They shall make for Me a sanctuary and I shall dwell within them.
We are taught that Man is a microcosm of the Universe.* It follows that if the world contains sanctuaries – oases of holiness – such as the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash, there must be parallels within our inner, personal worlds. What are they?
To sharpen the question, consider the following: As the Alshich writes,** the 613 mitzvos are not mere mundane, physical activities arbitrarily legislated to provide a means for Man to earn reward. Rather, they are actual, spiritual entities, derivatives from the Creator’s personal manifestation in this world. By fulfilling a mitzvah, one taps into a pipeline that allows him to partake in Hashem Himself (to the degree made possible). In other words, the mitzvos are their own reward.
Now, if the mitzvos are an extension of Hashem, it should follow that they share His characteristics. Hashem, of course, is eternal, existing beyond the realm of time. Shouldn’t the mitzvos, then, be eternal as well? What, then, are we to make of the many mitzvos which are relevant to specific time periods? For example – and this will be the focus of our discussion today – the mitzvah of constructing the Beis HaMikdash is not applicable as we languish in exile. Moreso, even when theBeis HaMikdash stood, it would seem that only the generation that constructed it gets the credit, depriving their successors of its fulfillment. How then are we to understand the eternal nature of this mitzvah?
Additionally, according to one opinion in the Talmud, *** it seems that every individual is required to personally fulfill all of the 613 mitzvos in his or her lifetime. If so many of them are inaccessible in our circumstances, how are we supposed to accomplish this?
Finally, leaving aside the above difficulties, it is axiomatic that the ultimate purpose of the mitzvos is not their practical fulfillment, but the cleaving to Hashem (the Deveikus) that they engender. As the Torah **** itself states: ובו תדבקון, you shall cling to Him; all of the mitzvos are but means to accomplish this. But how does this process work? To use the example before us, how does the act of constructing a sanctuary facilitate merger with the Divine? *****
As we mentioned at the outset, Man is a microcosm of the Universe. Long ago, there was another such microcosm that graced the earth: the Mishkan. As the Talmud ****** tells us, Betzalel, who oversaw the Mishkan’s assembly, was aware of the mystical combinations of the Hebrew alphabet through which Heaven and Earth were created. Since the Mishkan was modeled after the world, its construction required the same spiritual coding. Let us, therefore, propose a syllogism: if both Man and the Mishkan are microcosms, it would follow that Man is a form of a Mishkan. How is Man like a Mishkan?
The word Mishkan means a dwelling place. Another important term built on the root שכ”ן is Shechinah, the Divine Presence that dwells within our world. By definition, the Mishkan was a receptacle for the Shechinah; it created a space in which the Divine could interface with a material world. Man has that capacity as well, through the two parts of the human body that serve as ports for connecting with a higher realm: the mind and the heart. The mind serves as the bastion of the Neshamah, the soul, while the heart functions as such for the Nefesh, the basic lifeforce. But they aren’t limited to these basic tasks. Modified properly, they are designed to connect with a far superior source of spirituality – the Shechinah itself.
In order to flesh out this idea, let us look at a passage of Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah, ******* which is so important that it is codified in Shulchan Aruch. ******** It discusses the function of the tefillin, the two parchment-laden boxes placed, respectively, upon the head across from the brain and the arm parallel to the heart. Through the Shel Rosh (the tefillah of the head) one subjugates his intellect to Hashem’s Will; through the Shel Yad (that of the arm), his lusts and desires. By wearing the tefillin in these locations, one is constantly reminded of the God whom the tefillin attest to, inspiring him to curb his baser instincts in accordance with His Will. With this mindset, concludes Rabbeinu Yonah, we can well understand the Talmud’s ********* teaching that one who recites the Shema and prays in such a state has “accepted upon himself a complete form of מלכות שמים, Heavenly dominion.” What does this latter expression mean in this context?
