Mishkaneering Defined

After two years as a self-proclaimed "Mishkaneer," I think it's time to explain the name. Simply put, a Mishkaneer in my meaning is an engineer of the Mishkan. In Torah narrative, the Mishkan is the portable proto-Temple that the progeny of Israel carries through the wilderness, to provide a place for G!d's in-dwelling presence, the Shekhinah. In more conceptual terms, Mishkan (which literally means "from dwelling" and shares the same Semitic etymological root as "Shekhinah") is the window Jews open to Temple conciousness by way of dwelling with Holy One-ness wherever in the Diaspora we happen to be.

The notion of engineering the Mishkan, Mishkaneering, is actually an awkward mess of two languages, English and Hebrew, with very different biases. (Just like my, and many Anglo-Jews', entire existence is a mess of those two respective worldviews!) In Hebrew sensibility, the Mishkan engineers us as much as we engineer it, and this symbiotic dynamism is inherent to its Mishkan-ness.

The point is that Mishkan/Mishkaneering is a kind of process: The medium whose message is to dwell. And to dwell on dwelling.