Once again, order from chaos

Exodus 26:6 | In describing how the Tabernacle should be constructed, God instructs Moses: “You shall join the [ten panels of twisted linen] to one another with the clasps, that the Tabernacle be one whole.”

Robert Alter writes that a more literal translation would be, “that the Tabernacle be one.” He goes on to say, “This phrase leads Abraham ibn Ezra to muse over how unity in the greater world is constituted by an interlocking of constituent parts that became a transcendent whole, as in the unity of microcosm and macrocosm. One need not read this section homilectically, as he does, in order to see the power of summation of this particular phrase. All the instructions for the design of the Tabernacle — however much learned interpreters have differed in explaining the concrete architectural details — point to a perfect symmetry of nicely interlocking parts, posts fitting into sockets, clasps into loops, with crossbars shooting from end to end on both sides of the structure, and the dimensions of every component carefully measured.”

In the midst of the wild wilderness, God once more brings order out of chaos.