Text & source
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
V'asu li mikdash, v'shakhanti b'tokham
"Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."
Source: Exodus 25:8 · שמות כ״ה:ח׳. Twelve gold forms, the tribes of Israel, rough out the shape of the Mishkan; made on Torah klaf.
Exodus 25:8 · שמות כ״ה:ח׳ says: Let them make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them. The twelve raised forms of gold are the tribes of Israel, and together they rough out the shape of the Mishkan. Each one stays separate and a little irregular, catching the light in its own way. No single tribe is the sanctuary. The people are the architecture.
I made the work on Torah claf, and the sirtutim, the lines a scribe scores to rule the parchment before writing, are still visible, running through it like courses of stone in a wall. The last word, בתוכם, can be read as among them or within them. God does not promise to live inside a building so much as inside the shape a people makes when they hold together. What has always moved me here is how much of that shape is the open space between the tribes.