The Sanctuary is known by two names, each with a distinct connotation essential to understanding the nature of the Sanctuary. Mishkan is the "dwelling-place," and Mikdash is the "sanctity." That these terms are complementary, it has been noted, is indicated in the passage, "They shall make me a sanctity and I shall dwell among them."1

The Sanctuary is a repudiation of G‑d’s-in-His-heaven aloof from this worldThe Sanctuary is both the instrument and symbol of G‑dliness in this material world and its affairs, a repudiation of G‑d’s-in-His-heaven aloof from this world. But of His own accord He does not make Himself evident; He will be seen only by those who look. A tree may be merely a tree, or it may be the handiwork of G‑d with all that phrase implies, depending on the viewer. Our personal joys and tragedies may be quite accidental, or the hand of Providence guiding men's fate; again the choice is ours. Every facet of existence can reveal G‑d, if we will it. Thus the Sanctuary symbolizes His presence in everything.

The terms dwelling-place and sanctity refer to G‑d and to Israel. G‑d makes His abode in what man sanctifies. Therefore the Torah insists on the use of physical objects in the ritual. Wool cloth becomes an instrument of fulfilling G‑d's will when it becomes a talit. Animal skin is endowed with spirituality, it acquires new qualities, when it becomes tefillin, a mezuzah, a Torah scroll. All our affairs, however lowly and mundane, however seemingly devoid of soul and religious potency, if only conducted according to Torah, sanctified, create a dwelling-place for G‑dliness.