God created the world, a home for us. This is how the Torah begins. In this week’s parashah, the inverse begins to happen. The Jewish People are commanded to build a house for God, a Mishkan:

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם (שמות כה:ח)

They will make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell amongst them (Shemot 25:8)

They are commanded to bring the necessary materials for its construction: gold, silver, copper, wool, linen, leather, and wood, amongst others. Wood, of which the structure of the Mishkan would be made, is in short supply in any desert. The commentators, therefore, were left to suggest novel explanations as to where they sourced the wood. Rashi (25:5) quotes a Midrash:

But from where did they get this in the wilderness? Rabbi Tanchuma explained it thus: Our forefather Yaakov foresaw by Divine revelation that Israel would one day build a Mishkan in the wilderness: he therefore brought cedars to Egypt and planted them there and commanded his children to take these with them when they would leave Egypt.

The Ibn Ezra (25:5) rejects this approach and prefers a more practical one. It would be implausible that the Jews, who originally told the Egyptians that they would be gone for a mere three days, could have left Egypt burdened with large beams of timber. That would have given the game away. Rather, he is forced to conclude that next to Mount Sinai there must have been some woodland. The nation used this wood to build the huts that provided them shelter in the desert (later commemorated on Sukkot).........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)