BackSpiritual Beauty
By: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger
We live in an age of informality. “Dressing down” and casualness are a cultural norm, and that has seeped into our religious lives. The Torah though has a different perspective. This week’s Shabbat Torah reading emphasizes the detail and formal structure of the aesthetic side of faith. We learn of every ornament, every finely crafted object, used in the traveling Tabernacle in the desert, and intended as the design blueprint of the Jerusalem Temple. There is nothing casual about the place where Divine worship takes place.
As G-d states in the Torah, “They [the Jewish People] must make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.” Rashi explains that means the Children of Israel were commanded to make a separate, or holy, space for prayer. Indeed, the very next verse of the Torah uses the word “form” when delving into the details of the Tabernacle’s design. We will soon be provided with the details of the religious service itself, in all its wondrous formality.
Our tradition is teaching us that true spirituality – reaching inward – starts with outward dignity and effort in decorum. Praying in a beautiful space, acting as a true servant of the Divine Law, requires a kind of formality. Not a stuffy aloofness, but a dignified honor befitting someone worthy of sharing in holy space. Just think of the magnificence of the Bet HaMikdash, the Jerusalem Temple, of which every synagogue is a miniature version, and every worshiper a participant in its spiritual purpose.