Parshat Vayakhel\Pekudei: Perhaps Tucker Was Right...

Rabbeinu Bachye explains, the very question is the answer-the Beit HaMikdash, and its predecessor, the Mishkan in the desert, was not merely a physical building; it was the repository of the collective psyche and soul of Am Yisrael, which allowed Hashem’s Shechinah to be more manifest in this physical and troubled world.