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Why does Parshas Terumah mention the functions of the Mishkan's vessels—lechem hapanim on the shulchan, oil in the menorah—when it's purely architectural? The shiur builds a fundamental distinction: according to the Ramban (רמב"ן), the Mishkan is a place for hashraas Hashechinah; according to the Rambam (רמב"ם), it's a makom l'avodah. This explains why the Torah (תורה) includes the vessel functions—they define the character of each kli and thereby the makom itself.
Rabbi Zweig opens with a fundamental question about the structure of Parshas Terumah: why does the Torah (תורה), in a parsha dedicated purely to architectural plans for the Mishkan, insert details about the functions of the keilim? For example, by the shulchan the Torah states "v'nasata al hashulchan lechem panim lefanai tamid," and by the aron it mentions "v'nasata el ha'aron es ha'eidus asher etein lecha"—referring to the Torah that Moshe would receive forty years later. These functional details seem irrelevant to construction blueprints. The shiur develops its answer through analyzing a fundamental machlokes between the Rambam (רמב"ם) and Ramban (רמב"ן) regarding the mitzvah (מצוה) to build the Mishkan. The Rambam in Hilchos Beis Habechirah and in Sefer HaMitzvos states it is a mitzvas aseh to build a Beis Hamikdash, citing "v'asu li mikdash v'shachanti besocham." However, there appears to be a contradiction: in Hilchos Beis Habechirah the Rambam cites this pasuk, while in Hilchos Melachim he brings the pasuk "l'shichno sidreshu u'vasam" from Parshas Re'eh. The Lechem Mishna attempts to resolve this by saying that "v'asu li mikdash" refers only to the Mishkan in the desert, while "l'shichno sidreshu" refers to the various mishkanos in Eretz Yisrael (Gilgal, Shiloh, Nov, Givon). But this resolution is problematic, as the Rambam in Hilchos Beis Habechirah clearly goes through the entire history of all the mishkanos based solely on the pasuk of "v'asu li mikdash," and in Sefer HaMitzvos he never mentions "l'shichno sidreshu" at all.
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Parshas Terumah
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