“Moreover, why should they build it? Could not the Creator of the Universe have chosen some magnificent feature of the natural world that He had fashioned in which to, as it were, dwell, rather than relying on merely human artisans? But the point was, as I said, for them to open up a space in order to allow Him to fill it. And this is the most basic principle of our way, to open up such a space in our lives and in our hearts. Then such a space will have the capacity to radiate outward” (James Kugel, On Being a Jew, 36).
It is through one of the great concepts of Jewish mysticism – R. Isaac Luria’s notion of tzimtzum – that we can best understand the beauty of this idea. Luria posed a fascinating question: How, if G-d exists, can the universe exist? G-d is everywhere. Therefore, in any given place, there is both finite and infinite being. But surely infinity must crowd out finitude. There is simply no space for physical matter if every place is filled with the glory of G-d. Luria’s answer was that in order to make space for the universe, G-d, as it were, imposed on Himself a process of contraction, self-effacement, tzimtzum. Only by doing so could He contain the Divine light sufficiently to allow the emergence of a physical world. The universe is the space G-d creates for mankind through an act of self-limitation.
By a dazzling parallel, the same applies in reverse. The sanctuary is the space mankind creates for G-d through an act of self-limitation. Hence the phrase repeated in our sedrah: “The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.”
(The structure is astonishingly precise. The sentence, “Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded,” appears at the center of chapters 39-40. Before it, the phrase, “just as the Lord commanded Moses,” appears seven times; after it, it appears another seven times. The total is therefore 15 – the number of words in the priestly blessing [“The Lord bless you and protect you…”]. This blessing itself appears [Numbers 6:24-26] just before the words, “When Moses finished setting up the Tabernacle” – a reference back to the moment described in our sedrah.)
How do we practice self-limitation? By acting “just as the Lord commanded,” suspending our will in deference to His. That is the meaning of “the holy” in Judaism. Holiness is the space we create for G-d by sacrificing the pursuit of self-interest and the satisfaction of desire, and aligning ourselves, instead, with the totality of being. When that happens, our lives become transparent containers of the infinite light.