God is looking for a residence on earth, always looking for a residence in each of us, knocking on our door, saying – can I live inside you?
The instruction to construct the mishkan, the tabernacle, in our parsha is phrased in this way: Ve’asu li mikdash veshakhanti betokham (Exodus 25:8). They should make for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst. Commentaries note the strangeness of the plural betokham, I will dwell in them – it should have said betokho, in it, I will dwell in it, in the sanctuary, in singular. Betokham implies that God wishes to reside in all the people, inside each and every one of us.
God is continually asking each of us – can I live inside you? Will you house Me and carry Me around so that My light can shine out through you, so that your particular version of My light can manifest and offer nourishment to yourself and others?
Wait – is God seeking sanctuary in us or are we seeking sanctuary in God? We usually think of it the other way– shivti beveit Hashem – that we desire to live in God’s house, not God in our house. I submit that it is all the same, that there is a place where our desire to live in God’s house and God’s desire to live in our house mirror and meet, and that place is the sanctuary inside us, where we and God can rest together. We are so often looking outside of ourselves for some refuge and respite and nourishment and care. But when we create a sanctuary for the divine presence to dwell inside us, we don’t have to go anywhere at all; shivti beveit hashem, dwelling in God’s house, can happen in an instant as we turn inward to the waiting sanctuary that is always there. When we are frightened or sad, we can go there for comfort. When we are joyous, we can go there for celebration. It’s a built in sanctuary right there inside ourselves.
Our Part
We all have the potential to house God in this way, but it does require some effort on our part, or perhaps not effort exactly, but intention, a sustained intention, a choice we make again and again. Ve’asu li mikdash, God says, first make for me a sanctuary, and then veshakhanti betokham, and then I will come to dwell in your midst. There is some action we need to take to have God dwell inside us.
What is that action exactly? How do we make a mikdash, a sacred place, inside? Mikdash, from the root, kadosh, involves sanctifying and setting something sacred aside from the rest, designating this space as specifically dedicated to the divine, clearing room much like we clear our weekly work schedules one day a week to set aside time and make room for the kedushah, the sanctity of shabbat, its own kind of sanctuary.
Clearing Space Inside
Internally, the motion is the same; the task is to clear a space from all the noise of everything else inside in order to sanctity and dedicate some space for the divine presence. I invite you to try the following experiment: Going inside and checking for all the things that are taking up space in your internal world right now. We all have a lot on our minds and hearts. Taking an inventory of what’s there. Noticing each thing and naming it – oh, worry about my son’s illness, oh, anxiety about the world, oh, hurt at something someone said to me earlier today, oh, confusion about how to do this. Checking what’s here, noticing and naming each thing as it appears, and asking each feeling, each part, each thought that comes up to soften and take a seat for now, not exiling it, just asking it to make space for something larger to reside inside you. It’s like cleaning up a messy room, clearing space by picking up each thing and putting it back in its place on the shelf so that gradually there is some open floor space in the middle of the room. Gradually sensing some opening inside, some greater spaciousness amidst the noise. Everything is still there on the periphery, but it’s calmer, less noisy, less crowded and chaotic; there is space in the middle for you and God to meet.
For God’s Sake
Ve’asu li mikdash. Make for Me a sanctuary, God says. Li, for Me. As you clear space inside, maybe you can have the intention that you are doing it for the sake of God in whatever way you understand God or the divine, your own Highest Self or Higher Power, clearing room inside for that divine energy to emerge and have strength and space to grow inside you. It wants to happen, God wants to reside inside you and already does as a seed, a potentiality, but that divine seed can’t come into full fruition unless we make space for it to grow..
A Choice
It is a choice we make. We are not disempowered victims of our fate, though it often feels that way. There is so much in the world that we do not control, and the urge is to fall into despair and collapse and helplessness. We can love up those parts of us that do collapse. It’s ok that they do. But at the same time, we can also choose to make space for God, choose not to give total power and inner real estate to the anxiety and the despair, to all the clamoring voices, but for their sake, to also make room inside for the divine. This is our power, our power to choose what to focus on, what to give air and breath and energy to, inside as well as outside us. To choose life, to choose hope, to choose to become a sanctuary for God in the world no matter what, to carry that light inside us always.
For The Sake of Our Suffering, Too
We create this divine sanctuary inside ourselves also for the sake of our own suffering parts, the fear and the sadness and the anxiety. They want to take us over and leave no room for anything else. They have such a narrow perspective; when we are taken over by them, it seems like there is nothing else. There is only darkness and despair, fear and pain. Which is why they desperately need this sanctuary inside you. They need you to make it and sustain it and return to it so that they can feel its love and hope and light and care. Maybe you can help them see that when they can clear space for this divine sanctuary inside you, it is good for them. It nourishes them. We are building a park inside you where they can come to rest and be held, but we need their help, their help to clear space for the park amidst the dense city congestion so the grass can grow. They can still be here; we are just asking them to step back a little to make room for the park to blossom, to make room for God to dwell with us.
Giving Your Parts a Construction Job
We need their help in other ways, too. These parshiyot include a lot of donations and crafts and creativity in the process of physically making this sanctuary. There is so much positive energy here, the energy of ish asher yidvenu libo (Exodus 25:2), each person giving what their heart most desires to give. No guilt, no obligation, no shoulds, just an immense voluntary outpouring of material and talent for the sake of a grand uniting project which all agree is worth doing. Maybe you can taste a little of that inside you, rallying all your different parts with their various talents and contributions and skills, creating a sense of a joint project which all are excited about – for this we were created, to make an inner sanctuary for God, to become a dwelling place for God. For this we were created. Sensing the excitement inside, how much all your parts and limbs feel energized when there is a sense of purpose in life, not downtrodden and thrown about by the chaotic winds of fate, but choosing to make something, uplifted and inspired to give their energies to making an inner sanctuary for the divine presence.
What does that construction look like inside? You can imagine it in your own way. Maybe there are parts that bring gold and precious stones, maybe there are some that like to weave or hang or construct things or plant flowers, letting them all come back into the space that they emptied, letting them pour in with their good energy and donations and ideas, all together working to decorate this inner sanctuary, this city park, to make it beautiful and sacred and inclusive and restful. Maybe some bring pillows or tea or relaxing music. Sensing the joy of creativity and purpose.
Letting God Enter
Make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in you, God says. Once we have made the sanctuary, the divine presence will come to fill it. We don’t make that happen. We open and clear the space, we decorate it and make it sacred, and then God in God’s own time, enters the vacuum we and our parts have created. We wait for that to happen with patience and faith and steadfastness, clearing space again and again, making room and opening. We give it time. We dedicate time, we empty time and ourselves of busyness to open space for God. Like shabbat, sanctuaries are about open time in addition to space. You have cleared the space and the time right here and now. Letting God come to rest in that sanctuary inside you. Letting yourself and all your parts rest with God there.
God’s Steadfastness, Too
This is not a one time meeting, but a continual process of making space and becoming a sanctuary. We stay steadfast in it, and God, too, stays steadfast with us. Veshakhanti, God says, I will dwell. Not – I will visit once in a while. Not – I will come only when you are in a good mood, only when you feel happy and spacious. No. Veshakhanti. I will dwell. Always. I will live with you through your ups and your downs. The mishkan is mobile. It travels with you wherever you go. Whatever happens, whatever the future might bring, becoming a sanctuary for the divine presence means carrying God with you wherever you go, even down to hell and back, ever accompanied, ever walking the world with God inside you.
Image by Victor at Pexels
