Entering and Travelling (Parshat Vayakhel - Pikudei)

i
When the Mishkan—the dwelling-place of God—is completed, Moses tries to enter it.

But he is not able to enter...because the cloud of God’s Glory is there.

ii
At Mount Sinai God came down in a thick cloud, and called Moses up.

And Moses walked up the Mountain and he was alone with God.

*
Now, in the Mishkan, Moses witnesses the cloud of God again.

So of course he tries to enter the Mishkan—where the cloud is, where God is—to repeat what he had done before.

iii
But when the cloud was taken up from upon the Mishkan, the Children of Israel went onward in all their journeys.

So through the Mishkan, the cloud has become a signal for the journey with God.

It is no longer a sign for being alone with God.

*
So it is no wonder that now Moses is not able to enter, on account of the cloud.

iv
There is a time to be alone with God and there is a time to journey with God, out into the world.

This is so, even if the transition feels as if God Himself has shut you out.

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