Parasha: Vayakhel · Aliyah: First (Chesed)

ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל, Moses assembled the entire Jewish community, etc. Why would the Torah mention that Moses assembled the people, something that occurred every time he was told by G'd to address the people? I suppose that seeing the people were afraid to face Moses after they had seen how his face emitted rays of light, he had to issue a call for a general assembly so that some people would not stay at home for fear of being blinded or burned by those rays. This may also be the reason that the Torah emphasised that Moses assembled "the entire Jewish community."

Another reason for the word כל, all, may be similar to what I explained on Exodus 25,2 "from every man, etc." The word included orphans, minors, women, etc. Moses actually used two expressions of amplification, i.e. את כל. The reason Moses used only two amplifying statements here, namely את כל, and not a third one representing the wealthy (see page 756), is simple. There was no reason why the wealthy person would not come even if not especially invited seeing he would be happy to be part of the community.

We are told in the Zohar volume 3 page 196 that Moses assembled the men separately in order to separate them from the women seeing that Satan was present and Moses wanted to forestall giving Satan a pretext to harm the Israelites during such an assembly. Since women were not normally present when Moses explained Torah legislation to the people except when they brought the donations for the building of the Holy Tabernacle, Moses did not normally have to take measures to counteract the presence of Satan, the seducer. We have proof of what the Zohar wrote in verse 22 where the arrival of the men and of the women is reported separately, i.e. ויבאו האנשים על הנשים, "the men came in addition to the women." This is only emphasised because it was not the norm for women to participate in these assemblies. The best proof that in our instance Moses assembled the men and women separately is in the word בני, the males. If the men and women had been assembled jointly, the Torah should only have written: את כל עדת ישראל, and not את כל עדת בני ישראל.

אלה הדברים אשר צוה השם, These are the words which G'd has commanded, etc. We need to analyze the need for the unusual introduction: "these are the words." In Shabbat 97 Rabbi deduces from the word אלה that there are 39 basic categories of forbidden activities on the Sabbath. The numerical value of the word אלה is 36, the word דברים (pl) counts as 2, and the letter ה which is superfluous counts as 1 making a total of 39. This is obviously not the plain meaning of the verse. We also need to know why the Torah had to write the extraneous words: לעשות אותם. How can the word אותם, "them", be applied to the performance of a single commandment, i.e. the Sabbath?

Perhaps we may best understand this after reading a comment in Horiot 8 concerning Numbers 15,22 where the Torah speaks about the Israelites committing the sin of idolatry, albeit inadvertently. The Torah writes: "If you err and not observe all of the commandments of the Lord, etc." [The reader of these words must surely wonder how one could inadvertently fail to observe all of G'd's commandments. Ed.] The Talmud concludes that the Torah refers to the violation of a single commandment, that of idolatry. If one violates that commandment it is as if one had violated all the commandments, seeing the violation implies that one denies the authority of G'd and His Torah. In view of the fact that the Israelites had been guilty of precisely this sin, they needed to compensate for all the 613 commandments which they had violated. This is obviously very difficult if not impossible. The Torah therefore offers them an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves by means of the observance of the Sabbath. This is the reason this commandment is repeated here once again. When Moses speaks of לעשות אותם, he refers to the multiple תקוו, rehabilitation, which the observance of the Sabbath in all its details entails. What precisely are "these words?" They are on the one side that we are to work for six days, ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה, and by contrast to treat the seventh day as holy, וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש. All of this explains why the Sabbath legislation is mentioned here again seeing it has already been mentioned many times. On the subject of Sabbath observance being an antidote to the sin of idolatry, the Talmud Shabbat 118 quotes Isaiah 56,2 where the prophet praises the person observing the Sabbath. The Talmud says that even if (prior to having become a Sabbath observer) a person had been guilty of the kind of idolatry performed in the days of Enosh G'd will forgive him or her.

