More on Temples and Tabernacles

In a previous post, I wrote:
 

So, we went to the Western Wall a few weeks ago for a friend's son's bar mitzvah and I felt like it was just another place. I contrasted the grandiosity of the Temples that stood there, huge monumental buildings, with the simplicity of a tent (i.e. the Mishkan, according to the Samaritans) stretched over the bare rock of Givat Olam. (Quoth Thoreau: "Our lives are frittered away by detail; simplify, simplify, simplify.") For me at least, the latter is a much bigger draw; I find the former off-putting. (Who needs the big, grandiose, colossal buildings? God or our us?)

 A few Shabbatot (Sabbaths) ago, we (Jews) read Exodus 25:1-27:19 in synagogue, including Exodus 25:8-9:

And let them make Me a sanctuary (mikdash), that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle (mishkan), and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall you make it.
 

O'dox Judaism views these verses as the mitzvah to build the Tabernacle and its successor, the Temple[s]. Linguistically, mikdash is a general word here, while mishkan is the more specific term; I think this flows from the plain reading of the text. God's subsequent, very specific & detailed, instructions (Exodus 25:10-27:19) are about the Tabernacle (mishkan) only! Where does it say anything about building a (huge, grandiose & imposing) Temple? Ah, that's our O'dox interpretation based on our concept of the Oral Torah, Torah Sh'ba'al peh, which, I've come/am coming/ to the conclusion, can be made to say just about anything but which in this case (as in many others) assumes facts not in (the written) evidence.

I go back to the simplicity of a tent (i.e. the Tabernacle/Mishkan) stetched over the bare rock of Givat Olam. Worship God on this mountain!

Back to the House of Rimmon.

Sigh

nb