Parshat Ki Tisa, 5th Portion, Exodus 36:20-37:16, March 3, 2016

“And he made the planks for the Mishkan of acacia wood, upright. ֽ 

Ten cubits [was] the length of each plank, and a cubit and a half [was] the width of each plank.” (Exodus 36:20-21)

Lots of details here about building the Tabernacle. First thought again was to ask for a pass because I have nothing to say about so many details.

Then the idea of details started bouncing around in my head.

I was looking tonight at a garden and realizing that there were unlimited details right infront of me. I remembered how I'd show a photo to my class and we'd write on the board the details. We could go on for a long time. It was never ending.

My friend Michael tonight told me that birds don't like golf courses because there aren't many details. They think they are deserts.

Mitt Romney today seemed to be pretty sketchy about his details condemning the Trump (he did say that Trump was the only person whose name had an article infront of it—that was a detail).

I thought too about the purpose of the many details for the Tabernacle. When Buddha and his disciples were out walking, Buddha said, “we should build a temple.” “Where,” asked one of the disciples. “Right here,” said Buddha, pointing to the ground. Another disciple then stuck a blade of grass in the ground and said, “Now the temple is built.”

So sacred is created with intention. Any place can be sacred. In fact, the Tabernacle travels to many sites, and each time it works.

When you are stuck in the myriad of details you have no time to dream. You need to be like a race car driver or a flight tower controller. A blink of the eye and you might cause a catastrophe.

Yesterday I wore a heart monitor for 22 hours. It recorded tons of data about every beat. It recorded over 125,000 heart beats, with details about each beat. That is a lot of detail. The cardiologist’s office has a specialist come in to parse the data. And all those beats were unintentional.

Not so with the Tabernacle. All was intentional. Would a blade of grass work for the Tabernacle? Was there something special or magic about the building that would make God appear? Or was there something special in the diligence of the Israelites in building it that did the job? Did they need to go to that trouble to convince God they were ready for his presence? I suppose.