"Asu Li Mikdash..."

3 Adar 5786
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Terumah 

Excerpted from the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on the parashah...

...a major part of Exodus, which Ramban calls the Book of Redemption, discusses the Tabernacle.  He explains that the redemption from Egypt was not complete with the physical departure from the land of Israel's enslavement, nor was it complete even with the giving of the Ten Commandments, even though the Revelation at Sinai was the goal of the Exodus.  The  Exodus had not achieved its purpose until the heights that the nation had achieved temporarily at Sinai were made a permanent part of existence by means of the Tabernacle, for Ramban shows in his commentary that the Tabernacle, as a whole and in its many parts, was symbolic of the historic experience at Mount Sinai.  So, too, it was from the Holy Ark that God spoke to Moses, just as He had spoken to him from atop Mount Sinai, when giving him the Torah.

In this light, the Tabernacle was intended to be the central rallying point of the nation - ringed by the tribes and topped by the cloud of God's Presence - and the place to which every Jew would go with the offerings through which he hoped to elevate himself spiritually.  The function of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was carried forward by the Temple in Jerusalem.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~

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Only just saw this (@11 am).  Am adding it to point out that HKB"H is not silent on who is blessed and who is cursed.  Eretz Yisrael is enjoying an early spring:  clear blue skies, mild temperatures, and wildflowers covering the green hillsides.  I attended a very beautiful wedding last night - Mazal Tov again to the family!!!  What a joyful beginning to the month of joy - Adar!!  Well, that is, for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael anyway.  B"H!!!