There is a beautiful symmetry between the books of Genesis and Exodus. Genesis begins with God creating the world, and Exodus ends with humans creating God’s home, the Mishkan (tabernacle).

If you have been following the weekly Torah readings, you’ve been reading about the building of the tabernacle for weeks now. Endless details about sockets and hooks, multicolored threads and fine linen. Acacia wood and animal skins. Lots and lots of gold.

It makes God’s creation of the earth and heavens in a mere seven days look incredibly easy. Wouldn’t it be nice to speak things into existence instead of laboring over them? “Let there be light,” God said, “and there was light.”

But that’s exactly what the Bible wants us to understand. Creating things is hard, and the bigger the project, the more supplies and people are needed. It takes thousands of people performing a complicated dance to build a building. Each person has a specialty, and all of the pieces need to fit together perfectly.

There are times when I feel overwhelmed by my life, which happens to be stupidly easy. I have come to realize that it is the price I pay for living alone. I am solely responsible. I can hire people to do things for me, but for the most part I’m on my own.

I’m not complaining. I’m simply noticing that when people come together to accomplish a task, whether it’s building a tabernacle or creating and running a congregation, they can do much more than one person can alone.

We humans are social creatures, hardwired to create communities. This is why Judaism frowns on the ascetic life. We want our rabbis to have families, live amongst us, lead the same kind of life as everyone else in the community.

The Bible teaches us that we are made in the image of God. And yet God is singular. This is why the books of Genesis and Exodus take us full circle, from God’s creation to ours.

The message is clear: We need each other. We can be like God, we can create and build and accomplish great things. But not alone.

Together, we can do great things. May we be blessed to work in concert with one another to make our world a better, safer, healthier, and more joyous place for all.