Exploring the 3 dimensions of our spiritual life
Since my childhood, I have been an avid reader. When I first discovered the joy of reading, I devoured everything I could get my hands on. Even today, my tastes remain eclectic. However, there is at least one genre of literature that I tend to avoid.
I do not read science fiction. I trace my distaste for the genre to one of its recurring themes: the possible existence of a fourth dimension. Somehow, the three dimensions of our ordinary reality are quite enough for me. The possibility of a mysterious fourth — a “black hole” in the universe — has always struck me as unimaginable.
The three dimensions of our existence are not only part of physical reality. Forward and backward, left and right, up and down all play a role in our religious experience as well.
For example, when a Jew shakes the lulav on Sukkot, he moves it left and right, up and down, forward and backward. In doing so, he mimics the ritual of tenufah (waving) performed in the ancient Holy Temple, where sacred objects were lifted and rotated through all three dimensions.
When the Shema is recited and the Jew declares that the L-rd is one, echad, he is instructed to imagine that G-d’s dominion extends over all three dimensions of existence — the horizontal plane, the vertical plane and the dimension of inner and outer.
Our tradition also speaks of another dimensional triad — not three aspects of space, but three modes of human experience: time, space and person. In Hebrew, this triad is known as olam-shana-nefesh; literally, “world-year-soul.”
Part of our experience is temporal; we live in time. We also live spatially, bound by geography. And we possess an inner experience of consciousness and personal awareness. Thus, three dimensions.
These three dimensions play a central role in this week’s parsha, Vayakhel. Three themes intertwine in the chapters of Exodus 35:1–38:20 that comprise our parsha.
These themes are the Sabbath, the Mishkan (Tabernacle), and the individuals addressed in the parsha — those who contribute materially and creatively to the Mishkan’s construction.
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The parsha begins as Moses assembles the entire congregation of the Children of Israel. Moses and the Jewish people together constitute one dimension — one nefesh, one people.
He shares with them the message of the Sabbath: working for six days and resting on the seventh. He commands them not to kindle fire in their homes on the Sabbath day. In doing so, he introduces the second dimension — time. He initiates the concept of sacred time, set apart from the mundane.
The remainder of the parsha describes the construction of a sacred place — a space demarcated from the surrounding environment.
Throughout Parshat Vayakhel we read of those whose “hearts are stirred up and whose spirits are willing” (Exodus 35:21) to bring gifts and contributions from which this sacred space will be built. We read of the “wise-hearted women … whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom” (Ibid. 35:26), whose hands crafted the embroidered cloths that decorated this sanctuary.
We also read of two individuals, Bezalel and Oholiab, who are “filled with a G-dly spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in all manner of workmanship” (Ibid. 35:31).
These three very different dimensions define not only the physical reality of space, but the spiritual reality of humanity. The human condition is such that space can be sanctified, time can be hallowed, and humans possess a transcendent spirit that distinguishes them from the rest of the animal world.
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This week’s parsha is sometimes considered an uninspiring list of technical details. In truth, the lessons embedded in these three dimensions are among the most important in Scripture.
First comes the lesson of shana — time. We have the ability to set aside special moments for celebration, introspection and memory. This capacity has sustained the Jewish people throughout history. As the 19th-century thinker Ahad Ha’am famously wrote, “More than the Jewish people have kept the Sabbath; the Sabbath has kept the Jewish people.”
Then there is the lesson of olam — the world, the dimension of space. There are places that are home and places that are exile. While “home is where the heart is” in a psychological sense, in a national and religious sense the Land of Israel is our place. Our synagogues and study halls become sacred spaces wherever we may be.
Finally, there is the lesson of nefesh — the personal soul. It is our spiritual potential that enables us to sanctify time and place and thereby lend meaning and purpose to our lives.
A fourth dimension? Perhaps there is one. But for me, the three dimensions of olam, shana and nefesh are more than sufficient to provide an agenda for religious life — a powerful framework contained within this week’s parsha
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
