Written by Moshe Yosef Kerendian

This week’s Torah Portion, Tetzaveh is part of the 4 Parshas dedicated to the building of the Mishkan. These 4 Parshas each talk about different parts of the Mishkan and the Korbanot. This Parsha specifically talks about the clothing of the Kohanim and Moshe’s name is not referenced a single time in the Parsha. However, Hashem created the world in 31 utterances, but the Torah describes the creation of the Mishkan in 4 parshas, totaling over 1,000 words. Hashem describes the building of the Mishkan in such fine detail; however, regarding the creation of the world, Hashem describes it more broadly. Why is that?

The Emek Dvar says that everything that exists in the world is represented in the Mishkan. Although it only took 31 utterances to create the world, these utterances were from Hashem. What Hashem does for us Jews is something incomprehensible. Since the Mishkan was made by hand, Hashem had to go into much detail to explain how to build the Mishkan. If it were the world that Hashem commanded the Jews to build, it would have been near impossible to provide every single detail of Hashem’s creation of the world. We learn an important lesson from this thought. Hashem’s creations may seem to us as something not that significant. One can not fully appreciate something until one goes through the time, pressure, and pain it takes to make it. Hashem assisted the Jews in making the Mishkan so they could truly appreciate the Mishkan.

It’s human nature to go along with your day and not notice that everything comes from Hashem. For example, when we make a Beracha, we aren’t just blessing Hashem but also recognizing that he is the source of all blessings. Hashem has wondrous ways and by giving us an extensive blueprint for building the Mishkan rather than Hashem creating it himself, as the Imkik Dvar says, it is like we created our own world. This will make us truly appreciate it, as it took us a lot of effort to create it — so much so that we mourn for the loss of it.

The Mishkan was created to bring G-dliness into the world, just like how the world was created for Hashem to place his G-dliness. The reason the Torah gives so much detail is because it shows that when we try and bring G-dliness into the world, like doing Mitzvot and Chesed, we should try to do it in the best way possible. When Hashem uttered the creation of the world, Hashem’s words didn’t need any detail as they were so powerful that they created such a world. There it says in Gemera that when one gets ready for Shabbat, one should purchase and wear the best things in honor of Shabbat, and by doing so, any money spent on achieving this isn’t taken away from the money Hashem decreed to give you on Yom Kippur. This means that one should try to do Mitzvahs in the best way possible, whether it be for Shabbat or a normal weekday- hiddur mitzvah. We learn that although we aren’t on the same level as Hashem, we can try our best to bring G-dliness into the world by doing Mitzvahs and Chesed in the best way possible, just like the Mishkan was built with such fine detail. Hashem could have created the Mishkan on his own, but he chose to allow us to build the Mishkan the best we could. 

There is a story that goes as follows: There was a father who had a silver menorah, and one day his son came home with a menorah he received as a prize from school. His father wanted to light the silver menorah since it was considered hiddur mitzvah; however, he was worried that it would ruin the peace in his household. He brought this sheliah in front of a rabbi and he recommended that he lights his son’s menorah and allow his son’s desire to fulfill the mitzvah of Chanukah to be fulfilled

  What can we learn from this? Hashem is like our father and he has that silver menorah- Him building the Mishkan, but he allows us to fulfill our desire to do his mitzvah because he knows it would be more important for us if we build the Mishkan. Sometimes the best way to do a Mitzvah may not lead to the best outcome. It’s important to understand the best way means the best outcome, which is why Hashem gave us an extensive outline on how to build the Mishkan.

Shabbat Shalom.