Creating A Tabernacle In Time
Remembrance as a Sacred and Aesthetic Practice
These are the records (eleh pikudei hamishkan) of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Pact, as they were counted (פֻּקַּד) at Moses’ bidding—the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. (Exodus 38:21)
THESE ARE THE SUMS [OF THE TABERNCLE] — In this section are enumerated all the weights of the metals given as a contribution for the Tabernacle, of silver, gold and copper, and also there are enumerated the vessels used for every kind of service in it. (Rashi, Exodus 38:21)
“And the LORD visited (פָּקַד) Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken.” (Genesis 21:1)
“From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number (תִּפְקְדוּ) them by their hosts.” (Numbers 1:3)
“Number (פְּקֹד) the children of Levi by their fathers’ houses, by their families; every male from a month old and upward shall you number (תִּפְקְדֵם) them.” (Numbers 3:15)
“And you shall appoint (וּפְקַדְתֶּם) them by name the instruments of the charge of their burden.” (Numbers 4:32)
The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting (פֹּקֵד) the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.” (Numbers 14:18)
“And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall appoint (וּפָקְדוּ) captains of hosts at the head of the people.” (Deuteronomy 20:9)
God remembers Sarah; God also remembers ancestral faults for four generations. God engages in an inventory process, taking stock of God’s “SKU”’s, as it were. Divine accounting means divine care, but it also suggests that divine attention is cyclical: there are periods of “flow” punctuated by cycles of more targeted analysis and reflection. Meanwhile, the people number their chieftains and warriors, and their general population; in taking a census, we give extra focus to our abundance. To number is to step back.
This single Hebrew root word encompasses seemingly disparate actions: counting, remembering, appointing, and visiting. When God “remembers” (פקד) Sarah, it suggests not mere recall, but a set-up for active intervention that results in the fulfillment of a once made promise. Time is experienced as the suspense between promise and fulfillment, between aim and manifestation. פקד implies agency, not just tallying. Similarly, when God “visits” (פקד) iniquity across generations, it signifies directed attention with consequence. To remember is to snap out of a lapse, to regroup and redirect one’s attention to the matter at hand. Consciousness arises as the the dance between absorption and return.
What connects these uses is the concept of focused attention followed by action. When materials for the Mishkan are “counted” (פקד), Bezalel and his team are examining the purpose of the whole. They are remembering why they’re building in the first place. To account is to acknowledge the sacred end of the materials: a home in which to meet the divine. So too, when leaders are “appointed” (פקד), they’re being singled out for responsibility, like the pieces of the Mishkan. And like those pieces, it is their orchestration into a whole that enables them to achieve their purpose.
The recurring pattern suggests that פקד represents moments of transition - from general awareness to specific attention, from potential to actualization. For humans, conducting a census (פקד) or inventory creates order from chaos and establishes priorities. For God, פקידה marks pivotal moments when divine attention intensifies toward particular individuals or situations. God remembers Sarah the way Bezalel remembers his threads and dyes. The fate of Abraham and Sarah and their progeny is God’s architectural project.
The cyclical nature of remembrance via forgetting mirrors the rhythm of Jewish life itself, with its ordinary days punctuated by sacred times of heightened attention and reflection. The detailed accounting in Pekudei thus becomes not just administrative record-keeping but a sacred act that parallels God's own pattern of engagement with creation and a map of time itself. Shabbat itself can be thought of as a p’kida of the six days of works, an ingathering of those materials into a view of the whole. Shabbat is the not just the telos of the week, but it provides the view from which we can see the telos to our effort.
Through this lens, we might understand the meticulous inventory of the Mishkan's materials as modeling how we should periodically take stock of our own spiritual resources and commitments, creating moments of פקידה in our own lives where we focus our attention, remember our promises, and actualize our potential. When we keep Shabbat, we regard the days of our week with the same regard that Bezalel assigned his precious materials. We turn the days of our life into a Mishkan, a home for God. We remember that our forgetfulness, too, is necessary. If we spent all day remembering, we would never build, never create opportunities for reflection.
Yet reflection is an aesthetic act. Shabbat completes creation not just as a pause or silence or rest, but as a kind of loving regard for what has just been done, a redemption in the midst of all that remains unfinished.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zohar Atkins