This week's section is called Shemini - the eighth [day]. After Bezalel and Oholihav, along with all those who wished to help and with materials donated by all the people, built the Mishkan - the portable sanctuary in the desert, Moses assembled and disassembled it for seven days, teaching Aaron and his sons how they should work on it.
At the beginning of the month of Nisan, on the eighth day since Moses had built the sanctuary, Moses erected it and did not dismantle it again (until it was necessary to travel from that place).
On that day, Moses summoned all the Jewish people to gather before the entrance to the sanctuary and witness how God Himself had chosen Aaron to be the High Priest (Kohen Gadol). After following the detailed divine instructions on how the inaugural sacrifices should be offered, fire appeared from heaven and consumed the sacrifices on the altar before the eyes of the assembled people, until they sang and prostrated themselves before the magnificent vision.
Although it is almost an anecdotal, historical account of something that will never happen again, since the circumstances and participants will never be repeated, we should draw some lessons for our lives today, wherever we may be. This stems from the fact that the word Torah comes from the Hebrew word horaa—teaching—so all matters in the Torah are eternal teachings.
The construction of the sanctuary can be understood as follows: God says, "And they shall build a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell within them," to which our sages explain that each person must make themselves a sanctuary so that the divine presence may reside within them. And to accomplish this construction within each person's heart, there are those in charge, community leaders who accept upon their shoulders the direction and guidance (obviously based on the divine mandate) of such a holy edifice. They are the Bezalel and Oholihav of each generation, who give of their time and wisdom to bring the divine sanctuary into being. In other words, selfless individuals who dedicate part of their lives (if not their entire lives) to the benefit of others, to generate the appropriate spaces, the means, and the content necessary to nurture the community of Yiddishkait—authentic Judaism.
Returning to the parashah, it was not enough for God that those in charge had built the space following the divine teachings to the letter, it was not enough that Moses had worked for seven days in that space (the sanctuary), it was not enough that Aaron had offered all the sacrifices with all the extensive details that appear in the Torah about how he should do it, but He wanted the people to see His presence with their own eyes, to be able to feel, as much as Moses, Aaron and the other leaders, that what was happening was right, good and desired by God.
This teaches us a very important lesson: it is true that community leaders strive to move the community forward, that each one gives their best, whether in economic terms, professional knowledge, labor, or goodwill, but God's blessing is found only when His teachings are followed. How do we see this? The people only saw the divine presence after the divine requirements were followed to the letter. Only then did they accept Aaron's leadership as High Priest and his sons' leadership as a priestly family. In other words, only when community leaders build a community according to the teachings of the Torah will the people follow those leaders and fill the spaces they create.
Such is the blessing of God when His teachings are followed that even in the desert, that is, even in the most inhospitable places on earth for Judaism, in exile and darkness, a sanctuary can be built, a place where the divine presence is revealed in a concrete and material form, to give blessing to both the people and their leaders.