Shabbat Parashat Vaykhel Pekudei 5783

Parashat Hashavua: What Was the Point of the Mechonot?

The Mishkan was Bnei Yisrael’s central venue of worship for hundreds of years, and was the prototype of the Beit Hamikdash, which Shlomo Hamelech erected thereafter. However, there were notable differences between the two holy edifices. The haftara teaches us about one of the new items, the ten mechonot, special bases for washing utensils (Melachim I, 7:27-37). The mechonot were made of shiny copper and had, engraved in their sides, images of animals as well as special wheels at their bases. These characteristics are reminiscent of the merkava, the chariot upon which Hashem sits and moves, ka’v’yachol, as described in the most sublime prophecies of the prophets.

In the past we explained that Shlomo wanted everyone who would visit the Beit Hamikdash to know that the Divine Presence dwelled there, having gone down from the Heavens to the chosen place on Earth. When the special copper shined in the sun, it looked like chariots of fire had landed in the Beit Hamikdash’s courtyard, where they remained permanently, along with the Divine Presence.

We will now suggest another explanation. Shlomo wanted the visitors to the Beit Hamikdash to return to the status of Adam before his sin or Bnei Yisrael before their sin of the Golden Calf (see Nefesh Hachayim 1:6). As such, each one could be blessed with a revelation of the Divine Presence, making each one a prophet of sorts. At the revelation at Sinai, indeed everyone had reached such a state, as they heard at least the first two commandments directly from Hashem, giving them their own “sighting of the ma’aseh merkava (Divine Chariot).”

Let us put things in perspective. Ma’aseh merkava is a nickname for the few places in Tanach in which there is a description of a direct, to the extent possible, meeting with the Divine Presence. One can see the Chariot, not its Rider. The first such description was at Sinai (see Shemot 24:10-11). We next find it at the prophecy of Michayhu ben Yimla, a contemporary of Eliyahu, who said: “I saw Hashem sitting on His throne, and all of the beings of the Heaven were standing to His right and to His left” (Melachim I, 22:19). More than a hundred years later, Yeshayahu pronounced that he saw “Hashem sitting on a lofty throne and His bottom part filled the Temple” (Yeshayahu 6:1). More than a hundred years after that, Yechezkel told, “The Heaven was opened, and I saw divine sights” (Yechezkel 1:1; see also 10:1; 43:2-3, for more detailed descriptions).

Comparing the merkava with the mechonot, we conclude that Shlomo aimed to give every person who visited the Beit Hamikdash the feeling of “gazing at the pleasantness of Hashem and visiting His Temple” (Tehillim 27:4). This was facilitated by the special shining of the mechonot’s copper. On a deeper level, Shlomo went a step further than David, in Tehillim, and tried to give simpler people than the great prophets an experience that seemed somewhat parallel. On the one hand, this can elevate them spiritually. On the other hand, those who reach levels that are arguably too high for them, could be spiritually damaged (see Chagiga 14b). May we all merit being on the level that David Hamelech strove for.

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