Above we referred to the concept of interfacing the Divine with the material world through the medium of the Shechinah. This is arguably one of the most fundamental ideas in Judaism. Our world was created with two components: perfection and imperfection. The goal of existence – tasked to Man as a way of earning his eternal reward – is to use the former to rectify the latter. The imperfect that abounds around us is the project bearing completion; the perfect is the means to get it done. Hence, everything that exists, both large and small, is composed of these elements. On a cosmic level, the awareness of Hashem and His dominion (perfection) must become apparent within the material universe that masks His Presence (imperfection). More locally, we tend to point to שמים, Heaven, as symbolic of the loftier, more spiritual side of the world, while ארץ, Earth, is its earthy, mundane side. Even closer to home, Man himself is composed of a body and a soul, with the expectation that one will subjugate the former to the latter,elevating and perfecting it. Hence, in Kabbalistic nomenclature, the spiritual side of Existence is often labelled שמים.
Another critical term in that discipline is מלכות, Dominion. This refers to the lowest level of the Divine manifestation (a.k.a. the Shechinah), the one that we strive to make apparent within the physical world. Since this is primarily achieved through the cognizance of Hashem’s relationship to the world as a monarch to his subjects, it is dubbed with this title.
This brings us back to tefillin. When man subjugates his mind, the seat of the Neshamah, to Hashem’s will, he allows it to connect with the quality of שמים, which, as explained, is the Neshamah’s cosmic parallel. And when one subjugates his heart and its material desires, he renders it fit to receive the Shechinah, which, as explained, is the cosmic parallel to the interface of spirituality and materialism. What emerges is that through the tefillin, which prompt the above subjugation, one becomes a veritable link between the Attributes of שמים and מלכות. If one then engages in the recital of Shema and prayer he effectively declares the Divine Unity, demonstrating that both of the disparate elements of our world – the spiritual and the material – are but one. This is therefore מלכו”ת שמי”ם שלימה, perfectly harmonized Shamayim and Malchus.
What emerges from all of this is a better understanding of the mitzvah of tefillin. Through placing them upon one’s arm and head, one submits his body and mind to Hashem, thus readying himself to be a vehicle for the Shechinah. This exactly parallels the mystical approach to this mitzvah as provided in the writings of the Arizal. Through each act of placing the tefillin one is to have intent for the energization of various strata of the spiritual dimension. The mechanics of this is as we have described: by elevating oneself through these subjugations – and a spiritual lifestyle that reflects them – one syncs with the upper realms on some level. In such a state, one’s tefillin laying directly triggers cosmic changes in the spiritual realms.
We can now better appreciate the charge given by Chazal to focus on purifying and sanctifying our minds and hearts through holy thinking. It is only through that that they will be rendered fit to serve as bearers of the Shechinah. And, it should be emphasised once again, it is Deveikus, clinging to the Divine, which is the primary objective in all of our religious undertakings.
Practically speaking, how does one cultivate holy thinking?
It starts bottom up. The Reishis Chochmah ********** (drawing on the Tikkunei Zohar) advises us not to begin with trying to master our thoughts and emotions; those inner organs are too complicated to start tinkering with. Rather, we should focus on our external machinery: elevating our vision, smell, hearing, and speech by refining how we use them. By being more discerning with what goes in and out of these organs we sanctify them, which in turn affects our inner parts. What’s true physically is true spiritually: a healthy and holy lifestyle is conducive for a healthy and holy mind and heart. And by bringing these two areas of our spiritual selves in tandem, we prompt the same harmony Upstairs as well – which, as we laid out above, is the loftiest goal that we can strive for.***********
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* Tikkunei Zohar 130b.
** Beginning of Tetzaveh.
*** See Sanhedrin 111a.
**** Devarim 13:5.
***** In the original text, the author continues with a number of questions regarding the verse of Shemos 38:21. Unfortunately, he does not return to resolve them in the course of this passage.
****** Berachos 55a.
******* Rif, Berachos 8a.
******** OC 25:5.
********* Berachos 14b-15a.
********** Sha’ar HaKedushah, ch. 6.
*********** Had the Toldos concluded this essay, he would assumedly have continued that we can know resolve our initial query as to how the mitzvah of constructing the Mishkan is relevant today. By perfecting ourselves, we allow the Shechinah to dwell within us, converting ourselves into biological Mishkans.