Tabernacle’s Amazing Lessons

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

The question was asked, why in the Tabernacle’s service are we commanded to smoke the Incense Altar both times: when cleaning the Menorah in the morning, and when lighting the Menorah at sunset? What is the indispensability of “smoke” when servicing the Menorah? 

Menorah

To answer this we must first understand what Menorah is. The Menorah has seven branches, correlating to the 6 days of creation and 7th day of rest. The Menorah bears 3 designs: amorphic spheres, flowers and cups. And of course we must explain the purpose of lights on the Menorah. We must also explain why the Incense Altar is not used when the twelve loaves of the showbread are replaced every Friday on the Table. There's a tie between the Incense Altar and Menorah, which does not exist in relationship to the Table of showbread. 

Tabernacle Counters the Gold Calf

The rabbis teach that the Tabernacle came as a response to the Gold Calf. What was the sin of the Gold Calf? The Jews miscounted the 40th day of Moshe’s descent from Mount Sinai and panicked, thinking that Moshe was dead. They approached Aaron and demanded that he create a replacement for “the man” Moses. This intentionally stresses their attachment to a physical leader. Seeing that Hur was already killed when refusing to accommodate the people's request for a god, Aaron decided to participate in making the calf by tarrying, as an act of delay until Moshe would descend. 

The sin of the Gold Calf was an uncontrolled, imagined method of relating to God, which was idolatrous. The Tabernacle thereby comes as a corrective measure to the Jews' sin. The Tabernacle is a highly structured system with precise measurements and vessels and specified acts of service, which restrict any imagination in relating to God. Everything in the Tabernacle teaches a sublime lesson.

A Veil

The actual name Tabernacle (mishkan) refers to the first layer of the Tabernacle’s coverings. This is because this is the Tabernacle’s primary message: a “veil” between man and God exists. This directly addresses the error of the Jews who imagined they knew how to relate to God (by making the Gold Calf). This message of a veil is again reiterated by the Tabernacle’s structure of having one room that is accessible called the Holies. This room is in front of a veil separating the Holy of Holies, which man cannot enter except one day a year. The Tabernacle represents two distinct areas: one area which man can approach, the Holies, and one area that man cannot approach, the Holy of Holies. 

The Holy of Holies contained the Gold Ark with the angels on its lid covering, which housed the Torah and the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. This off-limits room teaches man that there is knowledge—certain metaphysics and knowledge of God—which is unavailable to man while on Earth, the same lesson which God told Moshe, “man cannot know Me while alive” (Exod. 33:20). The Holies, which the priests were commanded to enter daily, contained the Menorah, the Table of the shewbread and the Incense Altar. Thus, the Holies is an area of knowledge that man may attain. This explains why the Menorah was positioned in the Holies because the Menorah related to knowledge of creation attainable by man. Now what type of knowledge can man have of creation? This is understood by the three designs we mentioned above: an amorphous shape, a flower and a cup. These three objects refer to the three categories of creation that man may observe and derive insight. The amorphous sphere refers to substance (man can study water, soil, fire, etc.). The flower refers to design: man can appreciate the purpose of animal’s wings, fins, claws, trees, etc. Finally the cup—a functional object—refers to nature’s functionality: meteorology, gravity, biology, vegetation, zoology and all nature’s systems. 

When man studies the creations of the six days—the lesson of Menorah’s six branches—man now realizes that his knowledge of the natural world is knowledge of substance, nature’s design, and its governing laws. However, man must also realize that even when studying that which he may observe—nature—he is still greatly limited in terms of his knowledge of God. Man cannot exhaust all natural knowledge, God’s wisdom is endless. Einstein said we only scratch the surface of the God’s knowledge.

The Answer

This ignorance is indicated by the smoking incense when the priests cleaned the Menorah in the morning and when they lit it at dusk. During any service of the Menorah, smoke had to accompany its service to show that there is a veil between us and understanding the universe. However the lesson of the Table with the 12 loaves of showbread indicates God's supply of food to the 12tribes. This is not referring to natural law but to God's providence, which acts behind the scenes and is not observable. Therefore there is no light on the table with the showbread as there are lights on the Menorah, because the Menorah is referring to observable natural law, and what is observable requires light. But the Jews at Sinai ignored what is observable, and followed imagination in creating their gold idol.

