We are the Tabernacle
Welcome to parasha T'rumah. It begins in Exodus 25:1 to 27:19. We are going to begin dealing with a major part of Exodus now, the Tabernacle. Ramban calls Exodus, The Book of Redemption, because he believed the redemption from Egypt was not complete until the Tabernacle was erected. We begin by collecting offerings. Among other items collected were gold (kingship), silver (redemption), brass (judgment), fine linen, ram's skins, shittim wood, oil and stones. You will notice that YHVH instructs Moses that he is to take all items given with a 'willing heart' by the people. There was not a problem back then with people having a willing heart to give to the work of God. I don't read where Moses ever had to do a thirty minute "guilt pull" to get the people to give anything. It was exactly the opposite. The workers had to go to Moses to have him stop the people giving, they were being overwhelmed with items. One of the first things being given was wool. The wool was of different colors. Wonder where they found multicolored sheep for that:? No, we know the dye for the wool was made from a secretion of a chilazon, otherwise thought of as a snail. This exact animal disappeared for centuries. Now it has reappeared once again, can you guess why? It is said also the Tachash skin came from a multicolored animal (called a Tachash of course) that existed at that time only and then became extinct. The passages begin to tell you about YHVH'S instructions for building the Ark. The Ark was to contain the testimony YHVH was going to give Moses. It was not really hard to see how the Ark was made and contained three layers. The first box was smaller and made of wood. A second larger size gold box was made and the wooden box was put inside that. Then a third smaller box of gold was made that covered the wooden box inside. Thus, you had a wooden box covered inside and out with gold. This is a picture of how a child of the Most High should be, both gold (kingly) on the inside and on the outside in his walk. You can't be gold inside and act like a piece of old iron to others in your outside life. That doesn't match up! Then a gold covering was made for it, which on top were two gold cherubim. Two cherubim, let's see, could that have something to do with the two houses, Judah and Ephraim:? These two cherubim were not made separately and then put together. No, they were made out of the same piece of gold. Judah and Ephraim were never meant to be anything but the whole house of Israel.
They weren't made to go their separate ways. It is said in the commentaries, the cherubs had the faces of two little children. We cannot prove, nor deny that. When YHVH spoke, His voice would come from between the two angels. That we do know. We also see the Table of Show-Bread here. It was made to hold twelve loaves (twelve tribes) of bread. It was made of shittim wood and also covered in gold. There were two columns of six loaves each, yet it was all one piece. This piece had a crown molding on it like the Ark. Twelve loaves of bread were baked each week and put in it on shelves. Another interesting item found in some accessory books is, the bread when it was taken off the table at the end of the week, was just as fresh and warm as when it was first baked. Once again, that can't be proved biblically that I'm aware of, but it could have easily been the case. Of course all the spoons and covers and small items were made of pure gold for these pieces. Then we see the commandment of making the Menorah. It was seven branched, not nine as we see a lot of today. The nine one is called a Hanukkeah. We rarely see a picture of what the Menorah really looked like. It had cups shaped like almonds with a knob and a blossom on each one. It was lit by oil, not candles. Not one apple pie scented or magnolia candle anywhere to be found:. As we have been studying, there is more that could be said about the Menorah than I have space for. The seven branches represent the seven days of creation, the seven feasts, the seven churches, the seven spirits of God and all of these tie in together. It also had three feet on the bottom, which we seldom see depicted as such. Now let's go to the curtains. In chapter twenty six, we see ten curtains mentioned first. Notice there are ten curtains and ten lost tribes, remez alert:. We see linen and three colors of wool, here come those funny colored sheep again:. According to Rashi, six strands of each type were spun into a single thread. It was a twenty four (priesthood) stranded piece of yarn. There were two sets of curtains (Judah & Ephraim) containing five (Torah) curtains each. There were fifty (jubilee) hooks of gold made.
