OU TORAH Terumah: The Mishkan – Before or After Chet HaEgel? By Rabbi Menachem Leibtag

Had it not been for chet ha-egel [the sin of the Golden Calf], would Bnei Yisrael have needed a mishkan? Many claim that the answer to this ‘philosophical’ question lies in the famous ‘exegetical’ controversy between Rashi and Ramban concerning when the commandment to build the mishkan was first given, before or after the sin of the golden calf. In this week’s shiur, as we study this controversy and its ramifications, we will show how the answer to this question is not so simple. While doing so, we will also try to make some sense out of the thorny issue of ‘ein mukdam u-me’uchar ba-Torah’.