Meticulous Instructions – A poem for Parsha Pekudei

Moses set up the Mishkan, placed its sockets, put up its planks, put in its bars, and set up its pillars. ~Exodus 40:18

With, literally, everyone at his disposal
Moses sets up the Tabernacle by himself.

Places the sockets and planks, puts up the bars
and pillars. He even furnishes it.

I might have hired a handy person, or perhaps
that’s how the great Hirer in the sky regarded Moses.

I can assemble things with a decent set of instructions
but I like to rely on a professional when it really counts.

And it really counted then when the physical foundation
of who we are needed a place to be, not like a

set of shelves I might be building just to keep my
knick-knacks and doo-dads off the floor. No, this was the

final assembly of the most important project.
Everything we’d ever built was leading up to this.

Every temporary structure, every Pharaoh’s tomb,
every idea about how we’re supposed to do

what we’re supposed to do, and how we’re cursed
when we have the gumption to not do that –

All contained within the testimony, inside the ark
behind a curtain with incense going into your nose

before your eyes ever had the chance to see it,
and, odds are, unless you were that one person

you were never going to see it anyway.
This is the faith that Moses built

as meticulously instructed by The Instructor.
Another Phenomenon our ancient eyes

still struggle to see.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 27 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Find him online at www.JewishPoetry.net