Our Torah reading for this week is called parashat Pekudei, which is the concluding portion of the great Book of Exodus (i.e., ספר שמות). It begins with Moses’ accounting of (פקודי) all the materials that were donated for the construction of the Mishkan (i.e., Tabernacle). After Moses recorded the inventory of the building materials and furnishings, he carefully checked the special priestly garments. After all the work was confirmed to be in complete accordance with the LORD’s instructions, Moses blessed the people. The LORD then commanded Moses to assemble the Mishkan on “the first month in the second year [from the date of the Exodus], on the first day of the month” (i.e., on Nisan 1, or Rosh Chodashim, Exod. 40:17).
Once the Tabernacle was completed and all its vessels were accounted for and inspected, Moses anointed all its components with the sacred anointing oil, called shemen ha-mishchah (note that the word “mishchah” (מִשְׁחָה) comes from the same root as “Messiah” (מָשִׁיחַ), indicating that the Mishkan (i.e., Tabernacle) would foreshadow God’s plan of redemption given in Yeshua). Moses then formally initiated Aaron and his four sons into the priesthood, marking their hands and feet with sacrificial blood and “waving them” before the Lord to picture resurrection. God’s Presence – manifest as the Shekhinah Cloud of Glory – then filled the Holy of Holies in the Tent of Meeting.
At the end of the portion we read, וַיְכַל משֶׁה אֶת־הַמְּלָאכָה / “Moses finished all the work” (Exod. 40:33), a phrase that has the same gematria (numeric value) as bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית, “in the beginning”), the very first word of the Torah (Gen. 1:1). This suggests that the creation of the universe was for the sake of the building of the Tabernacle, and by extension, for the sake of the sacrificial love of God to be demonstrated to all of creation. The Talmud states, “All the world was created for the Messiah” (Sanhedrin 98b) and indeed, Yeshua is called “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” in the New Testament (Rev. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9).
The Presence of the Glory of God that descended from Sinai upon the newly dedicated Mishkan represented a climactic moment for the fledgling nation, since the Sin of the Golden Calf had jeopardized whether the God would indeed dwell within the midst of the camp of Israel… Recall that it was only after Moses had returned from Sinai bearing the second set of Tablets (on Yom Kippur) that the glow of the LORD’s redeeming love radiated from his face, and new hope was given to Israel (prefiguring the New Covenant). The King of Glory would accompany the people from Sinai to the Promised Land! (The narrative continues in the Book of Numbers, beginning exactly one month after the Mishkan was assembled.)
In addition to the Torah material I discuss the holidays of Purim and Shabbat Parah, as well as the greater meta-themes of Passover and the Exodus from Egypt.
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Our Torah reading for this week is
Our Torah reading for this week, 
Did you know that one of the most frequently occurring commandments of Torah is to love the stranger? The commandment is repeated in various forms over 30 times in the Jewish Scriptures, for instance: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:18); “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34); “Love the stranger, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19); “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exod. 22:21); “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong” (Lev. 19:33); “Do not oppress the stranger” (Zech. 7:10); “Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due the stranger” (Deut. 24:19); “The stranger shall be as the native born children of Israel among you” (Ezek. 47:22), “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you”(Exod. 12:49; Num. 15:16), and so on. Clearly the LORD does not want people to feel ostracized, excluded, or otherwise left out of His providential and loving plans… Indeed, the message of the universal love of God is at the heart of the gospel itself, hearkening back to God’s earliest promises to redeem humanity and restore paradise lost. “Religion,” tribalism, prejudice, ethnic pride, and so on, are anathema to the Kingdom of God.
“Let them make me a mikdash (“holy place,” “sanctuary”), that I may dwell in their midst” (Exod. 25:8). Though this verse refers to the physical mishkan (i.e., “Tabernacle”), it more deeply refers to the duty of the heart to sanctify the Name of God and bring a sense of holiness to the inner life. This requires that we focus the mind and heart to honor the sacredness of life, taking “every thought captive” to the truth of God in Messiah (2 Cor. 10:5). Since our minds and hearts are gateways to spiritual revelation, we must be careful to not to abuse ourselves by indulging in sloppy thinking or unrestrained affections. God holds us responsible for what we think and believe (Acts 17:30-31), and that means we have a duty to honor moral reality and truth. There is an “ethic of belief,” or a moral imperative to ascertain the truth and reject error in the realm of the spiritual. Since God holds us responsible to repent and believe the truth of salvation, He must have made it possible for us to do so (“ought” implies “can”). And indeed, God has created us in His image and likeness so that we are able to discern spiritual truth. He created us with a logical sense (rationality) as well as a moral sense (conscience) so that we can apprehend order and find meaning and beauty in the universe He created. All our knowledge presupposes this. Whenever we experience anything through our senses, for example, we use logic to categorize and generalize from the particular to the general, and whenever we make deductions in our thinking (comparing, making inferences, and so on), we likewise rely on logic. We have an innate intellectual and moral “compass” that points us to God.
In this audio podcast I discuss the role of tradition in our understanding of the Torah and the Holy Scriptures. Though this is a somewhat complex subject, it is comprehensible if we take the time to carefully think through some of the issues. Among other things I consider the philosophical idea of the “Tao” as described by C.S. Lewis in relation to human conscience, the intuitive idea of the moral law as empirically expressed in various world cultures, and the argument that objective values are implied in any statement of right and wrong. I also consider the role and influence of tradition regarding the revelation of the law of God given at Mount Sinai, the subsequent preservation and transmission of the written words of Scripture, the creation of the biblical canon, and how both Yeshua and the Apostle Paul accepted and ministered in the context of the theological traditions of their day. I hope you might find it helpful…
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