This week's Torah portion, Teruma, begins a new chapter in our worship of G-d and opens up a new means of communication: G-d asks the Children of Israel to build Him a Sanctuary, a special place where they will pray, offer sacrifices, and witness manifestations of G-dliness.
Why did G-d require a special place to dwell? Does He not already exist everywhere? Why would G-d, who is not limited in any sense, want to cause His Presence to rest on a limited, physical site?
To answer these questions, let us employ an analogy taken from a natural phenomenon: When a high brick wall falls, the bricks from the highest part of the wall fall the farthest away. Those bricks that formed the lowest section of the wall remain very close to their original place. This principle applies as well to the spiritual realm--"The higher the spiritual source, the lower will be its manifestation in the corporeal world."
As a further illustration we see that the better a person's understanding of a subject, the more he is able to explain the subject, however complex, to another--even to one with limited intelligence.
Similarly, G-d's desire to dwell in a specific location does not point to His limitation but is rather a manifestation of His infinite nature. It is precisely because G-d is without measure and omnipresent that He was able to dwell in a sanctuary made of wood and stone.
There were different degrees of holiness present in the Tabernacle, which traveled together with the Jews through the wilderness, and the Holy Temple, which was later erected in Jerusalem as a permanent dwelling. The Tabernacle was built mostly of material from the vegetable and animal kingdoms--wood and animal products; the Temple was built almost entirely of stone, taken from the realm of the inanimate, the lowest of all. The Holy Temple had the highest manifestation of G-dliness, from the highest spiritual source, and this was reflected in the fact that it was made of the lowest building materials.
"And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst." Today, because we have no Holy Temple, every Jew serves as a sanctuary to G-d. Just as the Children of Israel elevated their physical possessions by using them to build the Tabernacle, every Jew must now utilize his possessions in bringing the light of Torah into the world. When we do this and conduct even the most mundane aspects of our lives "for the sake of Heaven," we ourselves are sanctified and transformed into a sanctuary to G-d and become active partners in imbuing the world with holiness.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
