Our parashah tells us about the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle, Sanctuary) that accompanied the Jewish people through their journeys in the desert (and later, after their settlement in the Land of Israel, for over 400 years). Why is it so important to know the architectural details of a structure that will never exist again? The walls of the Sanctuary that God commanded to be built were to be made of trees of shitim"", as it is written: "and you shall make the pillars of the Sanctuary of upright trees of Shittim.".
In Hebrew, each word has a root of two or three letters. The root of the word shitim is the letter "shin" and the letter "tet".
There are two other words that share the same root, from which we can deduce that there is a deep relationship between these three words: (1) shtut, which means nonsense. (2) sita, which means deviation.
From here we learn the meaning of foolishness and, in turn, the objective of the Sanctuary.
Folly (shtut) is a deviation (sita) from the right path. There is a middle path, the path of intellect and understanding, and the deviation from what is logical is called "folly" (shtut).
From the fact that the Sanctuary was to be built with shitim trees, we can learn that one of its objectives is to transform that deviation or foolishness.
However, when we talk about an intermediate path, we can talk about two types of deviations: upwards, so to speak, and downwards.
There is a deviation that involves descending below the intellect (the middle way): this is called foolishness. There is a deviation that involves ascending above the intellect, surpassing it: this is called "the foolishness of holiness.".
The meaning of this type of "nonsense" is that the person breaks with accepted and customary conventions, and rises to a higher spiritual level, which surpasses normal logic.
Translating this concept into our service to God, a person who operates on the middle path, the path of the intellect, serves God based on reason, because it makes sense in their mind to serve the Creator of the universe. On the other hand, a person who has deviated "upward" serves God with a much deeper union than the intellect can provide, a service that stems from total surrender to God.
In other words, on the middle path, the starting point is the individual. On the path of "holiness foolishness," the starting point is God. (It should be clarified that on the path of "foolishness," the "downward" deviation, the starting point is the world, which controls the individual's behavior. The individual becomes a servant of the circumstances that surround them.).
This concept helps us understand one of the functions of the Sanctuary: to transform "foolishness" into "holiness of foolishness." Serving God through the middle path of ordinary intellect is insufficient. If "foolishness" in its most literal sense (the downward deviation) did not exist in the world, common sense would suffice. However, given the existence of the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination, whose nature is downward deviation, it is necessary and fundamental to utilize the "holiness of foolishness" in the service of God.
This is how Rambam (Maimonides) explains that, in general, a person should go along the middle path, but if he has deviated towards one of the extremes, it is not enough to return to the middle path, but he must deviate towards the other extreme to correct himself.
The practical meaning of this teaching is that those whose service to God is based on Torah study and who already have fixed study schedules should break their own limits and habits by devoting more time to Torah study.
As for those whose service to God is based on the observance of the precepts and Tzedakah (charity), they must break with their fixed limits of Tzedakah donation.
Breaking down boundaries is the form of service of the "foolishness of holiness," which will bring, swiftly in our days, our Righteous Messiah.
Extracted from Shulchan Shabbat