by Zan Alhadeff '27
How did Moshe know how to design the mishkan? God gives Moshe lengthy instructions, from detailing the building materials to the physical measurements and layout. However, as any architect will tell you, verbal specifications are not enough to flesh out a structure in all its creativity and detail. God spoke to Moshe: “And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you make it” (Exodus 25:9). This verse indicates that there is something more to God’s design concept than the instruction we find laid out in parshat Terumah. What did God “show” Moshe?
After the litany of building instructions for the mishkan laid out in Chapter 25, God concludes: “Look—and make it according to their patterns (b’tavnitam) that are being shown to you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). This verse again suggests that God made Moshe see something to demonstrate the patterns, the design, of the mishkan. But what was it?
A midrash in Bamidbar Rabbah (12:8) provides an intriguing answer:
When the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “They shall craft a Tabernacle for Me,” he should have placed four poles upright and stretched the Tabernacle atop them. Rather, it teaches that the Holy One blessed be He showed Moses on high red fire, green fire, black fire, and white fire; He said to him: In the form “that you are being shown on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40).
According to this midrash, God shows Moshe forms and patterns in multicolored fire—white, black, green, and red. This holy blueprint of fire indicates the design for God’s sanctuary on Earth. But how would Moshe know how to translate the divine visual language into specific measurements and materials that people could follow? The midrash (12:8) continues, bringing a mashal, a parable, to answer this very question:
This is compared to an earthly king who had a fabulous garment laden with pearls and jewels. The king says to a member of his household: “Fashion me one like this.” The servant said to him: “My lord the king, am I able to craft one like it?” He told him: “I in my glory, and you with your paints—אֲנִי בִּכְבוֹדִי וְאַתָּה בְּסַמְמָנֶיךָ.”
This parable compares the mishkan to a jeweled garment. Like the servant in the story, we have no way to replicate God’s glory, the patterns of fire He showed Moshe on the mountain. However, God understands this. In the midrashist’s imagination, God only asks that Moshe do his best with the palette and the materials that he has available.
As this midrash says, “I in my glory and you [Moshe] with your paints.” God’s glory, God’s language, seems to take place in the fire. When the people see God’s presence on the mountain, it is “a consuming fire” (Exodus 24:17). And as we have learned, God’s vision for the mishkan is laid out in multicolored fire. God’s fiery presence is often intimidating, even frightening for Bnei Yisrael. We need Moshe to translate the holy fire into human terms. It would not have been possible for most of the Jewish people to withstand, let alone comprehend, God’s glory on the mountain. However, God gave us a way to create the “jeweled garment” here on earth. Just as God can show Moshe the design with God’s glory, the multicolored fire, God understands that Moshe will implement this vision with human artistic materials.
Continuing in this same midrash, Moshe asks God how he can create the mishkan in the same pattern that God showed him. God responds:
He said to him: “Like the form that I am showing you…” (Exodus 25:9) “with the sky-blue, the purple, and the crimson wool, and with the fine linen” (Exodus 38:23). The Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: If you craft what is above, below, I will abandon My supernal council and descend and constrict My Divine Presence into your midst below.
How can Moshe “paint” in the same fashion as God’s vision? Using the design that God showed him on the mountain, Moshe can instruct the people to provide the materials–specifically the fine materials mentioned in our parsha.
Further, this divine-human design process is a reciprocal movement. Just as Moshe brings Heaven down to earth by crafting holy fire into earthly construction, so God agrees to bring God’s presence below, as the Torah says, “so that [God] will dwell amongst them” (Exodus 25:8). In some sense, the mishkan is a copy, an analogue, for the heavens. Later in the same midrash, the Rabbis teach that the pillars of acacia wood “standing” echo the heavenly hosts “standing” and “the gold hooks of the mishkan looked like the stars in the firmament” (12:8). If we create this heavenly structure for God to dwell, God will contract Godself (atzamtzem) to dwell below.
Moshe will fashion the mishkan using earthly materials—specifically, “the sky blue (techelet), the purple (argaman), crimson wool and linen.” Just like the fires on Mount Sinai, the mishkan will be a riot of color: blues, purples, reds, and whites. Moshe will use these raw materials to craft his own version of God’s divine artistry. And although God, through Moshe, gives a very specific blueprint, Moshe needs to fill in the details with his own paints.
What are these paints, dyes, and materials? As the beginning of the parsha explains, all of these fine materials are gifts brought from Bnei Yisrael. “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them…” (Exodus 25:2-3). Each person potentially has a role in this divine-human design. Moshe sees and translates God’s vision, but it is the people, as their “heart[s] are so moved” that provide the “paints” that will bring this vision to life.
Perhaps it is in this way that the mishkan has something to teach us. We may not have access to a fiery vision on a mountaintop, but we all have “paints,” materials that are available to us to create, to construct, even if it is a small part of a larger design. This midrash teaches us that our “paints” are enough, that we can work together to bring God’s presence into the world.
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Zan Alhadeff is a Core Semikha student at Yeshivat Maharat. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, and had a career as an urban planning consultant. She has learned Torah at Hadar and Drisha and is a graduate of Maharat's Beit Midrash Program (2023). Zan has taught Hebrew school and is currently a teaching intern at a local Jewish day school. Zan was also the Assistant Director of Drisha's Dr Beth Samuels High School Summer Program, an intensive Torah learning program for girls. Zan lives in Riverdale, NY with her family.