Vayak`hel Pekudei
What is the importance of slowing down?
Reflection by Or HaLev US Community Manager Carrie Watkins, with kavod and gratitude to Dr. Avivah Zornberg, who taught a shiur in Jerusalem that inspired this week’s Wisdom:
“This week’s double parsha is all about building the Mishkan - the desert tabernacle. Just before Moshe launches into the long, detailed instructions given by God to the People of Israel for its construction, he reminds the people of just one thing. Remember to keep Shabbat.
The people of Israel were very enthusiastic in their dedication to building the Mishkan. Moshe specifically told the people that contribution was voluntary, that God wanted all who were `nadiv libo`,generous of heart, everyone whose heart moved them, to contribute their skills and materials. Yet, the people were so moved, and gave so much, that Moshe had to ask them to stop.
Moshe had just seen what happened when the peoples’ enthusiasm and fervor became too much. Last week’s parsha witnessed the sin of the people creating the golden calf, with a similar enthusiasm for generously giving up their valuables to the task. As Aaron recounts, when the people entreated him to make them a new leader, he asked them for gold, and they immediately gave it to him. He hurled all the gold into the fire, and out popped a calf. The whole thing happened very quickly.
Moshe seems intent on still harnessing that fervent, creative, collective energy of the People in the building of the Mishkan, but only by slowing it way down. This slowing down manifests in a few ways. For one, it is built into the whole instructions for the Mishkan. Whereas a calf idol, apparently, can be made in one pop into the fire, the Mishkan was such a complex project that it required immense patience and deliberation. So many pieces and so much artistry were required. And for another, before he even begins, Moshe reminds the people that they must not forget about Shabbat, the spiritual brakes on time.
It might be a familiar feeling to many of us, the propelling rush of creative energy. It’s our life force, and can be harnessed towards creating so much good in the world. But that same energy can also create a golden calf, a false idol, a false sense of what’s important.
Our mindfulness practice can serve as another spiritual brake system, as moments of Shabbat throughout the week. Taking the time for whatever mindfulness practices we have set for ourselves in our days - the morning sit, the mindful cup of tea, the deep breath before sending an email - these can feel harder and harder to do the more we’re swept up in the productive fervor of the day. Yet the instructions from Moshe are clear: slowing down is essential. In fact, only from that place of slowing down, of allowing for complexity and process, can an artistic feat as spectacular as the Mishkan come into being.
In that complexity and process lay our salvation. A midrash says that Betzalel, the chief, God-chosen, architect of the Mishkan, רפא את המכה, healed the wound of the sin of the golden calf. Building the Mishkan was an act of collective healing. These processes take time and the patient unfolding of complexity. May this Shabbat be a practice of full rest, and may it inspire our mindfulness practices throughout the week.”