By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
The construction of the Mishkan, which begins in this parsha, is followed by Toras Kohanim, a series of laws regarding the sanctity of the Mishkan and of life. When we consider the conclusion of Toras Kohanim—im bechukosai teileichu...v’nasati mishkani b’sochechem—two things become clear.
The first: the meaning of v’shachanti b’socham extends far beyond the Shechina resting in the Mishkan. Its true meaning is having Hashem in our midst, a fulfillment of the bris between Him and the Jewish people, which manifests itself in prosperity under His protection and by His blessing.
The second: Hashem does not grace us with His protection, and blessing simply because we constructed and maintain a Mishkan. Rather, His Presence is with us because we sanctify our lives, both on a personal and national level, and fulfill His commandments. Not only has this been proven historically by the destruction of Mishkan Shilo and the two batei mikdash, but the Torah itself stresses this with explicit warnings immediately upon the founding and building of the Beis Hamikdash, and on almost every page of the nevi'im.
Nevertheless, the Torah declares that v’shachanti b’socham will result from v’asu li mikdash. Mikdash, then—sanctification—is nothing but the expression of the task that earns the presence of the Shechinah if fulfilled. Thus, the pasuk of v’asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’socham contains two concepts whose symbolic expression is found in the construction of the Mishkan. These concepts are mikdash and mishkan.
Mikdash expresses the totality of the task we fulfill towards Hashem; mishkan expresses the promises Hashem fulfills to us in return. Mikdash signifies the consecration of all of our lives, both public and private, to the fulfillment of Hashem’s Torah; mishkan signifies the promised presence of the Shechinah, manifesting itself in the prosperity of our private and national life under His protection and by His blessing.
The Mishkan is to be mikdash, a place made holy, and mishkan, a place of Hashem’s closeness. In it, we seek and attain holiness and closeness, and this consecration and closeness, mutual covenantal relationship between Hashem and klal Yisrael, established through Hashem’s giving the Torah, and our acceptance of it, is the context within which the significance of the Mishkan is found.
It explains why the perakim on the Mishkan's construction follow the perakim containing the fundamental principles of halachah, and the covenant established on their basis.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
