In this week’s parashah, Vayak’hel, the children of Israel begin the work of building the mishkan, God’s portable dwelling place on earth. The work is directed by two chief artisans, B’tzalel of the tribe of Yehudah, and Oholiav of the tribe of Dan.

Rashi noted that B’tzalel’s tribe, Yehudah, was the greatest of the tribes, the one that King David and his royal descendents would come from. On the other hand, Oholiav’s tribe, Dan, was among the lowliest of the tribes (Dan had been born to Bilhah, Yaakov’s concubine). Yet the two artisans, in spite of their different pedigrees, are given equal status in the text. According to Rashi, that is to teach us that, when it comes to doing sacred work, all of us are equal. Or to say it in a stronger way: it is only when we recognize our deep equality as images of God that we are able to succeed in that work. 

Spiritual community is our mishkan, our sacred structure. We bring God down to earth by building a network of mitzvah, of sacred obligation, that binds us to each other. At the heart of that work is the awareness that, in God’s eyes, all of us are images of the divine, and therefore precious beyond measure.