Deuteronomy: Chapter 10

Can you go back 

to the first

Recreate what is gone

Remove the scar tissue
hardening your heart
Soften the stiffness of your neck
and turn around...

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After the digression of listing Israel's various rebellions, Moses continues the story of Sinai and its aftermath, coming to the last of the series of "forty days and forty nights" that he spent with God on the mountain. Again, the passage of year--and the presence of the narrator--are highlighted. Forty years in the future, time wraps, and events separated in time merge into a single continuum. The sin of the spies becomes a side even in the central drama of the Golden Calf. Aaron's death, which was decreed at the same time as Moses' own, is here redefined  as a result of the  Calf, as an after effect of God being "very angry at Aaron, to destroy him." The appointment of Levi is also recontextualized. They become part of the broader ripples of he Calf, an added level of protection for the second Tablets, placed within the Ark.
Once again, Moses role is highlighted, emphasizing his place as speaker. The second set of Tablets is to replace the "first which you [Moses] broke." The chapter emphasizes again and again that these Tablets are to replace "the first"--in a kind of play back reverse in which Moses will "go up" as he once "went down", once again "holding the two tablets in my arms." Yet time truly be reveres, and what was done cannot be undone. These Tablets are not like the first. Rather than being "God's writ," these Tablets are a joint creation. After being the destroyer, Moses must become a creator. His involvement is highlighted by the staccato series of verbs: "and I made...and I sculpted... , and I went up..." Here, the involvement is so intense, that all middlemen are cut out, and it seems that Moses himself created the ark, without the involvement of Bezalel .
The chapter closes with Moses' paean to God,a rising poetic exhalation that moves from the absolute to the specific. From the omnipotence " Lord of lords and God of gods, mighty and awesome," God becomes the God of small things, who "gives justice to the orphan and the widow and loves the stranger..." And through God's care for the stranger, Israel can learn  to love an accept themselves: "therefor love the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt."
Moses closes by returning to his denunciation which opened his retelling of the Exodus and Sinai. Israel was not righteous--Israel was "stiffnecked." Not for nothing has Moses retold the story "of that time" (ba-et ha-hi). It has implication for "now" (ata). On "this day" (, ka-yom ha-ze) Moses hopes for a change. Like the Tablets remade, he hopes that Israel will be remade, learning  to "circumcise the seal from your heart, and be no more stiff necked". ]

Exodus: Chapter 40

When the sum becomes 

 greater  than the parts 

A cloud of completion

A canon of connection

To move together 

rising in response

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We have reached the grand finale of Exodus. 

“On the first day of the first month you shall put together the Dwelling.” Exactly one year has passed since that fateful day when God first spoke to the “entire congregation of Israel,”  “This month shall be to you the head of all months, the first of the months of the year.” What a distance has been traversed! From the initial commandment to set aside a private space, marking of the doorways of the home, we have come to create a sacred space, that can allow the Presence of God. The initial glimmerings of a sense of community--“and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbour (lit. near-dweller shakhen) shall take one according to the number of the souls”—is here transformed into a Dwelling-Mishkan for God, a community with the divine.

These final chapter of building the Dwelling are like a repetitive canon, growing in  intensity. Command, execution, command, and now, finally, activation, the bringing together. After  the completion of the “work” (asiya) of Bezalel and the people begins the work (asiya) of Moses, the integrator who connects the disparate chaotic pieces “as God commanded, so Moses did.” And with the coming together, the whole becomes far greater than the sum of its parts: “And the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of God filled (mila—a return of that pivotal word!) the Dwelling, and Moses was unable to enter the tent, because [the cloud] dwelt (shakhen) on it, and the Glory of God filled the Dwelling (Mishkan).”

With the activation of the Dwelling, the communion with God becomes complete; God and Israel become a single system. “If You will not walk with us, do not take us up (ta-alenu) from here” Moses said. Now God indeed "walks among." The problematic up-down motion of Sinai and the Golden Calf here finally becomes synchronized: God “takes us up”: “And whenever the cloud rose (be-ha-a lot) from the Dwelling, the children of Israel journeyed, throughout all their journeys.” And God is there,  "a pillar of fire... to the sight of all Israel, throughout their journeys"]

Exodus: Chapter 38

To count 
Account 
Remember 

Meet yourself at the entrance 
Coming towards you 


















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We continue the actual construction of the Dwelling, moving out from the furnishings of the inner Sanctum to the outer courtyard, marked by the use of bronze and silver, rather than gold. Again, the execution ("and Bezalel did") transforms the initial vision ("as God commanded Moses"), as the people bring theere own drives and desires. The laver is made of "the mirrors of the serving women that did service at the door of the tent of meeting." The gifts that create the Dwelling come also from the discounted classes: women--and serving women at that. What is more, the gifts are not homogenized: we know which specific objects create the laver. The people brings "mirrors," reflecting their own desires and involvement, and these gifts retain their presence within the completed Dwelling, as a kind of incorporated found object. The material changes the piece.
The chapter closes with an "accounting" (pikudei) of all the materials that went into the dwelling. No gift is lost, everything is given its place. 
This laden leitwort also creates an arch connecting the beginning of this book towards its end. "I have surely remembered you--pakod pakadeti"  is God's initial message to the children of Israel: you have been taken into account and will be redeemed. But this retained memory is a double edged sword, that also implies consequence and accountability. In the aftermath of the Golden Calf, God is "poked--accounts the inquiry of the fathers on the sons," and the nation's sin will continued to be held in account: "beyom pokdi u-pakadeti--on the day that there is an accounting, I will account their sin on them." Now, we make an accounting of the Dwelling. "Pakod"--"memory, accounting" implies continuity, care. It is the source of relationship, both for redemption and anger] 

