Netvort 5762 - Parshat Truma

It's Not Material

By Rabbi Joshua ( fruitlessly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Dedicated in memory of Dr. David Kaplan, Dovid ben Tzvi HaKohein, by his children. Dr. Kaplan passed away on the 18th of Shevat. May his memory be a blessing, and may they be comforted among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.

In this week's parsha the Jewish nation is commanded to build the mishkon, and given the details of its construction. The basic structure consisted of forty - eight interconnected wooden boards covered with several layers of curtains. The Torah tells us that the wood used for the boards was 'atzei shittim,' usually translated as acacia wood. Why was this kind of wood chosen to be used? The Midrash Rabbah to our parsha, 35 : 1, says that God specifically commanded that this wood be used because it does not bear fruit. In this way, explains the midrash, He was teaching us derech eretz, the proper way of conducting our lives. If God, to whom everything in the universe belongs, commands that a non fruit bearing tree should be used to build a structure for Himself, all the more so should a human being be careful to build his own structures out of non fruit bearing trees. While this midrash carries an obvious message, that we should not destroy fruit trees for building purposes, I would like to demonstrate that some messages beyond the obvious one can be derived from it, as well.

In commanding the production of curtains for the mishkon, the Torah says, "And you shall make the mishkon of ten curtains, etc." (Shemos 26 : 1). Rashi in parshas Vayakheil points out that the mishkon is named after the lower layer of curtains. Rabbi Eliyohu Meir Bloch, in his Pninei Da'as to our verse, writes that we would really expect the Torah to refer to the boards as the mishkon, since it is the boards that gave it physical stability, while the curtains serve as a covering for them. The fact that the curtains defined the mishkon tells us that it is not the most physical aspect of the mishkon that defines it and serves as its true foundation. In a similar way, he continues, it is not the most material aspects of the Jewish nation that define its nature, because the essence of the people is its spirituality. Within the context of Rabbi Bloch's remarks, the fact that the wood used for the boards was not fruit bearing takes on added significance, because it further de-emphasizes the centrality of the boards in defining the mishkan, turning our focus away from the more physical aspects of the structure.

There is a further application of the message of using a non fruit - bearing tree in the mishkon. The aron, the ark in which the tablets of the Torah were placed in the mishkon, was also made of atzei shittim, which was then overlayed on the inside and outside with gold. Actually, there were two symbols of Torah in the mishkon. In addition to the aron, there was also the menorah, which was made completely of gold. The aron, which housed the tablets and also the sefer Torah written by Moshe before he died, represented the written law, while the menorah, the rabbis tell us, represented the oral law. The Chasam Sofer points out that the designs on the menorah - the knobs, the flowers, etc. - are symbolic of the details of the oral law and the many elaborate explanations of it given by students over the generations. The Torah tells us that the menorah was made of one block of gold, and all of the decorations emerged from that one block. The idea here is that the oral law in its entirety is an expansion of the main body of Torah, but ultimately is derived from within the Torah itself. Perhaps, then, the fact that the inner core of the aron, which represents the oral law, was made of atzei shittim, is symbolic of the fact that the basic text of the written law is unchanging. The oral law explains the true meaning of the written law, but the text of the written law, contained in the aron, is immutable. Perhaps for this reason wood from a non fruit - bearing tree was chosen as the inner core of the aron.