Inner Stream
Celestial Real Estate

Our Parshah describes the building of the Mishkan and the specific details of craftsmanship involved. After describing each section of the Mishkan the Torah testifies that it was all done in accordance with G-d's instruction to Moses. Many have wondered why the Torah so often repeats this point?

The Midrash teaches that as Moses erected the sanctuary in this world, angels in heaven raised a parallel sanctuary. The Zohar adds that the Mishkan in heaven was erected in the merit of Moses' actions here below. The laborers who built the Mishkan, skilled as they were, did not specialize in heavenly architecture. They were well suited to building the physical structure but to build the heavenly one they relied exclusively on direction from Moses.

There may have been times when they felt that a particular detail should have been approached differently. Yet they recognized that Moses was not only building the sanctuary below but also the one above. They faithfully executed every instruction knowing that they were building more than what was immediately apparent. This is why the Torah so often repeats that they fulfilled the instructions G-d had given to Moses.

In discussing this concept the Baal Shem Tov notes that every mitzvah builds an edifice in heaven. Most Jews are oblivious to the heavenly affects of their physical mitvot. We often wonder about the meaning of our prayers, the order of the words, the particular laws as they pertain to certain mitzvot. Yet we must always remember that when logic fails trust should set in. For those who formulated the prayers and taught the law understood the heavenly ramifications and took those too into account.