In just a few Shabbosos we travelled from the hesitant revelation at the sneh where even Hashem's name was elusively described, to the frightening, and overwhelmingly otherworldly, transcendent meeting at Har Sinai, only to watch this week as we are mandated to invest in physical "bricks and mortar" temple where we "meet" with Hashem. This surprising turn, suggests Rav Nisan Alpert[1] zt"l, teaches us that every big idea or challenging life lesson needs to be anchored somewhat physically in our world. That is the only way to transmit ideas that should move us well beyond our intellectual and psychological comfort zones.
Clearly, being knighted as the mamleches kohanim and goy kadosh gives us unending pride as well as a challenge and mission to match, and yet how can we possibly actualize that call to majesty and communicate that opportunity to our children without real life activities and action items that generate ongoing conversations and introspection? Thus the Mishkan construction gives palpable expression to our lofty calling in order to help us attach ourselves to it.
In a similar and breathtaking comment, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (Parshas Yisro) succinctly formulated that imagery and symbolism in the pagan world served to compromise divine power and make a god closer and within human grasp. However, all symbolism in the Mishkan served to edify petitioners and pilgrims.
For example, the eye that is trained to see the ceiling tapestries hooked together with gold clasps may consider the enhanced value of a peaceful family and neighborhood; the proximity of the shulchan and the menora may generate valuable discussions of the balance of spiritual growth and the nobility of the parnassa that will support that; and the shititm wood that
accompanied them for centuries would remind them how their mesora of redemption ensured their rise above the demeaning atrocities of the Egyptian exile.
And for us, the powerful instruction of Parshas Teruma is that in order to successfully absorb and impart our counter-cultural teachings, such as a lifelong consistent spiritual and intellectual growth, modesty of behavior, lifestyle and dress, and the attendant sacrifices and investments, just to name a few striking examples, we have to employ thought provoking messaging. Our expectations of refined personal and communal conduct, our teachings of disciplined and empathetic behavior, our optimism that we can insulate and impact all at once, all need the encouragement and the ongoing conversations that would be generated by the physical presentation of the Mishkan. Perhaps every mikdash me'at in all its messaging, from the conduct of its mispallillim to its programming and posters and even in its physical presentations, is a link in this mesora of Mikdash as well.
[1] One of the foremost students of Rav Moshe Feinstien zt"l whose shiurim on Gemara and Chumash graced our yeshiva for many years.