Taking his instructions from the Torah, seventy-six year old Moritz Glasberg of Minneapolis has just completed a miniature replica of the tabernacle Moses instructed the Israelites to build when he led them into the wilderness to escape the Egyptians more than 3,000 years ago.
In minutest detail Mr. Glasberg has constructed a movable tabernacle, composed of 459 pieces, and a court of sacrifice with a movable wall around it. He has duplicated the furnishings described by Moses even to “a golden ball and pomegranate.”
Mr. Glasberg has substituted copper and brass for the pieces that called for gold-the candlestick in the entrance of the temple, the doves over the “holy of holies,” the vat in the yard for the sacrifice of animals, the altars and the detachable beams supporting the sides of the temple.
The tabernacle would not have been built if Mr. Glasberg had not had high blood pressure when he retired from a roofing and cornice business. His grandson, a physician, decreed that Mr. Glasberg should occupy his mind with some hobby to take his mind off thoughts of the ailment.
The model of the temple is nearly four feet long with the surrounding wall almost three times that length.
When asked what he intended to do with his masterpiece, Mr. Glasberg said, “If I’m still alive when the world fair opens at Chicago next summer I may show it there. There isn’t a question in connection with this tabernacle that might be asked me by the most learned rabbi that I can’t answer.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
