A few years ago during Sukkos, our yeshiva had a pre-Simchas Beis HaShoeiva show for our children. The performer dazzled the children, inflating balloons and fashioning them into shapes of bunny rabbits, puppy dogs, crowns and other forms. In a funny way, I think inflatable balloons provide great visualization and imagery for this week’s parsha!

In Parshas Terumah, Hashem instructed the Jewish nation to construct a Mishkan in which Hashem would rest His Presence. How is it possible to construct a finite edifice that could contain Hashem, who is infinite? The size of the Mishkan was 50 by 100 amos (approximately 75 by 150 feet). Could this small structure really contain Hashem?

Reb Eliyahu Boruch Finkel notes that there are four places in the Torah where we find physical space being able to contain much more than its physical capacity:

1) The Kodesh HaKodashim (Holy of Holies). The Gemara says that the Aron did not take up space. If one would measure from both sides of the Aron to its wall, one would discover the total to be the same dimensions of the width and length of the Kodesh HaKodashim.

2) The courtyard of the Beis HaMikdash. The Mishnah says that during aliyah laregel (the pilgrimage to Jerusalem) everyone crowded inside the Beis HaMikdash, and when it came time to prostrate oneself on the floor, there was plenty of room to lie down.

3) Yerushalayim. The Mishnah says that no one ever said it was too crowded in Yerushalayim.

4) Eretz Yisrael, referred to as Eretz HaTzvi—Land of the Deer. The Gemara explains how Eretz Yisrael is compared to a deer. Just like the skin of a deer stretches to cover its body, the land expands to contain its inhabitants, and when it is less populated, the land shrinks.

The commonality of all these places is that they are all kadosh (holy); they are connected to Hashem. The more kadosh the place is, the more the spiritual element dominates. Therefore, in the holiest of places—the Kodesh HaKodashim—the Aron took up no physical space. Its physical element was removed, and it had no physical limitations.

In truth, the same issue applies to each of us. A human is made up of a body and a soul. The soul itself is infinite. How can a finite body…contain a soul? In Tehillim, Dovid HaMelech compares a person’s soul in certain respects to Hashem. One aspect is that Hashem’s presence fills this world and gives it life, just like the soul fills the body and gives it life. Each day, we express this phenomenon in the bracha of Asher Yatzar, which we say after using the restroom. The bracha concludes with the words “umafli la’asos”—Hashem does wonders. Rabbi Yosef Caro explains that the soul inside each person is their life force. If there is a small hole in a balloon, the air inside will escape and the balloon will quickly deflate. Yet the human body has many orifices! Miraculously, Hashem keeps the soul inside the body without it escaping.

All around us, adds the Rama, Hashem performs miracles by connecting our soul with its physical environment. The fusion of the two creates something distinctly spiritual. In this way, we see the miracle of the Mishkan replicated within ourselves and the world we live in. May the realization of our souls’ presence within each of us help us in our spiritual journey to become closer to Hashem.

Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the rosh yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com