Rabbi Elazar bar Prata provides us with another dimension of this wording לעשות אותם in the Mechilta on Ki Tissa. He queries: "Whence do we know that everyone who observes the Sabbath is accounted as if he had created the Sabbath? He quotes the line in Exodus 31,16 where Moses also spoke of לעשות את השבת, "to make the Sabbath." According to Rabbi Elazar, observing the Sabbath is equivalent to creating it. Moses repeats the same thought in our verse when he speaks of לעשות אותם, "to make them." In my commentary on Parshat Ki Tissa I have offered a variety of explanations as to the meaning of the words לעשות את השבת. The explanation I am about to offer now belongs here rather than in chapter 31, as it relates to the meaning of the words אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה׳ לעשות אותם, "these are the things which you are to make;" by doing these things you make the Sabbath."

The verse wishes to teach us yet another lesson. Although you might have thought that inasmuch as the Sabbath laws consist primarily of prohibitions and one cannot expect reward for what one has not done, the Torah corrects such an impression by telling us "these are the things (abstention from work) which G'd commanded and for which you will receive a reward." I have explained the reason for this in my commentary on Exodus 31,16. The word אלה is meant to alert us that this שמירה is different from other instances in which the Torah demands שמירה.

There is a Yalkut Shimoni, 408 which understands the reason why the Torah chose the word ויקהל as an allusion to the same word in Deut. 31,12. The message is that on the Sabbath there are to be large assemblies of the people in order to teach them Torah and especially אלה הדברים, the details about the ordinances connected with true Sabbath observance. The words לעשות אותם also had special significance for the generation of the golden calf as it holds out the hope that by "doing them" the people could make atonement for their participation in that sin, as per the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael in that Midrash.

ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה, "during six days work shall be performed, etc." The reason the Torah emphasises the work to be performed on the weekdays may simply be a hint that if one observes the seventh day as a holy day, the work required for our maintaining ourselves during the subsequent six days will take care of itself.

The Torah may also wish to remind us that performance of work on the Sabbath is prohibited regardless of whether it is performed by a Jew or by a Gentile on his behalf. The vocalisation of the word te-asseh (passive form), is intended to convey that whereas it is permissible for a Jew to have his work performed by Gentiles during the week, on the Sabbath it must not be performed at all. This would correspond to the opinion expressed in the Talmud that if one tells a Gentile to perform work for one on the Sabbbath, one violates a biblical prohibition (Mechilta Parshat Bo). The reason the Torah writes ששת instead of בששת, is to remind us that work performance during the six days of the week is a מצוה, a positive commandment.

There is also a lesson here that the success of the work performed during the six days of the week depends on the observance of the seventh day as a holy day. The reason is that the Sabbath is the soul of the world as we explained in our introduction to Genesis on Genesis 2,2.

אל כל עדת בני ישראל לאמור, "to the entire community of the children of Israel, to say;" In view of the word לאמור, we are entitled to ask to whom the Israelites were to tell these laws seeing all of them were assembled when they were informed of them?

We may have to look for the answer in something Rabbi Meir is quoted as saying in the Sifri 131 on Deut. 23,22 that it is better not to make vows at all than to fail to honour them, but that best of all is he who does not make any vows at all. Rabbi Yehudah counters by saying that it is best to vow and to honour one's vow. We are taught in Nedarim 9 that Rabbi Meir may have agreed that certain types of vows called Nedavah as opposed to Neder are welcome to G'd even according to the view of Rabbi Meir. The former is the type of vow which is totally within the control of the donor to fulfil so that there exists no danger of defaulting. The Talmud quotes an example in which Hillel brought the animal he meant to sacrifice to the Temple before sanctifying it as a potential sacrifice. There was therefore no danger that the animal would become disqualified and his (Hillel who vowed to offer it as a sacrifice) being unable to fulfil his vow. On the other hand, the opinion is expressed that when Rabbi Yehudah described the person who fulfils his vow as the most commendable person, he referred to just such a situation, i.e. a נודב, someone who makes a vow at a time and in circumstances when he does not risk inability to honour his undertaking. Rabbi Yehudah would agree that someone who makes his vow in the form of a נדר would be better off if he had not made such a vow at all. According to the above, our verse comes to teach us that seeing that the Torah has told us in verse five קחו מאתכם תרומה לה׳ כל נדיב לבו, "take from among you an offering for G'd, everyone who is of a generous heart, etc.," it is clear that the Torah refers to the kind of vow called נדבה. G'd warned the people זה הדבר…לאמור, to be careful to phrase the commitment in such way that they could not become guilty of not honouring it. Our interpretation is compatible with both the viewpoints expressed in Nedarim as to what Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah had meant.

