Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 30-31/0
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Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 30-31
Construction of Tabernacle
Tools
Articles
- Construction of Tabernacle and Creation of World:
There are many parallels between the Torah’s descriptions of the construction of the Tabernacle and the creation of the world which have been noted by classical and modern commentators. For example, see Tanhuma Pekudei 2:3, Bereshit Rabbah 3:9, Shabbat 87b, and Megillah 10a. See also Shabbat 49b, which implicitly associates creation and Tabernacle by ruling that work done to build the Tabernacle is the kind that may not be done on Shabbat, when we commemorate Hashem’s cessation of the work of creation.
Articles:
See The Architecture of Holiness and The Blessed Power of Order, both by R. Jonathan Sacks, which suggest that the parallels impart the idea that precision, order, and redemption from chaos are essential both in the natural world God created and the moral and spiritual lives human beings create.
See Making Space, by R. Jonathan Sacks, which develops the idea that the creation of the world represents God’s creation of a home for mankind by making space for the mundane, while the construction of the Tabernacle represents man’s creation of a home for God by making space for holiness.