Tabernacle, Tabernacle

This description of the Tabernacle describes an inner shrine (Holy of Holies) housing the Ark and an outer chamber (Holy Place), with a seven-branched lampstand, table for shewbread, and altar of incense.

Other scholars, such as Nachmanides disagree and maintain that the Tabernacle's meaning is not tied in with the Golden Calf but instead symbolizes higher mystical lessons that symbolize God's constant closeness to the Children of Israel.

At the center of the synagogue is a large elevated area, known as the bimah where the Torah is read. This is equivalent to the Tabernacle's altars upon which incense and animal sacrifices were offered. On the main holidays the priests, kohanim , gather at the front of the synagogue to bless the congregation as did their priestly ancestors in the Tabernacle from Aaron onwards.

In it, it is believed He is truly present, but not materially or locally (St. Thomas Aquinas). The sacrament is Jesus's instrument and means of grace: it is not intrinsic to him like our bodily organs, but extrinsic. The sacrament is distributed during the rite of Holy Communion in lieu of the celebration of the Eucharist itself or taken to the sick or homebound. In the Early Christian times such tabernacles containing the sacred species were kept within private houses where Christians met for church, for fear of persecution. In the Roman and Western rite Catholic Church these tabernacles are traditionally covered by a covering known as a conopaeum. These may be tent-like in appearance or they may resemble curtains, depending on whether the Tabernacle is recessed into the wall or free-standing, as in the illustration here. These conopaeae are coloured in the Liturgical colour of the day or the season. This practice is now optional. A conopaeum covering a tabernacle is a symbol of the indwelling of the Body of Christ, much in the same way as the Spirit of God dwelled within the Tabernacle in the Desert in the five books of Moses. This covering also helps represent the nature of the tabernacle as a Tent. And like the original Tabernacle, the Christian Tabernacle is closed, often taking the form of a strongbox.

They differ from meetinghouses and temples in design, scale, and purpose. There were 79 total tabernacles build during the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century, usually within areas of the Mormon Corridor that had predominantly Latter-day Saint populations. McArthur, A. J., & Wrobel, D. (2005).

While some tabernacles are still used for a few ecclesiastical and community cultural activities, stake centers are now used in their place. Tabernacles have also been repurposed, such as the one in Vernal, Utah, which was extensively remodeled to become the Vernal Utah Temple.

Source: Wikipedia > Tabernacle