The Architecture of Holiness (Rabbi Sacks on Terumah, Covenant & Conversation)

The Office of Rabbi Sacks

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to Covenant & Conversation essays, Rabbi Sacks’ commentary on the weekly Torah portion, explores new ideas and sharing inspiration from the Torah readings of the week. Listen to this audio recording from Rabbi Sacks in 2017. To read and download the written essay and find all the translations, click here: https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/terumah/the-architecture-of-holiness/ For intergenerational discussion on the weekly Parsha and Haftara, a new FAMILY EDITION is now also available: https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-family-edition/terumah/the-architecture-of-holiness/ ----- For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. With thanks to the Schimmel Family for their generous sponsorship of Covenant & Conversation, dedicated in loving memory of Harry (Chaim) Schimmel.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The architecture of holiness.
0:02.0	From here to the end of the Book of Exodus,
0:04.0	the Torah describes in painstaking detail and great length
0:08.0	the construction of the Mishkan, the first collective house of worship of the Jewish people.
0:13.0	Precise instructions are given for each item, the tabernacle itself,
0:17.0	the frames and drapes and the various objects are contained, including their dimensions.
0:21.6	So, for example, we read,
0:23.6	Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue,
0:27.6	purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker.
0:31.6	All the curtains are to be the same size, 28 cubits long and 4 cubits wide.
0:36.6	Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over
0:39.3	the tabernacle, 11 altogether. All 11 curtains are to be the same size, 30 cubits long and 4 cubits
0:46.3	wide. Make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. Each frame is to be 10 cubits long
0:51.3	and a cubit and a half wide, and so on.
0:54.4	But why do we need to know how big the tabernacle was?
0:57.9	It didn't function in perpetuity.
1:00.1	Its primary use was during the wilderness years, and eventually it was replaced by the temple
1:04.9	and altogether larger and more magnificent structure.
1:08.1	So what then is the eternal significance of the dimensions of this modest
1:13.2	portable construction? Or to put the question more sharply still, isn't the very idea of a specific
1:19.3	size for the home of the Shina, the divine presence, liable to mislead? A transcendent God can't be contained in space. Solomon said,
1:30.6	sir, but will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, can't contain you.
	...

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