In this meditation, we look at a story told in the gemara about a conversation between Moshe and Betzalel, the chief artisan of the mishkan, the tabernacle. According to the gemara (Brachot 55a, cited by the first Rashi of our parsha), God originally tells Moshe to build the mishkan’s structure first and only afterwards its vessels. Moshe, however, reports it to the people in the reverse order, vessels first. Betzalel voices his opinion that something doesn’t feel right about that order — we need the house first before the furniture — and Moshe acknowledges that Betzalel’s vision was God’s original instruction. In this meditation, we look at this story as a story about trusting your own intuitive knowing in the face of external authority that contradicts that knowing and we explore how we can get in touch with and honor our own knowing in an embodied way.
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