The Mishkan משכן
The portable sanctuary of the desert: a dismountable dwelling for the Presence that travelled with the people.
"They shall make Me a sanctuary and I shall dwell among them"—the Torah says among them, not in it, and the sages read that as the key: the sanctuary is needed by people, not by God. The Mishkan was built in 2449, less than a year after the Exodus, from voluntary gifts that eventually had to be stopped.
Its design is described in extraordinary detail: the Holy of Holies with the Ark and cherubim, the curtain, the table of showbread, the menorah, the golden altar of incense; in the courtyard the copper altar and laver. Its master craftsman was Betzalel, of whom it is said that he knew how to combine the letters with which heaven and earth were made.
It was dismantled at every encampment and carried by the Levites, and stood at Gilgal, Shiloh, Nov and Gibeon until Shlomo built the Temple.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Shemot 25–40 — the construction and erection of the Mishkan
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berachot 55a — Betzalel knew the letter combinations of creation
- Zevachim 118b — the stations of the sanctuary: Shiloh, Nov, Givon
- Shemot Rabbah 33 — “take Me with you” — the meaning of the offering
Rishonim
- Rambam, Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 1 — from the Mishkan to the Temple
Basis: tradition.