Shabbos 5
“The labors prohibited on Shabbat are derived from the labors that were performed in the building of the Tabernacle during the encampment of Israel in the desert, and the desert was most definitely not covered.”
I am a little dazed from all the carrying, catching, lifting, throwing, and running between domains. What resonated with me today is the reference to the tabernacle in the desert.
Today’s reading reminds us of our desert roots and describes a public domain through memories of the 40 years we wandered under the open sky, with no roof above us. What must it have been like to live in the desert without a permanent marker on the map of civilization that belonged solely to us? Think about it: we were a people who lived under the stars with nothing but a belief deep in our hearts that one day we would find our home. And how enormous and promising the sky must have been for us to gaze upon while we imagined the people we were to become?
At the heart of who we are, especially those who live in the diaspora, is the image of a wanderer who may have a physical and legal home but perhaps not a spiritual one. This reading reminds us that prohibitions against carrying and throwing resonates with memories from the time we lived in the desert and exerted great energy with the building of the tabernacle. My Jewish Learning describes the Tabernacle as a “portable sanctuary.”
It is through the reading of the same page of the Talmud at the same time as thousands of fellow Jews that is allowing me to understand the importance of a spiritual home; we carry this home deep within us as we tackle the difficult text, just like we once carried a magnificent tabernacle through the desert.
The article from My Jewish Learning describes the importance of the portability of the tabernacle which foreshadows the building of synagogues wherever in the diaspora Jews lived.