Exodus 28: In Writing

The things the heart carries

bearings of the  body

pressing  on the skin

the weight of names

a burning flame within

Death is at your doorstep

digging at your skin

how can you clothe yourself in glory

a shrouded twin?

Bear the mark of the inhallow

what remains

The sin of not-enough

Shrinking in your shell

Cover your nakedness

Exodus: Chapter 28

The things you carry
The weight of names
held on the heart


Carry me on your heart
Carry my deeds on your head
Eternal memory engraved

Opening up
in a burst of glory













[For full chapter,  click here

From the structure and furnishing, we move to the human component of the Dwelling. The translation of Sinai into material also involves the translation of divinity into the human artisans: “And now you will speak  to all the wise-hearted, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom.” These spirit-full artisans can create the clothing that will “consecrate [Aaron] that he may minister to Me.”

The “heart” of the artisans, filled with divine wisdom, becomes thematic: it is the heart that is the seat of connection to God, with Aaron “carrying the names of the Children of Israel on his heart as an eternal remembrance.” The head, by contrast, deals with sin, not connection: “And Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things that the Children of Israel shall hallow.”

Consecration and holiness sees directly linked to the connection t to material, to the things that are “carried” (naso—the other leitword of this chapter), The material clothes consecrate their bearers, making them holy. Aaron must bear the names and memory of Israel upon his heart, engraved into stones.  The breakdown within consecration must be “born” (naso) on Aaron’s forehead.

The human, living element of the Dwelling adds an undertone of menace. The blurring of boundaries between divine and human is dangerous. The “iniquity” that Aaron must bear is part of a larger, darker theme: “that they bear not iniquity and die” is the refrain.

The danger of being overly-intimate closes the chapter, as we return to the initial presentation of the altar with the creation of the trousers: Do not expose your nakedness to the altar.]

Exodus 27: In Writing

From the hollow 
between the words
In silvered longing
I extend to the winds

Golden dreams 
tarnished longing
in a mixed world of bronze

***

At the edges 
at the corners
in solid sides 
closed up ribs 


The beating hollow
of the space before breath 
where longing is desire 
desire longing 
weaving pieces together 
with fragile fingers 
and spun dreams 

Exodus: Chapter 27

Tablets of stone

Hollow spaces

Object and surrounding come together

With expanses around

An eternal flame













[For full chapter, click here
We arrive finally at the altar that closed both visions of Sinai. Here too, it acts as a sum-up to the "vision on the mountain" being made of concrete. The divine Tablets (luhot) of the Ten Commandments, here become actual, physical: "hollow with tablets (luhot) shall you make it." It is the merging of the visions of the previous chapter, bringing together the point/counterpoint of object and negative space: it is both a furnishing, and the hollow within, defined by the "sides" (tzela) that characterized the building.
Once again, the altar acts as a transition from the sacred space into the wider world. The altar is followed by the extension of the Dwelling into a broader court, that unfurls--as does the altar--to four sides. From incorruptible gold, we move to a space of silver and bronze. The asymptitic  longing of the keruvim--a single while, yet always apart--extends outward. "And their pins shall be silver--ve-haskukhem kesef" also means "and their desire shall be longing."
This chapter deals with these liminal edges. Its key words are "tzela" (side, in the concrete sense of a slab, plank, or a rib) and pe'ah (side, in the more abstract sense of space). Both come together in the concrete luhot (tablets/plank) that is navuv, hollow.]

Exodus 26: In Writing

Twinned, intertwined
discrete
at the edges of being
we reach towards each other
to build a house of longing

Exodus: Chapter 26

A unity in multiplicity 
or pieces into one 

Connections,  linkages,  

duality 
Close together

 but apart

[For full chapter, click here

This chapter is both the direct continuation of the previous one, and its counterpoint. 

We move from the furniture of the Dwelling to the construction of the Dwelling itself. The move from object to context creates a change--

from male to female (the keruvim in the previous chapter face “each man to his brother” while the curtains and planks are connected “each woman to her sister); 

from a “single solid” (miksha)  to separate pieces that must be linked

Connection--hovered/ mahveret/ ve-haverta—is the leitword of the chapter.  

