Parashat Pekudei (Ex. 38:21–40:38) brings the Book of Exodus to a close, so it's quite fitting that this Torah portion is a final accounting for all the materials used to fashion the Mishkan, the Holy Tabernacle. According to Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, Moses erected and dismantled the Mishkan each day but on the 8th day, God’s Kavod filled the Mishkan. Rav Hirsch suggests this foreshadows the Mishkan being moved or rebuilt eight times but the Third Temple will be the permanent glittering "House of the God of Jacob" promised in Isaiah 2:2-4, when nations stream up to Jerusalem and learn war no more.
Our teacher, Rabbi Chaim Richman, asks us to look deeper and also see the cycle of dismantling and re-erecting of the Mishkan as also symbolic of the different worlds destroyed and recreated by God.
Israel’s impassioned, collective effort to build the Mishkan is evidence that humanity is truly co-creators with HaShem. On a personal level, each of us is a tabernacle that can be elevated—raised up—by following God’s blueprint for our lives found within the 613 mitzvoth for Israel or the 7 Noachide Laws for the nations.
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