Thinking about the Torah by Seeskin Kenneth;

Author:Seeskin, Kenneth; [Seeskin, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL040000 Religion / Judaism / General
ISBN: 4690662
Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
Published: 2016-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

Why the Tabernacle Is Not a Panacea

No magical formula dictates how much statutory law is too much and how much is too little. There will always be people who insist that religious life is not authentic unless it goes into meticulous detail about how to live and people who think that it is not authentic unless it retains a degree of spontaneity. By the same token, there will always be people who find transcendent value in magnificent works of art and people who ask why the money to make them was not used to feed the poor. What helps one person turn to God may induce another to turn away from God.

The difficulty of the question “How much is too much?” is represented in the Torah by the juxtaposition of the design of the Tabernacle with the story of the Golden Calf. According to the narrative, while Moses is on the mountain hearing about the gold that will go into the Tabernacle, the people below have begun to make an idol out of gold, and they ask Aaron to preside over a ceremony at which they will bow down to that idol. If one represents the zenith of communal responsibility, the other represents the nadir.

Following Rabbinic sources, Rashi argues that the order of the narrative is the opposite of what the story suggests.15 According to him, the instructions for the Tabernacle were given on Yom Kippur after the people were forgiven for the sin of the Golden Calf. One advantage of this reading is that it allows us to see the Tabernacle as a concession, as if God were to say: “If, unlike Moses and the patriarchs, you insist on having a tangible symbol of My presence, I will give you one where the priests can worship in an approved manner.” Still, the similarity between the Tabernacle and the Golden Calf and the fact that Aaron, the High Priest, plays an important role in both contexts cannot be ignored.

Nor can the problems created by lavish building projects. Solomon used forced labor, including forced Israelite labor (1 Kings 5:13–14), to build his Temple—exactly what made people cry out against Pharaoh. Unlike Moses, who had Bezalel, Solomon relied on foreign (i.e., pagan) help to supervise the work (1 Kings 7:13). The tax burden needed to buy the materials and pay the craftsmen was not distributed evenly, which may have led to the breakup of the kingdom after his death. Isaiah’s claim that God is fed up with burnt offerings, incense, and festivals is echoed by both Amos (5:21–22) and Micah (6:6–8). Finally, Hosea (6:6) tells us in no uncertain terms that God desires mercy (chesed), a moral virtue, not animal sacrifice.

We should be careful not to misinterpret these passages. It is not that the Prophets were calling for the destruction of the Temple or the abolition of the priestly cult. Rather, they thought worship had become perfunctory and that the people had lost sight of its real purpose. The reason is not hard to discern.

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