"They shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them"

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

"They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them. You must make the tabernacle and all its furnishings following the plan that I am showing you" (Shemot 25:8-9). Our sages derive from here that man is like a model of the structure of the tabernacle and its vessels. All parts of the Mishkan are hinted at in man:

"The essence of holiness and the sanctuary and G-d's presence resting on us is man himself. If a person sanctifies himself properly by way of mitzvah fulfillment, then he, himself, literally becomes the sanctuary, and inside him is G-d. As it says, 'G-d's sanctuary! They are G-d's sanctuary!' (Yirmiyahu 7). Our sages had just this in mind when they said, "The deeds of the righteous are greater than G-d's creation of Heaven and Earth… for regarding Creation it says, 'My hand has laid the foundation of the earth. My right hand hath spread out the heavens (Yishayahu 48:13). Yet regarding the deeds of the righteous, it says, 'Your hands found G-d's sanctuary' (Shemot 15). The righteous, by way of their deeds, desirable before G-d, themselves become G-d's sanctuary. G-d's entire purpose regarding the tabernacle and its vessels is only to hint to us for us to learn from it. Through our good deeds, we can make ourselves like the tabernacle and its vessels. All our deeds should be holy, making us worthy for G-d literally to rest his Presence in our midst. This is the meaning of, 'They shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.' We must make ourselves into a sanctuary." (see Nefesh HaChaim, Sha'ar 1, Chapter 4).

Today, just as G-d chose the Jewish People to rest His Presence in their midst, and from there to shower the world with light and goodness, so did He choose Eretz Yisrael, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the Temple, itself, to cause his Presence to rest there, and through these, to illuminate the path of the entire world. As it says, "G-d chose Zion. He desired it as His abode" (Tehilim 132:13)). Moreover, as Yishayahu said (2:3), "For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of G-d from Jerusalem."

In the exile, when we were one people, scattered and dispersed amongst the nations and sunken in darkness, the righteous and saintly elite built themselves up like a tabernacle and a sanctuary, as Rav Chaim of Volozhin said in Nefesh HaChaim (see Sha'ar I, Chapter 4). Today, however, in the generation of national rebirth, the generation of the ingathering of the exiles, our ambition, and our path must be not only for the spiritual elite, the saintly individuals to build themselves spiritually but for the Third Temple to be built by the Jewish People, literally. This can occur if we all unite together, as one man with one heart, and increase groundless love, the opposite of the groundless hatred that brought about the destruction of the Second Temple.

The way to unite and strengthen the nation is by a return to our unifying roots. Just as with a tree, the roots unite all the branches, so too the return to Torah, to tradition, with love and faith, will bring about the building of the Third Beit HaMikdash – soon in our day. Through us will be fulfilled, "A new light shall shine over Tzion, and may we speedily merit its light." (Shachrit prayers).

Looking forward to salvation,
With Love of Israel,
Shabbat Shalom.