“And G-d spoke to Moshe to say to the Jewish people: Ach, however: my Sabbaths you are to keep! For it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, to know that I, the Lord your G-d, who sanctifies you” (Shemot 31:12-13).
This verse follows on the heels of the command to build a Mishkan, a Tabernacle to G-d. Being the fifth time that Shabbat is mentioned in the Torah, the verse is seemingly redundant. Beyond helping to make clear that Shabbat is very, very important in the eyes of the Torah (it will be mentioned a total of 15 times throughout the Torah) our Sages understood this verse as teaching that while we must build a Mishkan, we may not build it on Shabbat. Furthermore, our Sages derived the entire notion that there are 39 prohibited activities on Shabbat from the juxtaposition of Shabbat and the Mishkan. The Mishkan is important but Shabbat is even more important and the Mishkan will have to wait.
Yet while our tradition prohibits constructing the Mishkan – and later the Beit HaMikdash – on Shabbat, once they are constructed pretty much all activities are carried out as normal on Shabbat. So much so we even bring two additional lambs above and beyond the daily obligation to do so, commemorated today by davening of the additional prayer of Mussaf. One who would walk into the Beit Mikdash on Shabbat would have a hard time knowing it was Shabbat. Additionally, Rabbinic decrees are not observed in the Temple. Thus when Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbat the shofar was blown in the Temple but nowhere else[1].
This dichotomy seems hard to understand. If we are meant to show the primacy of Shabbat vis a vis the Mishkan it makes little sense to observe Shabbat for the construction and then ignore it once the Temple is built.
Perhaps our calculus is incorrect. Perhaps the Temple is more important – what can be more important than a house for G-d? – but only once the house is up and running. But why would this be? Should we not build G-d’s home as fast as we can? It is the Mikdash itself, built with such grandeur, that is a great testament to G-d, even while not in use. Is not the building of the Temple even more important than its operation? If it operates on Shabbat clearly one should be allowed to build it on shabbat. Or so one would think.
G-d “rested” when He created the world to teach man to emulate G-d. We are created in His image and we too must create six days a week and “rest” on the seventh, thereby recognizing that G-d is the ultimate Creator. However, the Temple exists in a different space and different time zone.
It is not even clear when Shabbat would begin in the Temple. As we all know, a Jewish day begins at night, hence Shabbat begins on Friday night. But this is only true outside of the Temple. In the Temple itself the day begins in the morning, at dawn. Hence if one brings a sacrifice say on a Monday afternoon generally its meat can be eaten until Tuesday at the crack of dawn i.e. the end of the day [2].
G-d created an incomplete world leaving the task to man to make it even better. As G-d began the creative process he brought forth light from darkness. We must do the same. Hence our day begins at night and it is our task to bring light to this world. But in the Temple, in G-d's dwelling place, we begin with light, the light that emanates from the Divine. As the dwelling place of G-d it is a place where there can be no darkness”, hence sacrifices may only be brought during the day.
So too Temple space operates in another dimension. “There is a tradition placed in our hands by our ancestors: There was no measurement for the space of the Ark” (Megillah 10b). As the Talmud explains, the Kodesh Kodashim, the Holy of Holies was 20 cubits wide. The Ark measured 2.5 by 1.5 cubits and yet our Sages taught that there were still 10 cubits of space on either side of Ark, something that defies the laws of physics. Similarly, one of the ten miracles of the Temple is that the people “omdim zekufim umistachavim revachim" (Avot 5:4) stood squished together and yet they had plenty of space to prostrate themselves.
There is no need for Shabbat in the Temple. It is a place where time and space operate on a divine plane. It is, like shabbat, a taste of the world to come – a world beyond time and space.
But such is only true once the Mikdash is actually built. While we are in the process of building the Mikdash, of linking the human to the Divine we are very much bound by the bonds of time and space.
The Temple exists beyond time and space – as does Shabbat. May we soon merit the fulfilment of the words we sing at the seder, “Draw near the day that will be neither day nor night. Highest One, make known that day is Yours and also night..Light up like daylight the darkness of night.
[1] Fascinatingly, the Rambam is of the view that the city of Jerusalem is to be considered part of the Temple for the purpose of shofar blowing.
[2] The opening Mishna of the Talmud teaches that out of sense or pre-caution the Sages ordained we finish eating by mid-night, something we are familiar with regarding the Afikoman.
