{"id":42540,"date":"2018-10-21T21:06:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T18:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=42540"},"modified":"2022-05-18T23:00:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T20:00:49","slug":"the-tabernacle-as-an-island-of-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-tabernacle-as-an-island-of-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tabernacle As An Island Of Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[674,363,668],"acf":{"old_id":"42540","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37918,"related_cahpter":"75","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"We dream of a world transformed, but we cannot transcend the human condition","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Exodus 25 begins with God asking Moses to instruct [the people of Israel] to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cmake a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them\u201d (Exodus 25:8). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The remainder of the chapter describes the construction of a sanctuary that is remarkably similar to the Garden of Eden. God places Adam in the Garden \u201cto till and to tend it\u201d (<em>le-ovdah u-le-shomrah<\/em>). This pair of verbs (<em>la\u2019avod <\/em>and <em>lishmor<\/em>) is used together in only three other places in the Torah\u2014all of them to describe the tasks of the Levites in the <em>mishkan<\/em> (Numbers 3:7-8, 8:26, 18:5-6). Gold and shoham, two of the materials most used in the building of the <em>mishkan<\/em>, are also mentioned around Eden. The Ark of the Covenant is guarded by two cherubim (Exodus 25:18-20), as was the Garden (Genesis 3:24). One midrash teaches that Adam was created from the site where the Temple would one day stand (Genesis Rabbah 14:8). These and other midrashic images and linguistic similarities raise an obvious question: What do Adam in the Garden of Eden and the Temple have to do with one another?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During their time in Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they needed provided for them. The world in which we live, so suffused with suffering and predation, is a far cry indeed from the wholeness portrayed in Eden. Not surprisingly, although the place called Eden disappeared long ago, the dream it represents and hope for its restoration have had an enduring place in Jewish religious consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mishkan (tabernacle) is intended to serve, I would suggest, as an island of Eden in a decidedly non-Edenic world; an attempt to re-create Eden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overly romanticized dreams of what could be often prevent us from appreciating\u2014or from being able to receive at all\u2014the blessings already before us. The Eden-like mishkan holds out the possibility that greater degrees of wholeness are possible even in the midst of a (for now) irreparably broken world. The biblical people of Israel could enter an actual physical space; students of Torah are invited to enter imaginatively, through reading. But for the mini-Edens we enter to serve life, we must eschew illusory images of wholeness which only sow more sorrow and discontent. The dream of Eden represents another reality, but it is\u2014still and always\u2014a human reality. Jews dream of a world transformed, but we will not\u2014we cannot\u2014transcend the human condition. Our hope is for our humanity to be fulfilled, not overcome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Image: Thomas Cole, \u201cExpulsion from the Garden of Eden\u201d 1828 \/ wikipedia<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64773,"id":64773,"title":"Is2-eden","filename":"Is2-eden.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/nostalgia-plus-utopian-thinking-spells-problems\/is2-eden\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is2-eden","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64768,"date":"2019-10-26 05:37:04","modified":"2022-05-18 20:00:04","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":799,"height":579,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden-300x217.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":217,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden-768x557.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":557,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","large-width":799,"large-height":579,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","1536x1536-width":799,"1536x1536-height":579,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","2048x2048-width":799,"2048x2048-height":579,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","post_full_size-width":799,"post_full_size-height":579,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden-580x420.jpg","home_baner-width":580,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Tabernacle As An Island Of Eden","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"We dream of a world transformed, but we cannot transcend the human condition","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":64773,"id":64773,"title":"Is2-eden","filename":"Is2-eden.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Is2-eden.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/nostalgia-plus-utopian-thinking-spells-problems\/is2-eden\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is2-eden","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64768,"date":"2019-10-26 05:37:04","modified":"2022-05-18 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