12 myths
On the mountain Moses heard every vessel pattern and thought he would build it. God named Bezalel, and Israel built for reward.
Abraham planted a tamarisk in Beersheba and named the Word. Angels later cast that tree into the sea, and Israel raised it as the Mishkan's middle bar.
The gold was donated and the craftsmen were ready. Moses stopped the entire assembly first to teach them one rule that overrode everything else.
Rest on the seventh day is a sign between God and Israel. A man who picks up a tool in the street tears the sign, so the Torah puts him to death.
Three hundred priests carried one curtain to be washed. A handbreadth thick, woven on seventy-two strands, the parokhet guarded the holiest room.
The plating was pure gold. Underneath, Bezalel's boards came from a tree whose name matched the place where Israel would later fall to Moabite women.
Weeks after the calf, so much gold came in that Bezalel reported more than the work could use. Moses raised both hands and shouted for the giving to stop.
Gold keeps coming until Bezalel and Aholiab tell Moses to stop. The desert Mishkan rises from too much love, not too little.
Half-built boards at dusk on the sixth day. Gold rings still waiting for their poles. One man reached for a mallet. Another man set it down.
One bar ran the whole length of the Tabernacle wall, turning corners without a joint. Women spun goat hair on living goats while the boards rose.
The world was water and dark until God wrapped Himself in light. Bezalel learned the order and raised the ark first.
She raked the coals into a pile and set the pot where the heat would hold. Fire may be lit on Friday, not on the Sabbath. She lit the lamp before dark.
