HUMAN CHRONO-LOGIC and ETERNAL THEO-LOGIC
In building the Mishkan/ Tabernacle, HaShem
mentions first, in Exodus 25:10, the ark of the Covenant/ the Aron. This was clearly the Eternal’s first
priority. How then, do mere mortals like
Moses and Bezalel get permission to work on the outside of the Mishkan first,
before the sacred furniture is made and moved in. We don’t see the ark made
until Exodus 37, AFTER all the exteriors.
Whats up with these dueling work schedules? Would
not the Creator of Man know that humans want to precede the making of furniture
with the building of the exterior structure?
Yes, the Creator would know this. Yet His
economically-terse Torah would want to present both His way: theo-logic, and
Man’s way: chrono-logic. This issue surfaces often when Bible readers grapple
with the precise chronology of Torah events.
The secular Bible Critics cannot fit their
pinheads around the concept of a non-human author, or of any ancient authors,
with the artistic sophistication of a
Picasso ( revealing alternative visions with cubism) or a Melville (seamlessly moving from
narrative to technology, as in Moby Dick).
The Torah sages understood the Eternal’s
theo-logic, which defies the human restrictions of time and space, and considers
the ultimate outcome before the immediate process. In the Lecha Dodi (Come, My Bride) liturgy of Sabbath evening is
a phrase telling us how eventual outcomes are planned long in advance by the
Eternal.
Before the cosmos and planet Earth’s
lifeforms are in place, the Creator has considered His desire to communicate
and guide free-will partners with the gifts of language and Torah. These goals,
perhaps eons away in human time, will
make the elaborate creative process ultimately worthwhile. A valid way to read the Torah’s first sentence
is that ב B’ (with or for) ראשית RaiSHeeYT (what is chief, as in the “premiere”
wisdom, belief in Creation and Revelation , as per Psalms 110:10 ) the Lord
created the heavenly and the earthly.”