Growing up in our house, we always had to watch our plates at the dinner table. If we didn’t pay attention, Mom would start to clear the plates before we finished, and, literally, we’d look down and the plate would be gone. “But I wasn’t finished” was pretty frequent at our table.
When is something complete, finished, done?
The great Dutch artist Rembrandt was once asked why so many of his works look half-finished. He replied: "A work of art is complete when in it the artist has realized his intention."(Quoted from: https://www.npr.org/2016/05/31/479584758/you-gonna-finish-that-what-we-can-learn-from-artworks-in-progress)
As we read the end of Exodus today, we look back at Genesis, when God finishes creating the world, “Vaychulu ha’shamayim ve’ha’aretz…” When God completed creation of heaven and earth…How does God choose that point in time to stop and reflect? Does God ‘realize God’s intention’ then, looking over everything saying “Tov me’od”, it is all very good?
Today we read very similar language in our parsha, in Genesis we read ‘Vay’chulu’, today we read, “Vay’chal Moshe et ha’mlachah…’ The same verb, this time, Moses completed the work, the work of assembling the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, the portable holy place for our ancestors in the wilderness.
How does Moses know that the Mishkan is complete? The Mishkan is a holy tent, one designed to be set up and then dismantled, time after time, and so is our parsha teaching us that the first assembly represents the completion?
The Spanish philosopher Rabbi Isaac ben Moshe Arama offers us a way to make sense of when a project is complete, and he explains it to us in reference to the creation of the world, the 7thday, Shabbat, as God looks back on the week of creation.
I’d like to quote him in full here:
It is a well known fact that a period of motion is usually followed by a period of rest. The Sabbath at the end of six days of creative activity, during which something had been created out of nothing, was such a period of constructive rest, tachlit. The purpose of all creative activity had been to attain this goal, the Sabbath. Once completed, the universe could be shown to have been a successful creation only, if it were able to function on its own, without constant directives from its Creator.Moving into a new home, living in it, testifies that the building process has been completed successfully, even though already during the various stages of erecting the structure there may have been many moments of satisfaction, pride, and sense of achievement for the builder.
Arama observes that we know something is complete when it stands on its own, no longer tethered to its Creator.
The world is complete on day 7 since it now functions on its own: tides, sunsets, animals eating food, giving birth to young, human beings living on their own with all the privileges and responsibilities.
The Mishkan is complete since it’s now assembled and ready for use. The craftspeople who created it step aside and admire it, and the priests begin their work there.
While philosophically we might (or might not) agree on Rembrandt’s definition of completion, we know all too well the feeling that few things in life ever feel truly complete. We write a letter, go over it a hundred times, edit it, and then send it in only to think of a perfect turn of phrase that would have made it clearer just a few minutes after it’s out there. We go shopping and buy a cart full of groceries only to recognize when we’re unpacking that we forgot to buy one key ingredient.
If Rembrandt is right, then all evidence shows us the moment of completion is a decision each of us makes in the moment, often on the fly, because either the due date compels us to, or the conditions are right for us at the time.
How often do historians argue about when a time period begins and ends?
How often do scientists say ‘further testing is needed’?
The best comfort we can take in a world in which completion or a sense of fulfillment is subjective and so also temporary is that God is fulfillment and harmony itself. The fact that God is invisible means God’s Presence, inspiration, and holiness are spread fully and completely throughout the universe.
And our parsha hints at this truth for us when we notice as soon as Moses finishes assembling the Mishkan, God’s Presence fills it up.
And so when we feel troubled by that feeling of incompleteness, when there is indecision and when we’re undecided about where we stand, and when a question we think we’ve answered lingers inside us, we can remember this moment at the end of Exodus, and at the end of Creation, and say, ‘Vaychulu hashamayim ve’haaretz’, like a mantra, if God can create a moment of closure, a moment of reflection, then hopefully we can also find that moment within ourselves, just as our Rabbis teach us about Shabbat, that on Shabbat we must think and act as though all our work is done, that nothing is left undone, and even if the host clears our Shabbat dinner plate before we take the last few bites, we’re content, and we’re satisfied.
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