Sunday

Please include Israel's captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam Baumel, Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah Katz, Ron ben Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever, Gilad ben Aviva Shalit.

Tuesday, 23 Adar 5770 – March 9, 2010

Among the accessories that were included in the Mishkan, as we read in Parashat Vayakhel, was the kiyor, the copper laver from which the kohanim would wash their hands and feet before entering the Mishkan to perform the ritual service (38:8). Rashi, in his comments to this verse, cites a famous passage from the Midrash Tanchuma regarding the copper from which the laver was made:

The women of Israel brought [copper] mirrors which they looked into when they adorned themselves; even these they did not refrain from bringing as a donation toward the Mishkan. But Moshe rejected them because they are made for the evil inclination. The Almighty said to him, “Accept [them], for these are more beloved to Me than anything, because through them the women established many multitudes in Egypt. When their husbands were weary from the grueling labor, they [the wives] would go and bring them food and drink and feed them. They would take the mirrors, and each would look at herself with her husband in the mirror and entice him with words…”

In response to Moshe’s hesitation, God informed him that not only should these copper mirrors not be rejected, but, to the contrary, they were “more beloved…than anything.” Moshe initially refused to accept this donation because he found it inappropriate to include in the Mishkan objects used for the sake of physical beauty and attraction. God told Moshe that these mirrors indeed deserve a special place in the Mishkan, because they were partially responsible for ensuring Benei Yisrael’s continued growth in Egypt. The wives utilized these mirrors in their efforts to entice their despondent husbands to intimacy and thereby sustain the nation’s birthrate. The weary husbands had despaired from marital fulfillment and building families, but the wives, with the help of the copper mirrors, succeeded in overcoming the men’s despair and continuing the process of building the nation.

The institution of a Mishkan, a site designated as a place of unique sanctity and service of God, could raise questions in some people’s minds concerning the relationship between the holy site and everywhere outside, between the sacred and the mundane. If the Mishkan is designated as a site of sanctity, then what does that say about the rest of the Israelite camp? Is the Mishkan the only site where the ideals of kedusha can be realized? If God resides in the Mishkan, then does this mean that we cannot bring Him into our lives outside the Mishkan – into our homes, relationships, occupations and communities? If the only the kohanim serve the Almighty in the Mishkan, then is the rest of the nation excluded from avodat Hashem?

In short, the establishment of a special religious site runs the risk of disconnecting day-to-day life from the ideals of kedusha. After all, people might conclude, if sanctity is restricted to the Temple, then outside the Temple they may live as they please, and are not bound by the dictates of sanctity.

For this reason, perhaps, God reacted so favorably to the copper mirrors and deemed them “more beloved than anything.” The mirrors, more that any other donation, expressed the notion that kedusha can and must be applied to every area of life. The concept of the Mishkan, of a place of God’s representative residence, is meant to impact upon daily living outside the Mishkan, rather than divorce daily living from kedusha. The kohanim ministering in God’s “home” are to serve as a model of living one’s life in the devoted service of God, even outside the Temple. And perhaps nothing more clearly demonstrated this understanding of kedusha then the copper mirrors. These mirrors showed that even something as inherently “mundane” as physical attraction and marital intimacy can be made sacred. Religious responsibility indeed extends into all areas of life, even those which seem the furthest removed from the spiritual realm. The mirrors earned their place in the Mishkan because they serve as the clearest example of the concept of injecting holiness into every area of life.

The opposite threat to the Torah’s concept of sanctity can be seen from the tragic story told in Sefer Bamidbar (chapter 25) of cheit Ba’al Pe’or, when Benei Yisrael were enticed by the women of Moav to indulge in idolatry and illicit sexual relationships. The Sages teach that the followers of the Ba’al Pe’or cult worshipped their idol by performing their bodily functions in front of it. Significantly, in the incident related in Sefer Bamidbar, the worship of Ba’al Pe’or was accompanied also by unrestrained sexual indulgence. As the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yehuda Amital shelit”a, frequently explained, the Ba’al Pe’or cult promulgated the worship of nature as intrinsically sacred. The worshippers of Ba’al Pe’or held that all natural tendencies are inherently holy and do not require any refinement, discipline or restraint. This belief led them to glorify activities such as defecation and illicit intercourse, which signify man’s basest physical needs. The Torah strongly opposes this outlook, and insists upon the distinction between sacred and mundane. This distinction is not intended to divest the mundane areas of life of value or worth, but rather reflects the need to raise the mundane to a level of spiritual importance. The mundane realm is not intrinsically sacred, but can become sacred by living a disciplined life in strict accordance with the divine will.

David Silverberg

THE COMPLETE SALT ARCHIVES CAN BE FOUND AT:

www.vbm-torah.org/salt-archives.html

Comments are welcome.

(c) 2009 Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion.

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