While building the Tabernacle we are required to keep Shabbat. The idea is that just as the Tabernacle is to bring God’s presence to the world so does Shabbat.
Shabbat Also Brings God’s Presence
This week’s parashah, Vayakhel, opens with an interesting command. The Jewish people are in the middle of building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle—the very place meant to bring God’s presence into the world.
Yet before the construction begins, the Torah pauses and commands the people to keep Shabbat.
At first glance this seems strange.
If the purpose of the Mishkan is to bring God’s presence into the world, why interrupt the discussion with the laws of Shabbat?
The simple answer is that Shabbat supersedes the building of the Mishkan. Even this sacred project must stop for Shabbat. But that explanation alone misses a deeper point.
Shabbat itself brings God’s presence into the world.
In Hebrew, the days of the week do not even have independent names. We say:
- First day
- Second day
- Third day
- Fourth day
- Fifth day
- Sixth day
All of them point toward one destination: Shabbat. The entire week is a preparation for that day.
But Shabbat is not important because it is convenient or rational. In fact, the ancient Greeks and Romans mocked the Jews for resting every seventh day. They thought Jews were lazy because we refused to work.
Yet the Torah insists on it—not only for the individual, but for the entire community. Servants must rest, workers must rest, everyone must rest. Shabbat proclaims that life is not only about labor and production. There is something higher.
When we keep Shabbat, we make a public statement:
God is present in the world, and our lives are organized around that truth.
There is a famous story from Washington Heights. A man opened a bakery that was kosher—except it stayed open on Shabbat. The local rabbis told him they could not give him kosher certification unless he closed on Shabbat.
He replied, “I don’t care. I’ll make more money being open seven days a week.”
But business was poor because the Jewish community would not shop there. Eventually he tried an experiment: he closed on Shabbat and obtained kosher certification.
Suddenly his business flourished.
He later said, “I was an idiot. I worked seven days a week and barely made money. Now I work six days, have a day off, and earn more than before.”
As Rashi comments, without Shabbat a person might work constantly and lose balance in life.
Shabbat reminds us that we are not just workers—we are human beings, part of a family, a community, and a relationship with God.
So the Torah pauses the construction of the Mishkan to teach a profound lesson:
Building a sanctuary brings God’s presence into the world.
But keeping Shabbat does the same thing.
Every week, when we stop working, gather with family and community, and honor Shabbat, we ourselves become the place where God’s presence rests.
Something to think about.
Leave a Reply