As the Torah will recount later, when the Jews became convinced that Moses was not going to come down from Mount Sinai, they committed the sin of making a golden calf. Some of the people worshipped this calf as an idol; as a result, G‑d withdrew His presence from the people as a whole. In order to reinstate His presence among the Jewish people, G‑d commanded them to construct a portable “housing” for His presence, consisting of a tent-sanctuary (the “Tabernacle”), a surrounding Courtyard, and various furnishings placed in specific positions within this sanctuary and its enclosure. The seventh portion of the Book of Exodus opens with G‑d’s command for the Jewish people to contribute (Terumah in Hebrew) toward the construction of this Tabernacle.