Shabbat, first day or last? In the immensely lengthy and detailed accounting of the making of the

Mishkan, the tabernacle, the Torah tells the story twice, first in Truman Tsatsavere's divine

instruction, then in Vayaal and Pekudea's human implementation. In both cases, the construction

of the building is juxtaposed to the command of Shabbat.

And there are, of course, halakhic and theological implications.

First, according to Jewish tradition, the juxtaposition was intended to establish the rule that Shabbat overrides the making of the tabernacle.

Not only is the seventh day of time when secular work comes to an end,

it also brings rest from the holiest of labors, making a house for God. Indeed, the oral tradition

defines work, Malachar, which is forbidden on Shabbat, in terms of the 39 activities involved

in making the sanctuary. At a more metaphysical level, the sanctuary mirrors,

in fact, is the human counterpart to the divine creation of the universe. Just as divine creation

culminates in Shabbat, so does human creation the sanctity of place take second position

to the holiness of time. However, there is one marked difference

between the account of God's instruction to build the sanctuary and Moses' instruction to the

people. In the first case, the command of Shabbat appears at the end after the details of the

construction, that's in our parasha. But in the second case,

at the beginning of Vayaakal, Shabbat appears at the beginning, before the details of the sanctuary.

Why so? The Gamarā in Shabbat raises the following question. What happens if you're far away

from human habitation, and you forget what day it is?

And there's no one around to ask. How do you observe Shabbat? The Ghamara offers two answers.

Rab Khuner says if you're traveling on a road or in a wilderness and you don't know when it's Shabbat,

you count six days from the day you realize that you've forgotten, and then you observe the seventh day of Shabbat, you count six days from the day you realize that you've forgotten,

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