By Rabbi Baruch Epstein
G-d is everywhere; who could keep Him out? The compelling question is where does G-d dwell; where can He express Himself without fear of judgement or scorn or that people will run away.
Answer: It’s up to us. Like a true friend who wants you to be you and cherishes that about you, he makes you feel that his home is your home by surrounding it with things you like.
In one of Torah’s most central passages, G-d says: “make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them”. G-d’s commands the Israelites to construct the Tabernacle in the wilderness, G-d is asking us to welcome Him in.
No one wants to be an intruder that everyone at the lunch table rolls their eyes and changes the conversation when they arrive, secretly waiting for him to go away.
Ok, so what makes G-d feel at home? How kind of you to ask, that’s the first step, making Him the priority. Let’s see what some of our greatest scholars teach us.
The key is in the sequence of when G-d asks for this special place and how its link with the horror of the Golden Calf recorded seven chapters later and that’s our ticket to discovering how we make Hashem feel welcome here.
- Rashi deviates from the scriptural order and places this command after the story of the Golden Calf.
- Nachmanides sticks to the narrative sequence.
- Zohar places the Golden Calf incident smack in between the commandment to create a Sanctuary.
Each perspective is pursuing the same goal; how best to welcome G-d in a world that is likely to be intimidated by His arrival.
Rashi: it’s the penitent – when one violates and returns, they demonstrate their eagerness for G-d to be among them
Nachmanides: The tzaddik, the perfect one, who emerges from under his tallit to make the world outside the study hall welcoming of G-d, that makes G-d truly at home.
The Zohar: “even you, the (still) imperfect one;” you must make G-d feel at home. Don’t make G-d wait until you have figured it all out; there is work to be done.
All three perspectives apply to our lives. We have moments when we are in perfect sync with G-d and holiness. Nachmanidies warns us against savoring those moments in privacy and pushes us to change the world.
When we fall in the mud (or deliberately jump in), the Zohar reminds us we still have obligations to G-d, even before we have fixed our mistakes.
And when we express earnest remorse and fix what we have broken, Rashi tells us not to shy away from going back into the world, the scene of the crime, and this time to make it a home for G-d.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.