A Nest of My Prayers – Parashat Vayakhel
“I delved into the process of building a nest.
The Osprey, like all birds, builds and forms the walls of the nest with his body.
With his feet, beak, but mainly with his chest,
quickly beating on the materials.
Building his nest with the wall of his heart.
She, the female, is always by him.
I watched them.
Longing.” *
Following the disastrous events of the Golden Calf, the rift between the people and their God and between them and their leadership is grave and painful. The divine architect has a rehabilitation plan; first, He commands and gives them the Sabbath, then he plans a house for them, the Tabernacle. On one hand, God gives his people the weekly time for rest, similar to the time he needs for himself, on the other hand, he builds for him and them a space, a nest.
The people are enthusiastic; the sense of renewed unity is uplifting. They pour in donations continuously until Moses asks them to stop. Two are chosen to build the Tabernacle: Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur from the tribe of Judah, the largest of the tribes, and Oholiab son of Ahisamach from the tribe of Dan, the smallest of them. “The rich shall not be recognized before the poor,” says God, teaching the people how important to him is the principle of equality.
The job description for the builders of the Tabernacle, those who will execute the divine vision, requires them to have “the wisdom of the heart”. The skills for building the Tabernacle requires the power of the intellect as well as the depth and intuition of the heart. The process of creation and construction of the house, which in God’s eyes parallels to and completes the act of creation, requires people who combine both. Only people who carry within them both qualities will succeed realizing with their hands into matter what was previously spirit.
The mind and the heart are two of the three fundamental pillars of a complete human being. The kidneys, representing morality, are the third pillar. Together, these three elements build the Talmudic “Melech” (the word melech means a king and is also the abbreviations of the Hebrew words mind, heart and kidneys), the complete person who operates in harmony between intellect, emotion, and conscience. These are the foundations upon which a nation and its institutions will be built. These are the foundations for the construction of every home, every family and every person.
So how does one build a Tabernacle?
The French sculptor Auguste Rodin created in his later years “The Cathedral,” a sculpture of two hands close but not touching each other. A closer look reveals that the hands are identical, either both right or both left. Therefore the creation of “the Cathedral”, the making of a divine space, is created when two human beings interact and create a space between them. The sculptured hands create between them a space that respects and honors each other. They gladly need each other. Divinity is created in the basic human encounter.
The concentration and acceptance required to maintain the delicate space which was created can be defined as faith. Faith, both internal and external, is the essence of divinity; it exists within and is the heritage given to every person. The choice and recognition of the right to believe can and will potentially turn every human being into a “melech” (king).
The great German poet Rainer Maria Rilke was for several years Rodin’s personal assistant. “His art,” writes Rilke, “was not built on the foundation of a great idea, but on the minor realization of the power of conscience. Rodin’s hands,” continues the poet, “are a reservoir of life; they pass through all stages of existence; from fall to resurrection, from despair to hope, from calm to storm, each hand is a complete biography.”
The dwelling of the divine space is not conceived as a single space but as a collection of unique individual spaces and articulated details. The hands, that do not touch and which remember to pause for a moment to rest from their mundane activities, give every man and woman the weekly “shmitah” (sabbatical), a ritual balancing between time and space and between matter and spirit.
In Rodin’s hands, the poet discovers not only movement but also voice and sound – “They speak the language of the body in its full power, these are hands one can listen to. They created their own small world. They went out into a different space, where they hold silent conversations among themselves, consult with each other, pray.”
The Tabernacle was built, its vessels completed. The divine architect’s plan was fully implemented. The house of worship wanders with the people wherever they go. It will be dismantled and rebuilt throughout the generations and everytime they stop in the desert. In the land of Israel, the temporary house will become a temple that will be destroyed time after time due to weakening internal conflicts and civil wars.
Thousands of years later, the architect is now looking down at his people. His hands, with their wisdom of the heart, watching his children with sadness and hope, longing to unite them, wishing to build again their home in their hearts.
*(He Could See A Nest Outside If He Looked Through His Window – Ran Oron)
Written by Ran Oron is an Israeli architect who has lived in NY for over 20 years.
