בס"ד
In Parshas Terumah HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives the nation of Israel instructions on how to make the Tabernacle. The word in Hebrew for Tabernacle is מִשְׁכָּן which basically means home. So to speak, the Temple will be the home of G-d and is to serve as the model for the homes of the people of Israel and all humanity. As such it has the equivalent of a bedroom, salon, bookcase, lamp, bathroom, stove, yard, and fence. It also will be the most important national shrine of Israel as such the building will be especially glorious.
The Chumash starts with a list of basically 14 raw materials. The first are three precious metals: gold, silver, and copper.
Next come three colored dyes; blue, purple, red; plus the material to be dyed which is fine goat’s wool (7). After that the principal building materials: red ram leather, תַּֽחַשׁ (no clear traditional meaning, dolphin in modern Hebrew) leather, and acacia wood (10). Next is olive oil and spices (12) to be used for incense and cologne. Finally small precious stones and large onyx stones (14).
G-d continues by enumerating and describing the basic furniture. There is an ornate chest which contains the tablets of the Ten Commandments and is also used for prophecy; a seven branch candelabra, and a table with bread on it.
The furniture is inside a two-room pavilion. The walls are constructed from a series of beams next to each other. The roof is made of two leather tarps. Outside is an altar for animal sacrifice. The grounds are surrounded by a fence. The Chumash will later on add an incense altar and a washstand, enumerate the spices, and describe the processing of the oil.
לע"נ האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח
