"That the tabernacle may be one whole" [From the Editor's Bench]

The tabernacle, the Jewish nation's central point of worship while in the desert and for many years after, was designed in a modular fashion and was meant to be assembled and disassembled on a regular basis. Its component parts were works of beauty and were built by the best craftsmen of their day. In the description of the assembly of the tabernacle, we are told, "And thou shalt make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole" (Exodus, 26:6, The Tanach, Jewish Publication Society translation, 1917). The tabernacle was modular in design but was designed so that when fully assembled, it formed a coherent whole.