While the separated sections are attached so that  the Dwelling “becomes one” (vehaya ehad), this is a unity haunted by separation, very unlike the eternal; “single solid” unifying the seemingly multifarious keruvim and Menora of the previous chapter. The plank holders are “twinned,” and full of duality. The chapter closes with the creation of dividers—the  parokhet and masakh , and with a series of opposites: within/without, north/south . 

Yet this is a space that is also full of keruvim, interwoven into the very walls of the Dwelling, and into the dividing curtain. It provides the placement for the previous chapters isolated elements,the parameters for interaction.]

Exodus 25: In Writing

Shelter me in the shadow of yearning

The spaces between our gaze

Can I catch your wing with outflung nets

Of interwoven dreams?

Within and without

A box of gold

harbors the answer.

From the edges of being

We watch each other

over infinite expanses of longing

Exodus: Chapter 25

Translations of place

a dwelling within

From the mountain down

A multiplicity that is one

a single shaped solid

Concrete witness, face to face

[For full chapter, click here

We begin a second stage in defining the long term reverberations of Sinai. Revelation is here translated into physicality. If in the previous chapters, Sinai was explicated into the nitty-gritty of everyday life, now it is embodied in the very minerals of the earth. The “Presence of God” that dwelled on the mountain will now “dwell” within the Children of Israel: “And they shall make Me a dwelling and I will dwell amongst them”. Sinai becomes open to human creativity. The “doing” (maase—a leitword of chapter 23) that was to be gathered to the altar, here  forms the very sanctuary itself. 

After the covenant of the previous chapter, we enter a fraught space of shared creativity. The chapter is animated by a tension between freedom and command, human and divine action: “Speak to the children of Israel, and the will take an offering for Me” implies an imposed tax, yet “From every man who’s heart donates, take My offering” continues the verse, modifying the demand to a gift. The Dwelling (Mishkan) is to be “made” (maase) by man, yet defined by the pattern revealed by God, human creativity translating the divine vision into the physical realm.  It is to be a place of “face to face” (panim) encounter. The keruvim have their  “faces to each other”, the showbread is “Face bread” (lehem ha-panim), placed before God’s face (li-pnei).

A joint divine-human work, the Dwelling is a single solid (miksha)—as must be the keruvim and the Menora—but containing multiple parts. The two Keruvim, created of a single block are a perfect  embodiment of this relattionship. Placed on opposite sides (katze), their wings reach towards each other, creating a shade over the space of the Ark, within which lies the "testimony". They face each other, in asymptotic striving, always one, never unified.]

Exodus 24: In Writing

Within the single voice

A pause of emptiness

The one who ascends and does not return

In a sapphire gleam

I drink you down

Swallows your substance

A force eating within

Consuming and consumed

Your blood beats through my feet

Sap rising

Spread of sinew and bone

Can I hold you within

A burning brand?

Exodus: Chapter 24

 Return to the place

You were before

And know it truly

For the first time

Who do you approach

What things do you say?

[For full chapter, click here

After all the translation and explication, we return to the place we were before. Sinai revised, in a chiastic closing that is also a transformation. “Everything that God says we will do” becomes  “we will do and we will hear.” We repeat the pattern of juxtaposing the revelation at Sinai with the creation of the altar. But whereas before, the laws of the altar were cerebral, dealing with stones, respect, nakedness, this altar deals with blood and the animals that played so central a role in the preceding chapter; it is an altar built of twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and is run not by modest priests, but by boisterous youths. This presentation of Sinai bears the marks of the human realm. This time, the overwhelming voice belongs to Israel: “and the entire people answered with one voice.” Aaron, his sons, the seventy elders, and the “youth of Israel” all play a part.   

The carefully maintained boundaries begin to disintegrate, as the nobility of Israel see the “eating fire (esh ohelet) of God” and “eat and drink.

Moses, however, is even more starkly “alone” (levado) against the backdrop. He “ascends to God” and “is there.” If for Israel the Sabbath was redefined as a day of rest for the vulnerable parts of society, for Moses it is here defined as utter communion: “and the cloud covered the mountain six days, and He called to Moses on the seventh day.” The chapter ends with Moses swallowed in the mists for forty days. A consummation—in both senses of the word—but will the nation be able to  survive without their liminal conduit?]