The Midrash Tanchuma tells us that these wooden planks were actually the result of Yaakov Avinu’s foresight. He anticipated that his descendants would one day erect a Mishkan. Aware that such lumber did not exist in the wilderness, he brought them with him to replant them in Egypt. He instructed his children that when they would be liberated from the Egyptian exile, they should take these trees along with them. Yaakov taught his children that the future edifices of Klal Yisrael must be built upon the foundations of the past. We must keep in mind the mesiras nefesh, devotion to…
