Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg
One of the lessons we can learn from the construction of the Tabernacle is that serving G-d is not a matter for a personal initiative and does not depend on human understanding. Only G-d, who created mankind and all of the creation, can guide a person and show him how to get closer to G-d.
When he set up the Tabernacle, Moshe said, "This is what G-d commanded you to do, and the Glory of G-d will be revealed to you" [Vayikra 9:6]. In the Midrash it is written, "Moshe said to them, expel the evil inclination from your hearts and the Glory of G-d will be revealed to you." The Natziv explains that the evil inclination is the desire to approach G-d through a personal initiative based on enthusiasm and tumultuous emotions. The Master of the Universe completely rejects this idea. The Torah gives us detailed instructions about how to accomplish the goal. And we can see that this fear was not a vain thought. Nadav and Avihu failed with respect to this very matter, and they died – "When they brought a foreign flame which they were not commanded to do" [Bamidbar 26:61].
In the Kuzari, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi repeats this principle many times. He illustrates the idea with a comparison to nature, where the relationships and links between various chemical elements are very precise, and where if anything is missing or is in excess the compound will not be able to exist. And this is true even though our intellect cannot explain why it is so.
The same principle is true about the mitzvot of the Torah, the many laws of the sacrifices, the rules of the priests and their clothing, and the laws of the Tabernacle and its vessels, which are beyond the comprehension of human beings. All we can say is that the Creator knows what actions we can perform in order to become closer to Him.
The rituals sometimes may seem to us to be strange, and we can begin to understand their true value only after we see the consequences of the actions. It is written in the Kuzari, for example, if a person would be told about the process of the creation of a child, he would definitely despise the relationship between man and woman, and he would view the process as greatly humiliating, as a shameful process to be necessary for mankind. Only after he sees the practical consequences of the actions, when a new child enters into the world, does a man recognize the great value of the process.
The same is true of the labors of the Tabernacle. It has the appearance in our eyes of a slaughterhouse, and some people scorn and mock everything that goes on there. However, after a flame comes down from heaven, and after the person who brings a sacrifice feels a tremendous spiritual advance which is accompanied by holiness and an uplifted feeling, he begins to understand the consequences of his own actions.
In another place, the Kuzari describes a fool who goes into a pharmacy and distributes medicines without understanding anything about them, neither the sickness nor the cures and the proper dosage, thereby causing many deaths. Only the Holy One, Blessed be He, who created mankind, can provide proper guidance. Even a manufactured device such as electrical equipment can only be operated according to the manufacturer's instructions.
And that is why the Torah emphasized over and over that the Tabernacle was built "just as G-d commanded Moshe." Everything was done exactly according to G-d's will, without any attempt to add anything at all.
At the end of the labor, it is written, "And Moshe saw all the labor, and behold they had done it just as G-d commanded Moshe, that is what they did. And Moshe blessed them." [Shemot 39:43]. And only after this was the Shechina revealed.
