Rabbi Tarfon said: How great is work, for God will not bring the divine presence to rest on the Jewish people until they have done work. As the Torah says: “Make for me a mishkan/sanctuary and I will dwell among the Jewish people” (Ex. 25:8) Avot D’Rabbi Natan

        Rabbi Tarfon suggests that our doing work is an important spiritual practice. We work not just to be able to pay for food, shelter and other necessities. It is the way the Shekhinah/divine presence dwells among us. As many commentators have pointed out, the purpose of building the sanctuary isn’t to be a house for God. For the verse states, if you build it, then I, God, will dwell in your midst. It doesn’t say I, God, will dwell in the house you have built for me.
        Rabbi Tarfon’s teaching emphasizes the importance of the work that we do six days of the week. It is God’s work just as much as praying or studying Torah. Humans are to continue the work of creation that God began that first week of the world. Creation is still unfolding and we are God’s partners in that unfolding. It is also true that the Torah we received at Sinai is lived through our daily lives. Love your neighbor, don’t slander, don’t be envious, and help those in need are all calls to act in holy and caring ways with the people we meet. It is not an abstract Torah, but a Torah to be lived in the myriad encounters each and every day with all the other images of God.
        It is not surprising that the rabbis used the various forms of work that were needed in the building of the sanctuary to be the definition of what work/melakhah is forbidden on Shabbat. It is just those forms of work ranging from plowing to weaving that we are meant to do during the week that are forbidden on Shabbat. Doing work during the week and resting on Shabbat are both ways that the Shekhinah/God’s presence is welcomed into our midst. Continuing the creation and resting from that effort on Shabbat is the pattern of our lives---echoing that first week of creation when God institutes the first Shabbat.
        The Hasidic master, Sefat Emet, takes the importance of work and especially of the building of the sanctuary one step higher. He suggests that it is in this moment of building the sanctuary that the people of Israel reach their highest spiritual state. Everyone gives of their heart and of their particular talent to build the sanctuary. It is the moment that they are the most unified as one people and connected to God’s oneness. It is not at the revelation at Sinai but in the completion of the mishkan that the Israelites find their greatest achievement. It will not last, but it serves as the ideal to which we are to strive.