The rabbis of the Mishnah preserved a teaching that has always guided me: “Mitchalmidai yoter mikkulam” — from my students I have learned more than from all others. That teaching arrived with fresh force this week through Dan Stern, one of the lay leaders on Beth Tzedec’s board of directors.

We have just concluded the readings about the Mishkan — the portable sanctuary our ancestors carried through the wilderness. Dan noted something sharp: for all the Torah’s extraordinary detail about the Mishkan’s structure, materials, and adornment — the gold, the acacia wood, the curtains and clasps — there is almost nothing about its physical security. It is an open tent. It moves. It exists in the middle of a wilderness full of threat. And the Torah is essentially silent on fortification.

Why? Because the answer was implicit all along. When the Israelites camped, the Mishkan was placed at the center. The Levites were closest — but surrounding them, spreading outward in every........

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