Clean Slate Legislation Source Sheet

And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (Exod. 25:8). On which day did He relate to Moses the portion relating to the Temple? It was on the Day of Atonement. That was so despite the fact that the Torah portion describing the Sanctuary precedes the incident of the golden calf. R. Judah the son of R. Shalum said: There is actually no such thing as preceding or following in the Torah, as is said: Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not (Prov. 5:6). This verse refers to the arrangement of the Torah and its sections. Hence, it was on the Day of Atonement that He told Moses: Make Me a Sanctuary.

Whence do we know this to be so? Moses went up Mount Sinai on the sixth day of Sivan, and remained there for forty days and forty nights. He stayed there another forty days, and then a final forty days, totaling one hundred and twenty days in all. Thus you find that it must have been on the Day of Atonement that he told Moses about the Temple, for it was on that day that they were forgiven. And on that day the Holy One, blessed be He, told them: Make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell therein, so that the nations might know that He had forgiven them for the episode of the golden calf. It was called the Sanctuary of the Testimony, for it bore witness to the nations of the world that the Holy One, blessed be He, dwelt within their Sanctuary.

The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: Let gold be placed within the Sanctuary to atone for the gold with which the golden calf was fashioned, as it is said: And all the people broke off the golden rings (Exod. 32:3). Thus they atoned with gold; And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold (ibid. 25:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds (Jer. 30:17).

You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high. 24 Overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. 25 Make a rim of a hand’s breadth around it, and make a gold molding for its rim round about. 26 Make four gold rings for it, and attach the rings to the four corners at its four legs.... 28 Make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold; by these the table shall be carried. 29 Make its bowls, ladles, jars and jugs with which to offer libations; make them of pure gold. 30 And on the table you shall set the bread of display, to be before Me always. 31 You shall make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be made of hammered work; ... 37 Make its seven lamps—the lamps shall be so mounted as to give the light on its front side— 38 and its tongs and fire pans of pure gold. 39 It shall be made, with all these furnishings, out of a talent of pure gold.