Parshat Pekudei

I love nothing more than a good ol fashioned slapstick midrash. This week’s parsha, Pekudei, is the final parsha of the book of Shmot/Exodus, and the assembling of the Mishkan that we’ve witnessed bing constructed for weeks. Midrash Tanchuma (composed in Bavel 500-800CE) tells of this predicament:

When at last they completed the work of the Tabernacle, they sat waiting for the Shekhinah to descend and hover over it. However, they were distressed because the Shekhinah failed to hover over it. What did they do then? They went to the wise-hearted men and said to them: “Why do you sit by idly? Erect the Tabernacle and the Shekhinah will come to rest among us.” They tried to erect the Tabernacle, but did not know how. They were unable to make it stand. Whenever they thought they had assembled it, it would fall apart…

So they go to the craftsmen who led the project, Bezalel and Oholiav, asking them to stand up the project, but they couldn’t get it to stand. They started complaining about Moshe, who they in this moment call “Son of Amram” (imagine being so mad at your contractor that you call him by his father’s name!) and complaining that they took all their possessions to build us, promised us they’d make us this mishkan, do all this work, while promising the Holy One of Blessing would “descend from the heavenly sphere and would dwell within the curtain of goats’ hair…” They’re mad.

So, this amazing midrash asks, why couldn’t they do it? Its because, of course, Moshe was mad ehe didn’t get to help construct it yet! Bezalel, Oholiav, and the wise craftspeople got to build it. And because Moshe was pouting, God wouldn’t show up in the Mishkan. 

This midrash illuminates the important (enmeshed?) relationship that Moshe and God have. It shows that without everyone being involved, our sacred places truly cannot stand. It reminds us that people and our connection to Gd and each other–not the materials our places of worship are made out of or can afford, is what draws down the Shechina.

And it gives us a hilarious visual of our Elders staring at a pile of gold and goathair and linden, scratching their heads, not unlike an Ikea illustration.

Illustration: LeandroPP/Getty Images