"And you shall plate it with pure gold" (Exodus 25:11). The Talmud (Sukkah 45b) reads the verse about the Tabernacle's acacia wood—"standing up" (Exodus 26:15)—to mean that the wood "supports its plating." Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk transforms this carpentry note into a statement about the power of righteous desire.
The tzaddik (a righteous person) is called a "tree" (etz, the same word as wood). The tzaddik can support anything they anticipate (metzapim, related to tzipitah, plating). When the righteous desire mercy and bounty for the world, that desire itself sustains reality. "Their hope is not lost"—the very anticipation of the tzaddik holds the world in place.
"You shall plate it" (tzipitah) means that the righteous person's anticipation must be so clear and translucent that it brings "gold"—sustenance that is "pure," permissible, and holy. And the method? "Cover it inside and out"—the tzaddik's interior must match their exterior. Spirit and body must both be directed toward blessing.
Then Rebbe Elimelech pivots to the verse "They will make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8). He connects it to Rabbi Yishmael's thirteen rules of Torah interpretation—but reads midot not as "rules" but as "character traits." The Torah is truly "explained" when a person embodies the thirteen divine attributes: "Just as God is compassionate, so too you be compassionate" (Shabbat 133b). The word mikdash (sanctuary) has the same gematria as middat (character trait). A person who masters their character traits becomes the sanctuary. God's Presence dwells not in a building, but in a human being who has made themselves worthy.