As I show you—the tavniss of the Tabernacle and the tavniss of all its furnishings—so shall you make it. (Ex. 25:9) ... note well, and follow the tavniss for [the Menorah] that are being shown you on the mountain. (Ex. 25:40)
Tavniss is not a common word! It is found only in one other part of the Torah (Deut. 4:15):
…not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any tavniss whatever: the tavniss of a man or a woman, the tavniss of any beast on earth, the tavniss of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the tavniss of anything that creeps on the ground, the tavniss of any fish that is in the waters…
Isn’t that an interesting contrast? That tavniss is used for the tabernacle, which has no images of any animals in it – and is also used to forbid us to make. We must make the Mikdash, which lacks any visible reflections of nature (no trees, all wood covered, no images of living things – not even anything colored green!). We must not (in or out of the Mikdash) make anything that resembles an animal living in the natural world.
Why do we think this is? Assume that the purpose of the Mikdash is to show us the meaning of holiness. Is the shared use of tavniss later on, with the prohibition about animals, to teach that holiness is notworshipping nature; that G-d is found in the house we built for him, but not in the world that G-d made for us?
Can we take this farther? To suggest that making animals is forbidden not only because it might be idol worship, but also because it might be taking a step backward in the arc of the growth of the world, instead of moving forward? Would this suggest that we are not meant to re-duplicate what G-d has already created?