Welcome to the website of Ohev Sholom -- The National Synagogue.

Make me a Mikdash-it sounds like a Borscht Belt joke-you know, "Poof, you're a Mikdash!" In today's parsha, God tells the Children of Israel V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti betocham. Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. For some reason, this verse has always jumped out at me.

Bnai Yisrael have already been exposed to the concept of kedushah through the mitzvah of Shabbat and other ideas. But a mikdash, a sanctuary, what's that? God tells them to make one, and then proceeds to describe what it looks like and how it should be built. Rashi sets us in the right direction -- v'asu lishmi beit kedushah. Make for My name a house of holiness. A house, a building, where holiness will be maintained as well as expressed, on a constant basis.

This leads me to the rest of the verse, which has always been my favorite part. If we understand the sanctuary as the House of God, then logically the verse should read v'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'tocho. Make for me a sanctuary that I may dwell within it. But that's not what the Torah says. We are being told to build a House for God so that God can dwell among us, or perhaps within us.

One expression of this idea is in the Sfas Emes. He explains that "this means that the Children of Israel have to first establish the quality of 'asiyah,' making or creating, and after that they will merit to have God dwelling within them." We need to work at creating something in order to merit God dwelling within us. He continues, "in truth the souls of the Children of Israel are higher than that, but God sent the souls of Israel into the world of asiyah, of creation, that through their actions holiness will be found in all the worlds." Sounds nice, doesn't it? Holiness in all the worlds? Maybe that's a little too lofty for us sitting here. Maybe there is some way we can apply this to ourselves.

What about creating a mikdash within ourselves? If the point is for God to dwell inside all of the people, certainly each one of us is included! How do we create a sanctuary in our own souls, in our own world? Sforno, in his commentary on this verse, directs us towards prayer. He explains that "v'shachanti betocham" means "I will dwell among them to receive their prayers and service."

I have been reading an incredible book by Rabbi Seth Kadish, called "Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish Prayer", and I thank Rick Atkins for directing me to this book. I've already recommended it to many of you individually, and I'd be happy to speak to anyone about why I love it so much. In one section of this book, Rabbi Kadish surveys many different approaches to prayer, including the approach of the Torah and the Talmud, as well as many thinkers over the course of Jewish history. Some of these approaches might surprise you-many of them believe that prayer has no effect whatsoever on God, that is, that asking for things in one's prayers will never cause God to grant those requests. Some believe that prayer is mainly a tool for self-improvement.

Two of these approaches are particularly relevant. One is what Rabbi Kadish calls "Simple Prayer," and it is exemplified by prayer in the Bible. Simple prayer is what most of us think of as prayer, coming to God in supplication and conversation, petitioning God for things that we believe are worthy causes. There are many philosophical and theological difficulties with simple prayer, but the upshot of this approach is that these difficulties are caused by our limited understanding, and we pray anyway because God desires this type of relationship with us. In this type of prayer we approach God as we would a human friend, father, or king. One of the difficulties with this type of prayer is that we might ask how we become worthy of speaking to God in such a manner-as it says in the Psalms, "Who is Man that You are mindful of him?" If we take our question of creating a Mikdash within ourselves, this gives us one answer-God is interested in our prayers when we create a space for God inside ourselves-a place of holiness and devotion. The focus of our lives, as well as the focus of our prayers, is to create a holy place for God to dwell, in this world and in ourselves.

The other approach that I want to mention is the approach of Rabbi Avraham Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. In Rav Kook's thought, through prayer a person strengthens his own will and desires, and tries to unify that will with God's will. In the highest prayer man is not just expressing his own needs, but the desire of God's entire creation for harmony, for a return to its divine source. In prayer, we create a place for God's will in our own hearts and minds. When we pray as a community, we are uniting all of our wills and desires together with God's, and ideally the entire world's. To Rav Kook, perhaps, this act of uniting our will with the divine allows God to dwell within us.

It is no accident, I believe, that this verse comes in the context of the Mishkan, the place where the Children of Israel sacrificed and prayed in the desert. They were being taught an important lesson-yes, there is a physical center for worshipping God. But that physical center is only part of the picture-God actually dwells not inside this physical space, but inside a person's soul. Just as the physical center is a place of prayer and worship, so a person's prayers can open the door for God to dwell within us.

No matter which approach of the many we might take towards prayer, one thing is clear-it requires a lot of effort if we are going to use it to create a space for God. If we each took just an extra few seconds, or a minute, every time we said the Amidah, it might be just enough time to do more than just say the words-it might give us a chance to create a holy place inside ourselves. As you know, before we start saying the Amidah, we take three steps backwards and three steps forward, so that we can be prepared to approach God in prayer. As we start Musaf in a moment, I suggest that each of us se those steps to try to create that holy space. The two parts of the verse depend on each other-when we create a holy place, then God dwells within us and among us.