Exodus: Chapter 36

To weave a house 
to bring love in 
come close

From conception to fruition
overflowing giving
morning by morning

to be enough

connected to one
twinned,  entwined
complete

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“As God commanded, so they did”. The Mishkan/Dwelling-project is built around this interaction of heaven and earth, the divine “structure” (tavnit) and human action (asiya). It is a chiastic framework, with the story of the Golden Calf in the middle. We open with God’s commands to Moses, a grand vision that begins from the highest—the Ark of Covenant and Keruvim, and gradually moves to include the human component of the kohanim/priest. It is a vision that contains hints of menace, but focuses on the possibility of relationship between God and man. Yet the translation of revelation into material is dangerous. Giving over the two tablets of stone "written with the writing of God" is followed immediately by the creation of the Golden Calf, making a god of gold.

God’s acceptance of this failure, His agreement to “walk amongst us” allows for the actual creation of the Dwelling. The translation from vision into doing causes subtle transformations. First, the overwhelming involvement of the people—here, the overflow of passion is so great, that the people have to be told to stop giving: “The people bring too much, more than the service of the work that God commanded to make… so the people were restrained from giving.” There is a chaotic "coming close of "all who "heart's stirred them to create" rather than an orderly hierarchy. In the actual creation, we begin from the building itself, only then moving gradually into the sanctuary. The keruvim are woven into walls, before they are actually craved of gold. We come from earth to heaven]

Exodus 35: In Writing

Breath deep

In the cessation of doing

The pulse of being

clasps your heart

clench and release

a river of crimson

blue entwined

Bring the found

the stumbled

gold-shot dreams

in tangled limbs

Let me offer my heart

Do not free the fire

to rip down the ways

let it flicker in the spaces between

Carried on your heart

exhaled on your breath

A swirl of cobalt sky

Exodus: Chapter 35

To cease from creating

And to create

A generative power 

men and women

those who are called

those who are taught

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We continue the process of restitution and recreation. From reiterating the covenant, we come back to the calling of Bezalel that introduced the story of the Golden Calf. Once again, the return is also a transformation. Structurally, there is a chiastic inversion. Whereas the initial presentation began with the calling of the divinely inspired Bezelel, and closed with the Sabbath that calls upon everybody, here, we begin with the Sabbath, and  move on to the calling of Bezalel. This change is indicative.

Here, the creation of the Dwelling begins from the bottom up. It is charged with the same populist, frenetic energy that drove the creation of the Calf. “And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whose spirit was generous… And they came, the men on the women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought nose-rings, and ear-rings, and signet-rings, and girdles, all jewels of gold every man that brought an offering of gold.” The “golden earrings that Aaron demanded for the creation of the Calf, becomes a stream of jewelry (now,willingly brought by everybody, rather than forcefully “taken from your wives and children”]. The strange, sexually charged phrase “and the men came on the women” (va-yavou ha-anashim al ha-nashim—which can also mean “and the men slept with the women”) hints that we are dealing with the same ecstatic, erotic drives of zenut (idolatry/ fornication) and letzahek (laughter/ sex) that drove the dancing around the Calf. This is a creativity related to earthy reproduction. 

The Dwelling is now the creation of the people, with the leadership coming last. This change is encapsulated in the sudden focus on the involvement of previously-unmentioned women—“all the women who were wise-hearted, spun with their hands… all the women whose heart moved them in wisdom, spun.” The usually dismissed "women's arts" of spinning and weaving are highlighted and acknowledged. Creativity is no longer the realm of the lone divine artist. Now, Bezalel and Ohaliav have been inspired to “teach”: creativity moves outwards, a collaborative folk-art.]

Exodus: Chapter 31

Artist as  minister
The wise of heart 

Breath in divinity
and make
Exhale and rest
the doing of being

filling and  hollowing

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This chapter can’t help but be a favorite. 

“I have called the name of Bezalel… and have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, intuition and knowledge, and every kind of craft (melaha—the leitword of this chapter).”  Here, the Bible introduces its archetypal artisan. Creativity is presented as divinely inspired, an act that is conceptual and mental as much as it is craft and material: “to think thoughts / and to do (la-asot) every craft.” It is the realm of the “wise of heart,” who are “given” divine wisdom.   Bezalel can understand and create the realms of “gold, silver and bronze,” can bring into fruition what “God has commanded.”

Bezalel-as-artisan is presented as an ur- Kohen -priest. It is only he who can create the clothing that will consecrate the priests.  Like Aaron, he is called by name. Like Aaron and his sons, he is “filled” (milui—the key word of the consecration chapter).

Human creativity is presented here as a reflection of divine creativity. The calling of Bezalel is followed by a reiteration of the Sabbath.  “Six days you shall do (ta-ase)  craft (melaha) and the seventh is a rest holy to God…. For six days God created (asa) the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he rested (va-yinafash).” va-Yinafash, lit, was ensouled, breathed, is a play on that initial "spirit" of God that  inspires  (literally, "breathed in") Bezalel. 

The Sabbath introduces another level of creativity, a passive “keeping” that balances that active “doing.” This divine rest is not that “filling” that inspires Bezalel, but rather an avoidance of “emptying” (lehalel—to empty, to desecrate).  Whereas the divinely inspired creativity is open only to the “wise of heart,” the guardianship of the Sabbath is aimed at all the “children of Israel.” It is a level of being, rather than an act.]