“Erecting the Tabernacle” – that is what is written: “You guided with Your kindness [this people that You redeemed; You directed them with Your strength to Your holy abode]” (Exodus 15:13). It is taught there:43Avot 1:2. The world stands on three matters: On Torah, on service, and on performing acts of kindness. Moses mentioned all of them in one verse: “You guided with Your kindness this people that You redeemed” – this is kindness; “You directed them with your strength” – this is Torah, just as it says: “The Lord will give strength to His people” (Psalms 29:11); “to Your holy abode” – this is the service of the Tabernacle and the Temple.
“You guided with Your kindness” – these are the generations that stood from when the world was created until Israel departed from Egypt when they received the Torah. The Holy One blessed be He led them in His kindness, as there were no good deeds by whose virtue they could live, and the Holy One blessed be He provided for them in His kindness. Corresponding to them,44Those twenty-six generations from Creation until Revelation at Sinai.
David recited: “For His kindness is forever” (Psalms 136:1-26) twenty-six times. Through that kindness, Israel departed from Egypt. That is why he said: “You guided with Your kindness this people that You redeemed,” as He redeemed them with kindness. “You directed them with Your strength” – He directed them by the merit of the Torah that they received until the erecting of the Tabernacle.
To what was the world comparable at that time? It was to a chair on two legs that is unable to stand and it wobbles. Once they crafted a third leg for it, it stabilized and stood. So, once the Tabernacle was crafted, just as it says: “To Your holy abode,” immediately, it stabilized and stood.
Initially, the world had only two legs, kindness and Torah, and it was unsteady. A third leg was crafted for it; this is the Tabernacle, and immediately, it stabilized. That is why it is written: “Erecting the Tabernacle [et hamishkan].” What is et?
The world, that is called a tent, was erected with it. That is, “Erecting the Tabernacle [et hamishkan.]” Another matter: “Erecting the Tabernacle” – Rabbi Simon said: When the Holy One blessed be He said to Israel to erect the Tabernacle, he intimated to the ministering angels that they too should craft a Tabernacle. When the one below was erected, the one above was erected.
That is the Tabernacle of the ministering angel Metatron, in which he sacrifices the souls of the righteous to atone for Israel in the days of their exile. That is why it is written: “The Tabernacle [et hamishkan], as another Tabernacle was erected with it. Likewise, it says: “The place You fashioned for Your dwelling, Lord, the Sanctuary, my Lord, that Your hands established” (Exodus 15:17).45The midrash understands the verse as referring to two Tabernacles; the dwelling in the first part of the verse refers to the heavenly Tabernacle, and the Sanctuary in the second part of the verse refers to the Tabernacle crafted in the desert.