The Mishkan’s Pegs and the Details in Chinuch
by Rabbi Hami | Mar 11, 2015 | Chinuch | 1 comment
I heard a shiur this week from Rabbi Levi Garelik in which he mentioned a fascinating story brought down in the Sefer Migdal Oz, a Sefer written in memory of the famed Chosid Azriel Zelig Slonim of Yerushalyim, originally from Lubavitch. In the Sefer is a strange Ma’aseh in which the Frierdike Rebbe seemed to disobey his father, the Rebbe Rashab. Apparently there was a certain Bochur who was trying to get accepted into Tomchei Tmimim, of which the Menahel, the Frierdike Rebbe, refused to accept him. This Bochur, in his eyes, did not posses the right qualities appropriate for a Tomim. In the Sefer is a copy of a letter that the Rebbe Rashab asks his son to nevertheless accept this boy after encountering the crying bochur who said his only desire was to remain Frum and be a Tomim. At the end of the letter, The Rebbe Rashab writes that this letter should be burned.
Needless to say, from the fact that we have this letter and know about this, the Firierdike Rebbe did not do as his father told him to do.
Not only did he not burn the letter, but at the bottom of the letter the Frierdike Rebbe writes the background of the story and why this boy was finally accepted. Rabbi Garelik was saying that we can a see from this how much the Frierdike Rebbe cherished this letter. In order to explain why, he prefaces with an explanation from the Rebbe on a detail of the building of the Mishkan. The Rebbe asks why theTorah required the חכמי לב – those Jews who were “Wise of Heart” – to be the ones to do every detail of the construction, even those parts that seemingly do not require great skill. Specifically, the question is mentioned in regards to the fastening of the fabric covers on the Mishkan. The way they were kept in place, despite the desert winds, was that they were tied down at the ends and with pegs, hammered into earth, fastened tight.
Why was it crucial that in the Mishkan this be done by the very same “engineers” who did the intricate work of designing the structure and all its parts?