Parshat Pekudei (Shmot 38:21-22) opens with the words:
These are
the records of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony, which were drawn up
at Moshe’s bidding—the work of the Levites under the direction of Itamar son of
Aaron the priest. Now Bezalel, son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehuda,
had made all that God had commanded Moshe.
Sforno points out:
The Torah begins to list the many
ways in which the “Mishkan”, the Tabernacle, was superior to the Temples that
superseded it.
Firstly, it was “Mishkan HaEdut”, the
Tabernacle of Testimony, so named because the Tablets of the Testimony were
deposited therein.
Secondly, “Asher Pakad al pi Moshe”,
which were drawn up at Moshe’s bidding, it had been put up at the command of
Moshe.
Thirdly, “Avodat HaLeviim b’yad
Itamar”, the work of the Leviim under the direction of Itamar: The entire
service of the Levites had been entrusted to the illustrious Itamar, son of
Aaron.
Fourthly, “Bezalel, son of Uri son
of Hur, of the tribe of Yehuda” the divinely inspired Betzalel was its
principal architect.
In view of all the above advantages
of this structure none of it fell into enemy hands.
By contrast, the First Temple erected by King Solomon had most of its work done
by laborers from Tzor. Even though the Shechinah, Divine Presence, came to rest
on it, it was eventually destroyed, all of it having been lost totally. The
inferiority of that structure is evident from the fact that the building itself
was in need of regular, almost annual repairs (Melachim Bet 22:5).
The Second Temple was even more
inferior and it was not even called Mishkan HaEdut, the Residence of the
Testimony, as the Tablets had already been lost. Neither had it been
established by God’s command but by a dream that a gentile named King Cyrus
dreamed that it was his duty to build a temple to the God in heaven (Ezra 8:15).
Moreover, there were hardly any
Leviim that bothered to return to the Land of Israel at the time to take part
in Shivat Zion, the Return to Zion.
In addition to this, among the
people building this Second Temple were also pagans called Tzidonim and Tzurim,
as documented in the Book of Ezra.
We see from Sforno’s comments that
the original Mishkan which was constructed in the desert was better quality
than the First and Second Temples and was built totally by members of B’nai
Yisrael.
In the midst of the war in Israel
today, the question has come up as to who will be doing the building if we are
not opening up our doors to construction workers from Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
As well, many of the foreign workers have gone home.
Now is the time for us to support
Israelis who want to take part in building up the State of Israel by training
those who are interested in working in construction and by paying them fair
wages. |