46 | MARCH 16 • 2023 

Clearly, the Torah wants us to connect 
the birth of the universe with the building 
of the Mishkan, but how and why?
The numerical structure of the two pas-
sages heightens the connection. We know 
that the key number of the creation narra-
tive is seven. There are seven days, and the 
word “good” appears seven times. The first 
verse of the Torah contains seven Hebrew 
words, and the second, 14. The word eretz, 
“earth,
” appears 21 times, the word Elokim, 
“God,
” 35 times, and so on.
So, too, in Pekudei, the phrase “as the 
Lord commanded Moses” appears seven 
times in the account of the making of the 
priestly garments (Exodus 39:1-31), and 
another seven times in the description of 
Moses setting up the Sanctuary (Exodus 
40:17-33).

THE END AND THE BEGINNING
Note also one tiny detail, the apparently 
odd and superfluous “
And” at the very 
beginning of the book of Exodus: “And 
these are the names …
” The presence of 
this connective suggests that the Torah 
is telling us to see Genesis and Exodus as 
inherently connected. They are part of the 
same extended narrative.
The final relevant fact is that one of the 
Torah’s most significant stylistic devices is 
the chiasmus, or “mirror-image symmetry” 
— a pattern of the form ABCC1B1A1, as 
in “(A) He who sheds (B) the blood (C) 
of man, (C1) by man (B1) shall his blood 
(A1) be shed” (Genesis 9:6). This form can 
be the shape of a single sentence, as here, 
or a paragraph, but it can also exist at larger 
levels of magnitude.
What it means is that a narrative reach-
es a certain kind of closure when the end 
takes us back to the beginning — which 
is precisely what happens at the end of 
Exodus. It reminds us, quite precisely, of 
the beginning of all beginnings, when God 
created heaven and earth. The difference is 
that this time human beings have done the 
creating: the Israelites, with their gifts, the 
labor and their skills.
To put it simply: Genesis begins with God 
creating the universe as a home for human-
kind. Exodus ends with human beings, the 
Israelites, creating the Sanctuary as a home 

for God.
But the parallel goes far deeper than this 
— telling us about the very nature of the 
difference between kodesh and chol, sacred 
and secular, the holy and the mundane.
We owe to the great mystic, R. Isaac 
Luria, the concept of tzimtzum, “self-
effacement” or “self-limitation.
” Luria was 
perplexed by the question: If God exists, 
how can the universe exist? At every point 
in time and space, the Infinite should 
crowd out the finite. The very existence 
of God should act as does a black hole 
to everything in its vicinity. Nothing, not 
even light waves, can escape a black hole, 
so overwhelming is its gravitational pull. 
Likewise, nothing physical or material 
should be able to survive for even a 
moment in the presence of the pure, 
absolute Being of God.
Luria’s answer was that, in order for the 
universe to exist, God had to hide Himself, 
screen His presence, limit His Being. That 
is tzimtzum.
Now let us come back to the key words 
kodesh and chol. One of the root meanings 
of chol, and the related root ch-l-l, is 
“empty.
” Chol is the space vacated by God 
through the process of self-limitation so 
that a physical universe can exist. It is, as it 
were, “emptied” of the pure Divine light.
Kodesh is the result of a parallel process 
in the opposite direction. It is the space 
vacated by us so that God’s presence can be 
felt in our midst. It is the result of our own 
tzimtzum. We engage in self-limitation 
every time we set aside our devices and 
desires in order to act on the basis of God’s 
will, not our own.
That is why the details of the Sanctuary 
are described at such length: to show that 
every feature of its design was not humanly 
invented but God-given. That is why the 
human equivalent of the word “good” in 
the Genesis creation account is “as the Lord 
commanded Moses.
” When we nullify our 
will to do God’s will, we create something 
that is holy.

To put it simply: chol is the space God 
makes for humankind. Kodesh is the space 
humankind makes for God. And both 
spaces are created the same way: by an act 
of tzimtzum, self-effacement.
So, the making of the Sanctuary 
that takes up the last third of the book 
of Exodus is not just about a specific 
construction, the portable shrine that the 
Israelites took with them on a journey 
through the wilderness. It is about an 
absolutely fundamental feature of the 
religious life, namely the relationship 
between the sacred and the secular, kodesh 
and chol. Chol is the space God makes for 
us. Kodesh is the space we make for God.
So, for six days a week — the days that 
are chol — God makes space for us to 
be creative. On the seventh day, the day 
that is Kadosh, we make space for God by 
acknowledging that we are His creations. 
And what applies in time applies also in 
space. There are secular places where we 
pursue our own purposes. And there are 
holy places where we open ourselves, fully 
and without reserve, to God’s purposes.
If this is so, we have before us an idea 
with life-transforming implications. The 
highest achievement is not self-expression 
but self-limitation: making space for 
something other and different from us. The 
happiest marriages are those in which each 
spouse makes space for the other to be his 
or her-self. Great parents make space for 
their children. Great leaders make space 
for their followers. Great teachers make 
space for their pupils. They are there when 
needed, but they don’t crush or inhibit or 
try to dominate. They practice tzimtzum, 
self-limitation, so that others have the 
space to grow. That is how God created the 
universe, and it is how we allow others to 
fill our lives with their glory. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the 

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the 

Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have been 

made available to all at rabbisacks.org. This essay was 

written in 2018.

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

continued from page 45
“THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT IS NOT 
SELF-EXPRESSION BUT SELF-LIMITATION: 
MAKING SPACE FOR SOMETHING 
OTHER AND DIFFERENT FROM US.”

