mishkan and shabbos

I get nervous whenever I write something more drush-like.  When I look back at things I've written in that style, I often cringe.  So take that as a disclaimer.

In the next few parshios, Hashem tells us of the concept of a mishkan and commands us to build one - vi-asu li mikdash vishachanti bitocham.  G-d limits this command, however, by emphasizing several times over that the mishkan is not to be built on shabbos.  There are three places that I am aware of where this limmud appears in chumash:

1. pasuk in ki tisa - ach es shabsosai tishmoru - the word ach is to exclude shabbos from being used to build the mishkan.

2. in the beginning of vayakhel, the torah, immediately before discussing building the mishkan, mentions the prohibition of shabbos, to imply that shabbos takes precedence over the building of the mishkan.

3. in kedoshim, the pasuk says es shabsosai tishmoru vi-es mikdashi tirau ani hashem.  chazal say: you and the mikdash are commanded in hashem's kavod; therefore don't violate shabbos for the mikdash. (see rashi shavuos 15b about this).  I once wrote something trying to explain this strange formulation (the mikdash is commanded in Hashem's kavod?), but that is not the focus now.

We know that in hilchos shabbos, there are so many loopholes that allow one to perform what would be a melacha deoraysa of shabbos in a way that is only derabanan.  The reason for this is (in large part) the din of mileches machsheves. Mileches machsheves means (at least) two things.  Primarily, it means that one is only responsible for a melacha done on shabbos with daas - knowledge of and intent for the result that will ensue from the melacha.  But a misasek, for example, is patur - so much so that he does not even bring a korban.  המתעסק בשבת - פטור, מלאכת מחשבת אסרה תורה.

Second, rashi writes, מלאכת מחשבת שהיא מלאכת אומנות (rashi beitzah 13b).  A melacha that is not performed in the way a craftsman would perform it is not mileches machsheves.  This is what leads to the many loopholes in hilchos shabbos (on a deoraysa level).  For example, performing a melacha kilachar yad or bishinuy is generally assumed to be only a rabbinic violation because of the concept of mileches machsheves.

 So this leads to the following question:  why couldn't bnei yisrael build the mishkan bishinuy, or using some other loophole, and since there probably were no drabanans then, they could have their cake and eat it too! - they could both keep shabbos and build the mishkan.

(While this may seem like a ridiculous question, I told it to my chavrusa expecting him to chew me out, and he told me that R. Tzarfati asked this question at a kollel chabura, also pleading with his audience to "hear him out".  If anyone was there and remembers R. Tzarfati's answer, I would love to hear it.)

There is a famous piece of Torah from the eglei tal. The eglei tal notes that there are two limmudim which connect shabbos and mishkan.  One is, as we've been discussing, that binyan beis hamikdash is not docheh shabbos.  The other is that the melachos that are assur on shabbos are those that were performed in the mishkan.  This is no coincidence - the 2 derashos are really one.  By disallowing binyan beis hamikdash on shabbos, the torah is telling us that the melachos that are prohibited on shabbos are those which are part of the binyan beis hamikdash.   This is a very elegant shtickel torah.

The mekor for the din of mileches machsheves on shabbos is also from the mishkan.  The torah describes the mileches hamishkan as mileches machsheves.  By the aforementioned limmudim, melacha on shabbos is only assur if it is a mileches machsheves.

I suggest (admittedly without much basis) that the torah is not being merely descriptive when it refers to meleches hamishkan as mileches machshves - rather, the torah is prescriptively commanding for the mishkan to be built only via mileches machsheves.  Just like there is a din lishma by terumas and binyan beis hamikdash (first rashi in this week's parsha), so too there is a din of machsheves - the binyan beis hamikdash must be done with full daas and understanding, and it must be done with craftsmanship and expertise.

The shtickel of the eglei tal cuts both ways:  The melacha that is assur on shabbos is that of building a mishkan.  If melacha that is not machsheves is muttar on shabbos, then it must be that such melacha is not fit for building a mishkan!

I have always wondered what hashkafic message chazal meant for us to take away by presenting us with this "dialectic" of mishkan and shabbos, and telling us that shabbos is "more important" than mishkan.  Maybe its as follows:  If mileches hamishkan were to be muttar on shabbos, then it would come out that "mileches kodesh" is muttar on shabbos - so the only melacha that is assur on shabbos is mileches chol, and that melacha is muttar during the week.

Comes along the torah and says you've got it all wrong.  Mileches chol isn't assur on shabbos alone and muttar during the week - it's assur period!  Shabbos can only be coming to assur mileches hamishkan because that is melacha that is muttar during the week - mileches kodesh is muttar.  Mimeila the melacha that is assur on shabbos is the melacha that comprises binyan beis hamikdash - thats the melacha that the torah was referring to when Hashem said sheshes yamim taavod.

I don't mean at all to prohibit working for a living or anything of the sort.  But any melacha one does, one had better sit down and cheshbon that it is part of their avodas hakodesh and can be considered a mileches kodesh.  Mileches chol has no place in the life of a ben torah.

And when one does meleches kodesh during the week, like in the mishkan, it has to be machsheves.  It must be done excellently and with "craftsmanship" - mediocrity is unacceptable.  More importantly, it must be done with daas and machshavah - we cannot go through our avodas hashem haphazardly and without thought.  Action must be deliberate - the intent and tzurah of an action defines it more than the action itself.

If we succeed at that, then we can appreciate shabbos when we rest and abstain from mileches machsheves - we look back at and reflect upon our mileches machsheves of the previous week.  We should all be zocheh!

Good shabbos.