar, Terumah 139b)
Kabbalah aside, the gist of the message is that the Mishkan, like Shabbos, was a vehicle for Divine unity in the ultimate sense, the Kabbalistic version of a Reshus HaYachid. That’s why it could not be built on Shabbos: Why break Shabbos to complete that which Shabbos already completely accomplishes?
And, this is also why the Mishkan was also the answer to the golden calf. The golden calf, the result of the Erev Rav, was an attempt to transform the nation from the state of a Reshus HaYachid, which they achieved just in advance of receiving Torah:
They traveled from Refidim and came to the Sinai Desert, and they camped in the desert; they (written: he) camped opposite the mountain. (Shemos 19:2)
He camped opposite the mountain: k’ish echad, b’leiv echad—like a single person with a single heart. (Rashi)into the chaotic state of a Reshus HaRabim, evident by their wild and chaotic behavior at the base of the golden calf:
They got up early the next day and brought burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. The people sat down to eat and to drink, and were licentious. (Shemos 32:6)Why promote such chaotic behavior? Because chaos creates the impression of a random history, which absolves a person from having to live a meaningful, or more accurately, a more Godly life. Order and relationship implies design, which in turns implies God and the responsibility of living a moral life. Chaos promotes the opposite.
Hence, in last week’s parshah, the mitzvah of Shabbos appeared once again, seemingly out of place, in advance of the episode of the golden calf.
Clearly now, like the Mishkan, it was another example of God creating the remedy before the affliction (Megillah 13b). “Do you want to avoid the chaotic and public domain reality of the golden calf?” the Torah asks, and answers, “Adopt the private domain attitude of Shabbos and the Mishkan.”
Now we can also appreciate why this week’s parshah begins the unification of the Jewish people by Moshe Rabbeinu, followed the laws of Shabbos. The Mishkan was complete and about to be accounted for, the work of the hands and hearts of the Jewish people. They had to be in the right state of being, they had to exist as a Reshus HaYachid, to connect to it, and Shabbos is the threshold to that level of existence.
Yes, the golden calf temporarily interrupted the unity of the Jewish people and brought chaos to order, and yes, it would not be the last time that this would happen to the nation. Indeed, if anything at all, the Jewish people today are more a Reshuv HaRabim than a Reshus HaYachid, but a faint shadow of the Divine unity we once achieved.
However, as Moshe Rabbeinu instilled within us in this week’s parshah, that is not the real us. The Jewish people today are thousands of years old, and battle weary. We have survived horrific anti-Semitism and unimaginable persecution, from outside and from within the Jewish people. We have been knocked down so many times it is nothing short of an incredible miracle that we can still get up.
As a result, we are not in our ideal form, free of all the history that has weakened us both spiritually and physically. Nevertheless, just as there will be a resurrection of the dead, there will also be a resurrection of the Jewish people, and even earlier. We will once again, and permanently, rise to the ultimate level of the achdus of Knesses Yisroel.
To give us a taste of what that means, and to assure us that the day will come when that happens, Moshe Rabbeinu assembled the entire nation at this time, and unified them. The Jewish people, together with Shabbos our spiritual partner, and the Mishkan, experienced a level of unity that would not be duplicated again until the Messianic Era. Today, that reality is a lot closer than we think.
Text Copyright © 2014 by Rabbi Pinchas Winston and Torah.org.
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