The tabernacle - Kabbalistic thoughts Shabbat 98b-99a

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: What was the Mishkan like? Like a woman who goes into the street and her skirts trail after her.

Our rabbis taught: The boards were cut and the sockets grooved, and the loops in the clasps seemed like stars in the sky.

Having ploughed my way through six weeks of daf yomi over two weeks, I finally caught up today with rather complex legal and architectural debate.

Nevertheless, the last few lines caught my eye as the mishkan/tabernacle is described in very feminine terms, and ideas that remind me of Malchut, the lowest feminine aspect of God in the sefirotic system.

These lines I quoted seem to hint that the mishkan spreads its influence beyond its borders, that for a temple or a synagogue to fulfill its purpose, it must reach beyond itself. The mishkan represents malchut, but within, or beyond, malchut, lies yesod - also called petach einayim, the opening of the eyes. This is the stage where we can glimpse the rest of the system, realise that we are standing at the doorway to the infinite.

If our institutions are to be truly holy, her skirts must extend into the wider world and the heavens must be glimpsed within.