Vayakhel. The Mishkan, Shabbat, and the virtue of Jewish Individualism

ויקהל משה וכו' ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קודש שבת וכו' קחו מאתכם תרומה לה'.

“And Moshe gathered together all the congregation of the children of Israel … six days shall you do your work and the seventh day shall be for you a holy Shabbat … take from yourselves an offering for God ….” (Shemot, 35:1–5)

The opening word of this week’s parasha is the root of one of the most meaningful ones I know: Kehila - assembly, community.

The construction of the Mishkan, which will be achieved in the two last parashiot of the book of Shemot (vayakhela and Pekudei) is a beautiful illustration of what kehila means as a verb: mbuilding something together.

And what do we build? 

Not something for me. Not something for us. Something to hold space for something beyond you and me: 

We build a vessel that is empty inside, so that the Shekhina, the divine presence, can come and dwell (lishkon, from where the word Shekhina comes), “among us/within us” says the verse in a beautiful polysemic wink.

As it rests in between us, the Divine presence connects us from that very space that we are building together. 

This is the mishkan. 

Yet the first thing the parasha talks about, is the instruction to keep the shabbat- to rest on the shabbat, that is, to stop building the mishkan on this very day. 

Why is the principle of the shabbat- ceasing all work, reminded so many times, along the process of the construction of the mishkan, and why just now, the Mei Ha shiloach is asking?

To teach us, he says, about humility

To explain this, he goes over the process with us:

כי בתחילה עשו כל חכם לב במלאכת המשכן כל אחד את עבודתו והראה לו כי עשו מלאכה נפלאה למאד, 

Because at first, everyone possessing a heart of understanding performed their particular work on the Mishkan, and it was shown unto them that they had done wondrous work. 

This is the first phase. We are all called to bring something unique and beautiful, that represent our unique gift to the world.

But we don’t stop there.

ואח"כ כאשר ראו החיבור שנתחבר יחד כל העבודה כל היריעות והקרשים, ראו כי כל אחד שייך לחבירו כאלו עשאם אדם אחד

Then afterwards, when they saw how all the disparate elements fit perfectly together, every curtain and board, and every element perfectly suited every other one as if it was the work of one man, 

והבינו כי כל מה שעשו לא היה בשכלם רק בסיעת הש"י ביד כל העושה במשכן, שיהיה אח"כ שלימות צורת הבנין,

Then they understood that all that they had done was only a product of their intellect out of the assistance of God to every one who contributed to the Mishkan, producing afterwards the perfection of the structure. 

The miracle of harmony created by various unique personalities, for the Meor Einayim, isn’t from us. It is from something beyond us, but that unites us: The Divine spark with each of us and its shekhina, its presence among us.

ואיך יוכל להתגאה אחד על חבירו מאחר שלא עשה בשכלו רק בסיעת ה'.

So how then could one feel superior over another when all that was done was only with the help of God?

This awareness, Mei ha Shiloach suggests, only arises when we stop doing. This is the primary meaning of Shabbat- cessation.

In particular, he adds, it arises with one intention: to do what we do “leshem shamaim”: lit. “in the name of heavens”- that is, for something greater than us.This is the criteria. When we get together to do something together for a purpose that is greater than our own individual interests, we connect to Unity.

וזה הכוונה נקראת שבת,

This intention, Mei HaShiloach concludes, is called Shabbat. 

This is the definition of Jewish Individualism.

In Human cultures today we can see roughly two models of relationship between the individual and the community:

A model where the individual is subordinated to the collective. This is typically the model in Japanese culture, Chinese Culture, or Arabo-Muslim Cultures.

And a model in which the collective is subordinated to the needs of the individual. This is the model of the “Protestant ethos” as Sociologist Max Weber called it which is at the origin of Capitalism, consumer society, and contemporary Western Culture.Both models have their bright and dark sides.

In collective-driven cultures, solidarity is wonderful, and so is faithfulness to Tradition. But the individual lives with an injonction of sacrificing themselves, if need be, for the collective. An extreme expression of this is mass murder of those who are differents, and the culture of suicide attacks. In individualist cultures, to the contrary, each one is invited to use the resources of the collective to grow, and creativity is encouraged as an expression of each one’s unique gifts.

But the paradoxical effect of individual oriented societies is a form of consumerist approach to relationships where everyone, including the subject, is objectified.

As a result, the individual, self centered and disconnected from a higher purpose, can fall into a depression for feeling that they are never enough, when they don’t act, if they have the power to do so, in destructive ways for the collective.

I am thinking of the current Israeli Prime Minister who has shown readiness to all bargains of his society- weakening the power of the judges, forming impossible alliances with the religious extreme right, dragging a war that is so costly to all israeli families but his… all of this, to stay in power.

Today, as the cease fire has come to an end and Netanyahu has announced his decision to fire another head of Israeli institutions who was getting in his way, thousands of Israeli have marched in the streets.

This is building a mishkan: remembering the power of building something together, with our differences, for a higher purpose than our individual interests.

And this is jewish individualism: in a Jewish perspective, the individual is at the center of the collective, because according to the Talmud, each life is a world.

This is why thousands of Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora are fighting relentlessly for the return of each single hostage.But in a Jewish perspective, the collective is not made subservient to individual interests. We remember that together, we have a higher goal, something greater than the sum of ourselves, to build together.

Unity, Mei Ha Shiloach, is made by the congregation of differences.

I have just expressed personal views about Israel’s Prime Minister and Israeli Politics.You are welcome to disagree. In the end of the day, I am deeply aware that most of our opinions come from the social worlds we live in, the types of discourses we are exposed to, and our personal needs to feel safe in the world.

The truth is, it doesn't really matter what I think and what you think.What matters is, can we both look together towards a goal greater than you and me?We don’t have a mishkan today, but Mei Ha Shiloach reminds us, the mishkan is just a step towards something that goes beyond it: the world of Union.

As I am writing these lines, another cake is in the oven, perfuming the whole house.

In an instant, I will share this with you, and then I will shower, to get ready for the Shabbat.I will get ready to stop and tilt into the world of Non-Duality.

A world in which, just as we were invited to do last week for Purim, my conceptions of right and wrong don’t really matter, no more than yours, because in that world in we stop (lishbot/shabbat) doing, in that moment where we stop expressing our unique abilities and talents, we all become one: 

simply a living, breathing presence, alive today, in the world.

And it might be enough to just rest in that.As Sufi Mystic Rumi famously wrote : ‘there is a field beyond right and wrong. I’ll meet you there.”

This is Shabbat. Will I see you there?