The Tabernacle (Mishkan)

Exodus 25–31 records the instructions Moses received on Mount Sinai for a portable sanctuary, "and let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8), and Exodus 35–40 tells how it was built from the people's freewill gifts under the craftsmen Bezalel of Judah and Oholiab of Dan. A courtyard of hangings 100 by 50 cubits surrounded the Tent of Meeting, which held the menorah, the table of showbread and the incense altar, and behind a curtain the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets under two golden cherubim. On the first day of the first month of the second year after the Exodus, 1 Nisan 2449, Moses set it up; a cloud covered the tent and "the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle" (Exodus 40:17, 34).

The Mishkan travelled with Israel through the desert and later stood at Gilgal, Shiloh, Nob and Gibeon until Solomon's Temple replaced it. Its plan became the model for both Temples, and the 39 kinds of work used to build it define the labours forbidden on Shabbat (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2; Shabbat 49b).