The Torah juxtaposes the commandment to build the Mishkan with the prohibition to violate Shabbos. This is the source, Chazal tell us, for us to know precisely what malachos would be a violation of Shabbos. Since the Torah was compelled to warn us about Shabbos violation when we were being encouraged to build the Mishkan, the essential activities involved with the Mishkan must be the activities by which one would violate Shabbos. As we all know, there are 39 categories of such labor. There is a nice philosophical point that the observance of Shabbos -- something relevant to each and every Jew in each and every Jewish home, week and and week out -- apparently can bring us to the same level of closeness to HaShem as the holy work done by priestly caste in HaShem's own abode, so to speak, here on earth. That is one of the beauties of Torah observance: Obviously Klal Yisrael attains lofty spiritual heights by the service done by the kohein gadol in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. But...
I plan to have a drink tonight to celebrate. Today was, so far, my single more successful day in kollel since joining a year ago Pesach. I could tell that you that I was able to help one of the yungaleit understand a gemara and the different ways that Rashi and the M'iri explain it. I was able to help because I have a deep knowledge of optics, trigonometry, and history of science and technology. That wasn't it, though. That was just icing on the cake. Fun to share at dinner (and here), but not worth a toast. So... a few weeks ago, I started learning the 11th perek of masechta Shabbos, הזורק/throwing, because it is the wraps up the discussion of הוצאה/transfer out of one domain to another that was started with the first mishna of the entire tractate. I was intrigued by the first question the gemara asked on the first mishna of the perek. I wrote a couple of TtfDs on it, Why and When a Scriptural Source is Needed for הוצאה , and Why הוצאה Has תולדות . If you are paying much clos...