Something amazing was woven into these curtains, an angel (malachim), an eagle, an ox and a lion. That alone is not the amazing part. The amazing part is that on one side it would look like an angel and on the other side it would look like another creature, both at the same point on the curtain. Had the forms been embroidered through needlework, the same form would have appeared on both sides of the curtain. (Rashi) This should take your memory back right away to the four creatures before the throne. They represented the twelve tribes, so what do you suppose these emblems represent? There were other curtains made of goat's hair and then skins made to cover the Tabernacle. Also, you'll read of all the boards and sockets and etc. that were used. At least I think you'll read all about those. Sometimes those verses are like the verses naming the generations, they're easy to skip over:. One thing to notice in chapter twenty seven is that when making the altar, it was covered in brass. Brass of course stands for judgment. Even the utensils that were used with it were made of brass. If you remember, the other utensils we looked at that were used in the Holy Place, were made of gold. Basically, we see this entire parasha is based upon getting things ready for constructing the Tabernacle. Lots of people believe learning about the Tabernacle is a waste of time. But half or more of the Bible is about the Tabernacle and the Temple. So how could that much information have been given to us for no reason? There is a reason, WE are the Tabernacle now! Shalom
They weren't made to go their separate ways. It is said in the commentaries, the cherubs had the faces of two little children. We cannot prove, nor deny that. When YHVH spoke, His voice would come from between the two angels. That we do know. We also see the Table of Show-Bread here. It was made to hold twelve loaves (twelve tribes) of bread. It was made of shittim wood and also covered in gold. There were two columns of six loaves each, yet it was all one piece. This piece had a crown molding on it like the Ark. Twelve loaves of bread were baked each week and put in it on shelves. Another interesting item found in some accessory books is, the bread when it was taken off the table at the end of the week, was just as fresh and warm as when it was first baked. Once again, that can't be proved biblically that I'm aware of, but it could have easily been the case. Of course all the spoons and covers and small items were made of pure gold for these pieces. Then we see the commandment of making the Menorah. It was seven branched, not nine as we see a lot of today. The nine one is called a Hanukkeah. We rarely see a picture of what the Menorah really looked like. It had cups shaped like almonds with a knob and a blossom on each one. It was lit by oil, not candles. Not one apple pie scented or magnolia candle anywhere to be found:. As we have been studying, there is more that could be said about the Menorah than I have space for. The seven branches represent the seven days of creation, the seven feasts, the seven churches, the seven spirits of God and all of these tie in together. It also had three feet on the bottom, which we seldom see depicted as such. Now let's go to the curtains. In chapter twenty six, we see ten curtains mentioned first. Notice there are ten curtains and ten lost tribes, remez alert:. We see linen and three colors of wool, here come those funny colored sheep again:. According to Rashi, six strands of each type were spun into a single thread. It was a twenty four (priesthood) stranded piece of yarn. There were two sets of curtains (Judah & Ephraim) containing five (Torah) curtains each. There were fifty (jubilee) hooks of gold made.
Something amazing was woven into these curtains, an angel (malachim), an eagle, an ox and a lion. That alone is not the amazing part. The amazing part is that on one side it would look like an angel and on the other side it would look like another creature, both at the same point on the curtain. Had the forms been embroidered through needlework, the same form would have appeared on both sides of the curtain. (Rashi) This should take your memory back right away to the four creatures before the throne. They represented the twelve tribes, so what do you suppose these emblems represent? There were other curtains made of goat's hair and then skins made to cover the Tabernacle. Also, you'll read of all the boards and sockets and etc. that were used. At least I think you'll read all about those. Sometimes those verses are like the verses naming the generations, they're easy to skip over:. One thing to notice in chapter twenty seven is that when making the altar, it was covered in brass. Brass of course stands for judgment. Even the utensils that were used with it were made of brass. If you remember, the other utensils we looked at that were used in the Holy Place, were made of gold. Basically, we see this entire parasha is based upon getting things ready for constructing the Tabernacle. Lots of people believe learning about the Tabernacle is a waste of time. But half or more of the Bible is about the Tabernacle and the Temple. So how could that much information have been given to us for no reason? There is a reason, WE are the Tabernacle now! Shalom