“I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride.” Said Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman: When the Almighty created the world, He yearned to have a dwelling place below, just as He has one Above... Moses came and brought it [the Divine Presence] down to earth... When? When the Tabernacle was constructed.”
Creation and the Tabernacle
When learning the account of the construction of the Tabernacle, we find a clear connection between it and the account of Creation in Genesis. The sages enumerate a long list of parallel phrases used in both. One of the most pronounced is the conclusion of both accounts. The account of Creation ends with the words,
“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good... The heavens and the earth were completed... God blessed the seventh day....”
And at the end of the construction of the Tabernacle,
“All the work of the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed.... Moses saw that they had indeed done all the work exactly as God had commanded, and Moses blessed them.”
The Sabbath, the day of rest with which Creation ended, is intertwined into the work of the Tabernacle, both at the end of the instructions God gave to Moses and at the beginning of the instructions Moses passed on to the Israelites. Moreover, from these passages, the sages gleaned that the work on the Tabernacle was forbidden on the Sabbath. This is another clear reference to the connection between the workings of Creation which halted on the Sabbath and the 39 categories of work which were part of the making of the Tabernacle, which then became the basis for how to refrain from work on the Sabbath.
Becoming God’s Partner
For all the clarity of this parallel between Creation and the Tabernacle, what is it meant to teach us? The usual explanation is that the creation made by God was left unfinished, entrusted to us, humanity, to complete it. We perfect reality with the 39 categories of labor, the concerted intentional efforts made by mankind through culture and civilization. These allow us to partner with God. Of course, these human efforts cannot be considered complete and stable if they do not stem from and include a clear awareness of God as Creator.
Does God Have Purpose
If Creation has a source, has a Creator, then it must have a purpose. However, we must admit that this conclusion is based on our limited human logic, which dictates that an intelligent agent does not act without purpose. In fact, we might argue, man cannot escape his own monotonous nature without placing a purpose or goal before him to guide his actions.
But it is not at all granted that the Creator must be the same. Who has scaled the heavens into God’s mind to tell us whether He too requires purpose? Why would He require purpose to act? Is He not already perfect in every way? Is His will not perfect even if He chooses not to act?
Indeed, in the holy works of the Torah’s inner dimension, we encounter two different formulations regarding God’s drive to create.
