Terumah - Gifts and Obligations

(12) Annotation: For the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple integrated all of the powers and worlds, and all the arrangements of holiness, all the buildings and treasuries, upper floors and rooms, and all the holy utensils, all are per an exalted template: tzellem, d’moot, model of the holy worlds, and the organization of the components of the Vehicle, they are those that Dovid and Shmuel the seer set in place, “all this in writing from God-YHV”H’s hand upon me, having made me understand all the works of the design” (Divrei Ha-yahmim 1 28:19).

(13) And the sages (OBM) said in Chapter Ei-zeh-hu M’komahn (Z’vahkhim 54:2): “why is it written ‘and he and Shmuel traveled and settled in Na-yote... in Ra-ma’? What is the matter of the relationship between Na-yote and Ra-ma? It’s that they settled in Ra-ma and occupied themselves with the world’s beauty. And what is written in Tahn-khooma (at the beginning of P’koodei) that it is equal in importance to the creation of the world, and it enumerates there, in order, the general cases that occurred during creation, that they occurred also in the [construction of the] Tabernacle, and therefore the text wrote about B’tzal-el: “and I will fill him [with] the spirit-Ruakh of Elohi”m, with wisdom, understanding and knowledge” (Sh’mote 31:3). For with these three items the worlds were created, as is written (Mishlei 3:19) “YHV”H with wisdom founded the earth, established the heavens with understanding, [with knowledge the depths were split]…”. And refer to Zohar (P’koodei 221a and 231b) and in Zohar Cha-dash (T’rooma 35c)—refer there at length. And therefore the sages (OBM, B’ra-khote 55a) stated that B’tzal-el knew to refine/combine the letters with which the heavens and earth were created.

(14) And therefore a man from the holy nation, who is also comprised of all the structures and processes of creation, and all the structures and processes of the Vehicle, the totality of creation, he is also the model and plan of the Tabernacle and the Temple and all its utensils, organized according to the plan of the organs/limbs and components and sinews and all its powers. And therefore the Zohar details the entirety of the plans of the Tabernacle and its utensils, for they are all hinted at in man, a one-to-one correspondence.

(15) For this reason, definitely the focal point of holiness and the Holy Temple, and the appearance in a particular place of the Sh’kheena, is man. For if he makes himself as holy as is possible by fulfilling all of the commandments (for they are also dependent on their upper roots, in the components of the organs/limbs of the Stature, so to speak, of the entirety of all the worlds taken together, and refer to Zohar T’rooma 162b “and you shall make the Tabernacle… this is the secret of the unity…”,—refer there in depth), then he becomes the actual Holy Temple, and within him is YHV”H (blessed be He), as is written (Yirmiya 7:4):” They [emphatic—three times] are the abode of YHV”H. And as they (OBM) said: “and I will dwell within them”—it does not say “among them” but rather “within them.”

(16) And this is what they (OBM) stated (K’toobote 5a): “The handiwork of the righteous is greater than the creation of the heaven and the earth. For about the handiwork of the heaven and the earth it is written (Yeshayahu 48:13) ‘Also, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has measured out the heavens’, while regarding the righteous is written (Sh’mote 15:17): ‘With your hands You set up God’s-ADN”Y Holy Temple’.” They began with the actions of the righteous and concluded their proof with the Holy Temple, for in truth it is the righteous, as a result of their desirable actions before Him (blessed be He), that they [emphatic] are, in actuality, God’s Holy Temple.