Every word of the Torah is eternal. There are no exceptions. The purpose of every section of the Torah is to show us how to live our lives according to the Will of Hashem. Here, too, we can expect consistency. Every section of the Torah, every event recorded, should impact our behavior.
Every person is charged with erecting his own mishkan. (The Torah commands, after all “They shall make for me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within them.” Hashem does not endeavor to dwell within the Sanctuary, but to cause His Presence to dwell within us. Each of us must create the space, fashion the inner environment that can successfully invite an indwelling of the Divine.) Note that the Torah does not say, “On the day that Moshe set up the Mishkan,” which would have been more direct and more accurate. It opts instead for the passive voice – on the day the Mishkan was set up. This broadens the pasuk beyond Moshe’s Mishkan to the personal ones that we all labor to construct.
Our passage warns us about some of the pitfalls along the way. On the very day that a person brings the Shechinah to a firm standing within him, he can expect dark, obscuring clouds to envelop him. Hashem will send challenges that seem to darken his clarity, to shroud it in murkiness. The night – the natural time of darkness and hiddenness – will bring an unwanted fire: flare-ups of passions and desires that his yetzer hora has prepared for him. “So it will always be. The cloud will cover it, and an appearance of fire by night.” This is the way of the world, the lot that a Jew can expect. He must know that there will always be challenges, tests that hide Hashem from him, and inflame him. “And whenever the cloud was lifted from atop the Ohel, afterwards the Bnei Yisrael would journey.” It is always a journey. The challenges, the darkness, the struggles – they all lead a Jew to a better place. The darkness will lift, and the cloudiness will dissipate. When that happens, a Jew will either rise to the next level, or at least begin on the road to achieving it.
The Torah hints as well at a very nuts-and-bolts suggestion about how to time our self-induced journeys to higher places. “The fool walks in darkness.” The fool wishes to walk, to travel onward while shrouded in darkness. But darkness is not a time for traveling, but for staying put. We should not attempt to reach new spiritual levels when we can detect that our internal Mishkan is clouded over. Our avodah in such times is to remain firm and resolute, to hold on to what we have. We must react to the darkness with strength and conviction to stay the course, to keep at our appointed tasks loyally and steadfastly, despite the gloomy nocturnal mists. Such a time, however, is not auspicious to setting off on expeditions to conquer new spiritual heights; it suffices at such times that we try our hardest not to fall.
However long it takes, as long as the darkness hovers, any marching we do must be marching in place. Our job at such times is to maintain Hashem’s charge, not to charge onward. It is sometimes His Will that we serve Him in darkness, that we continue to do His bidding while He hides His countenance from us. We should not blame ourselves for these periods of time, but understand that they are orchestrated by Hashem Himself. Sometimes, He simply asks of us that we serve Him in such a state.
The parshah suggests to us an important component of our avodah. A Jew must be able to discern at all times what tasks Hashem requires of him, what purposes He wants him to advance, what He asks of him at each particular moment. The messages we get from Him may differ from time to time. But there always is a message, and it always draws us closer to Him.
Based on Nesivos Shalom pgs. 47-48
