It usually happens around 30 to 45 minutes after departure.
“Are we there yet?”
It’s the first of many redundant questions that my wife and I will enjoy during a road trip, or other long-distance travel. The plane may have barely achieved liftoff and the incessant need to know if we have arrived has already begun.
We have, at times, fallen prey to the typical host of responses. Ply them with treats. Distract them with games. Change the clock. Depart at 3:00am when they are half-asleep. Ignore. Plead. Threaten. Or, simply explain that – no, we have not yet arrived. Again. And. Again.
But, finally, I realized that the answer was simply, “Yes.”
We have arrived. Perhaps not at our official destination. But, we have indeed arrived. If our goal is to spend time together, then we have already achieved it. Leaving home and enjoying each other’s company is an end in and of itself.
***
In this week’s double-parsha of Vayakhel-Pekudei, the Torah goes to great lengths to describe the detailed construction of the Mishkan, the traveling Sanctuary. It is also the conclusion of the Book of Shemot, the second of the Five Books of Moshe.
It’s an interesting place to end the book. The book began with the Jewish people as slaves in Egypt. The slavery and deliverance of the Jewish people, leading them to freedom and receiving the Torah at Sinai are the main themes. The Jews are born and assume an identity.
The twists and turns of the next 40 years will take them to their Promised Land. That’s the theme of the fourth book, Bamidbar. The third book, Vayikra, discusses the priestly laws and the sacrificial services, performed in the Mishkan.
The obvious question is why does the Book of Shemot end at this point? Shouldn’t it end earlier, at Revelation at Sinai? Isn’t the building of the Mishkan a facet of the sacrificial laws? Why stop in middle of the 40 year journey?
***
Perhaps the Torah is going out of its way to include the construction of the Mishkan as the final act of Shemot to emphasize that this really is the conclusion. To be sure, the Jews will travel forward and ultimately enter the land of Israel. However, from the perspective of leaving Egypt in order to arrive at a destination, we have already arrived.
The purpose of the Exodus was to become a people with a Divine mission. So long as we had not received the Torah we were not yet a defined people. We were free from Egypt, but we did not have our own identity and purpose.
Yet, even after receiving the Torah we were not fully a people. Having a mandate is critical. But, implementing it is what defines – and justifies – our role.
Living as Jews is more important than identifying as Jews.
Only when the Children of Israel welcomed G-d into their lives – and into the physical world as a whole, through the Mishkan – did they truly become a people. When G-d dwelled within them, they had arrived.
Indeed, the Book of Shemot, concludes at the perfect point. The Torah makes a huge fuss about the Mishkan. Hopefully, after reading four Torah portions about the Mishkan, we have finally internalized that we have indeed arrived. There may be a road ahead of us. But, we have arrived nonetheless.