P’nei Menachem: Vayakhel: Without Boundaries

We are taught that Moses and Betzalel debated whether the Ark should be the first thing constructed, as Moses wanted, or, as Betzalel argued, there should first be the Tabernacle, the home for the Ark, before we make the Ark.

Moses understood something about the Ark that Betzalel did no: Betzalel was involved with the Ark’s physical construction and therefore did not realize that, as the Talmud teaches, the Ark did not fit in a physical space. Moses however, was fully aware that the Ark did not exist in the physical dimension. It was not something physical that needed a home.

This was Moses’s way of teaching us that when striving to sanctify our actions and ourselves, there are no boundaries. The entire Tabernacle represents different parts of the human body. Just as the physical objects in the Tabernacle did not fit in the physical dimension, so too we can use each part of our physical being to achieve spirituality and holiness without boundaries.