“And everyone who excelled in ability and everyone whose spirit was moved came, bringing to the Lord an offering for the labour of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the sacral vestments” Exodus 35:21
March 21, 2025 09:46
Here at the end of Exodus, the building of the Tabernacle – the sacred sacrificial space, which is the blueprint for the Holy Temple – is carefully interwoven with the laws of Shabbat. Parashat Vayakhel even starts with a reminder about keeping Shabbat, before it turns to the gifts given by the Israelites for the building of the Tabernacle.
The important word, which is repeated throughout our Shabbat obligations and the creation of the tabernacle, is melachah (labour). We must do no melachah on Shabbat; the building of the Tabernacle is melakhah. And, of course, we know melachah as the work that God rested from on the seventh day.
In Mishnah Shabbat (7:2), the rabbis devise a list of acts considered melachah based on the construction of the Tabernacle, due to this linguistic connection. However, this is not only an exegetical tool – it is a deep philosophical truth about the nature of Shabbat.
The building of the sacred space reflects the building of the universe.
The verbal forms of creative labour and completion mirror one another throughout the text. At the completion of the labour, both God and Moses are described as looking upon the creation. At the end of the process, both God and Moses issue blessings. A little earlier in the story (Exodus 24), we are even told that the Divine Presence was hidden for six days and Moses was called into the cloud on the seventh.
The act of creation of the universe is paralleled, linguistically and thematically, with the act of creation of space for God among the people. It is only with that framework that we understand what melachah, creative labour, truly is. God created a universe for us to dwell in. We created a holy space for God to dwell in. And after creation comes rest and experience and appreciation.
It is, I think, a profound lesson about what creative labour is for. God laboured to create a space for us; afterwards, it was time to allow creation to be our home. Our work was similar: we laboured for a space for God, and then it was time to appreciate God’s presence. The Shabbat of every week is connected to both, to God creating space for us and us creating space for God, because it is our time for appreciating that relationship.
May we find room in our lives to experience and celebrate that which is beyond ourselves.