The distinction between the two rooms is that the Holy of Holies is purely metaphysical knowledge, unrelated to physical world. Thus, man cannot enter that room to show he admits his ignorance of this realm: man cannot know what God is, what angels are, and the depth of Torah wisdom. 

While the Table deals with God's metaphysical providence, it relates to the physical world. That's why it contains 12 loaves of bread, i.e., God sustains the 12 Tribes. But Providence is not observable knowledge, explaining why the Table has no lights. 

Why Beaten Gold?

The only vessels made of pure beaten gold (Exod. 25:17,31) relate to knowledge: the metaphysical knowledge shared by cherubs on the ark’s cover and the Torah contained inside it, and natural knowledge embodied in the Menorah. The aspect of knowledge these two vessels embody is further stressed by the commands that they both be created by hammering a solid gold chunk into their final forms of angels and the Menorah. Such a method of formation requires great skill and wisdom. One viewing the cherubs and the Menorah, knowing they were created through a hammering process and not molds, will appreciate the skill in their creation, and will associate to the knowledge both vessels convey in their design. As knowledge is most valued, God commanded these 2 objects be made of the finest material to convey the value of knowledge.

Tablets

Finally, what was at the center of the Tabernacle? It was the Ark that housed the Tablets of the Covenant. But as the content of the Tablets—the Ten Commandments—are also in the Torah scroll, we must understand the need for a second record of these Ten Commands appearing in the sapphire stone Tablets. 

Torah provides a strange detail: the Tablets’ writing was visible “from both sides” (Exod. 32:15). What exactly does this mean; that there were letters etched into two opposite surfaces of the sapphire stones? If that's the case, what does that prove? As we learn, (Exod. 34:4) Moshe hewed the second set of stones, certainly he could have carved letters into their surfaces! Therefore the statement that the Tablets were written “from both sides” cannot mean that letters were carved into the surfaces or hollowed through, as this would not prove anything. 

These Tablets contained something astonishing: naturally formed letters and commandments “inside” the translucent tablets. Imagine cutting down a tree and finding in the trunk not rings, but words…or lightning bolts forming letters and sentences in the sky. The Tablets were equally miraculous. “From both sides” means one could see into the sapphire’s internal grain and view commandments that man cold not penetrate. The words literally grew within the stone’s internal grain as it formed during the 6 days of creation (Avos. 5:6). God did not “write” by carving into the Tablets; the writing evolved as part of their natural grain formation. This proved Torah is from God. Naturally formed commandments declare that God (the creator of sapphire) is the same as Torah’s author. That is, Earth exists for Torah. Maimonides explains that “the Tablets were the work of God” means they formed naturally and not through craftsmanship (Exod. 32:16, “Guide” book I, chap. lxvi). 

The Jews at Sinai heard intelligence emanating from fire, proving the source of this intelligence and Torah is not biological, not of this physical world. For anything physical perishes in fire. The Tablets’ miraculous writing carries forth this lesson that Torah is from God, to all future generations who could not attend revelation at Sinai.

Summary

In summary the Tabernacle corrected the sin of the Gold Calf, which was man's unbridled imagination in his failed relationship to God. The Tabernacle has numerous specific laws concerning its dimensions, its vessels, its layout, and all of its services. This highly controlled system inhibits man from expressing any idolatrous imagination. Rather, man learns tremendous truths by creating the various vessels with their specific designs. The coverings as well as the dividing curtain between the Holies and the Holy of Holies teach man that his knowledge is limited; there is a veil that exists between him and God. The smoking of the Incense Altar when servicing the Menorah reiterates this lesson regarding creation. Man learns that the metaphysical world is not within his capacity to grasp. But the room called the Holies, which the priests were commanded to enter, teach what man can know about God and creation as well as His providence. But the smoking of the Incense Altar when servicing the Menorah teaches that even regarding observable creation, man has much ignorance. And the Holy of Holies contains the Tablets bearing miraculous proof that Torah is from God.