Parker Palmer often teaches on the Tragic Gap, the distance between our current reality and our ideal. Part of our work is to try and bridge this gap, however inevitable it is, shortening the distance between where we are now and where we’d like to be. This is one way to conceive of an interesting dynamic in this week’s parashah, with instructions for building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, right up against another commandment to keep Shabbat. The Torah puts these two concepts and what they represent in conversation with one another.
While both Shabbat and the Mishkan aim at developing our relationship with the Divine, they are somewhat antithetical to one another. It would be too simple to say that these are just two different ways to access God. Instead, the Mishkan represents the paradigm of how we work towards and put effort into our relationships, both with God and with other people. The Mishkan, with the litany of materials and IKEA-like building instructions, parallel the six days of the week. But Shabbat, in contrast, is not just the absence of work, it is a deliberate cessation of work in order to be present, in order to be fulfilled with what’s in front of us.
Ki Tissa, as a whole, serves somewhat as a microcosm of typical life. We witness the mundane aspects of life, the building, the work, the setbacks, the rules, and in the middle, Shabbat. We engage in the work, but we don’t often intentionally remove work so that we can engage on a deeper, spiritual level. My friend Rabbi Aviva Richman writes, “We take a break from this work on Shabbat, not just because we are tired and need time off, but to bring a sense of our true selves into clear focus, and to know that what feels like the unattainable vision towards which we strive can actually be real.”
Both of these religious postures are important in our lives. Six days a week we pursue and create and repair, and one day we stop. We try and feel complete and whole in what we have, even though we know that come Sunday, we will return to the work, return to building the bridge over the Tragic Gap. But for now, for Shabbat, we live inside of the vision of what we know can be, and should be. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