יביאה את תרומת השם, "let him bring it, i.e. the offering for the Lord." This verse clearly demonstrates that in the building of the Tabernacle we encounter both tangibles, perceptibles, and intangibles, imperceptibles. This is what is meant in Tikkunim 21 where we read that the תרומה, the donations for the Tabernacle, contained an intangible element, i.e. a contribution from the שכינה. The Torah calls this element תרומת השם, "G'd's contribution." It was this intangible contribution that enabled the tangible parts to be joined together and to form a sustainable whole, a tent that would not collapse. The most essential part in the construction was G'd's goodwill, i.e. an intangible. When the Torah writes יביאה, "he (the generously minded donor) is to bring it," this means that the donor is to elevate his gift to such a spiritual level that it may merge with the תרומת השם, G'd's contribution. When the Torah speaks of the כל נדיב לבו, it defines the kind of person whose gift will be of the calibre that can merge with G'd's intangible gift. If the human donor does not possess the spirit the Torah describes as נדיב לב, then the gift of such a person has no chance of merging with the Divine contribution described here as the invisible contribution תרומת השם.

זהב וכסף, "gold and silver." I have given special attention to the manner in which the various items listed as materials required for the Tabernacle are connected to one another by the conjunctive letter ו. At first glance, the presence of that letter and the absence of that letter seem arbitrary. There are 13 items (verses 5-9) all of which are joined together with the conjunctive letter ו. On the other hand, sometimes three different kinds of materials are lumped together and joined by only a single conjunctive letter ו (compare verse 11). In verse 13 the Torah resumes the method of presenting each item by joining it to the following item with the conjunctive letter ו. What prompted the Torah to be so selective in the use of the conjunctive letter ו?

In order to comprehend this we have to quote a statement by our sages in Shemot Rabbah 30,3 that the letter ו indicates an addition to something that was recorded previously whereas the absence of such a letter where one could have expected it suggests that what is introduced at that point has no connection with what had been reported previously. Having learned this, we can proceed to evaluate the respective presence or absence of the letter ו in different parts of this paragraph. The paragraph begins by listing contributions for the construction of the Tabernacle, listing thirteen different materials and joining each one to the other with the conjunctive letter ו to show that each of these materials was of equal importance in the construction of the Tabernacle and was equally indispensable. All of these materials could be subsumed under the heading תרומת השם. The Torah considered someone who had contributed copper as on the same level as someone who had contributed gold, for instance. According to Menachot 110 the Torah describes the person who offered a bird as a total offering as having offered a ריח ניחוח, no less so than a person who offered a four-legged mammal as an עולה, a total offering. The evaluation is based on the principle אחד המרבה ואחד ההמעיט, that the quantity of a contribution does not determine how G'd evaluates it but the intent does. As long as the intent is to please Heaven that is all that matters. In this connection, you may wish to read what I have written on Leviticus 1,17.

Another reason that these 13 items are joined together in the Torah by the conjunctive letter ו is that all of these materials were indispensable. The Tabernacle could not function if any of these materials had been absent. The aforesaid applied only from the point of view of the materials which had to be contributed; it did not mean that furnishings or other parts of the Tabernacle constructed out of, say gold, were of the same significance as parts made of copper, for instance. Different parts of the Tabernacle each represented different levels of sanctity.

את המשכן, את אהלו, וגו׳. The Tabernacle, its tent, etc. The Tabernacle, i.e. the different materials used to provide its roofing, represented different degrees of sanctity. The materials forming the inner, or lower parts of the roofing were of a higher degree of sanctity than the outer coverings made of hides seeing they faced directly on to the Holy Ark, etc. The Torah indicates this by the absence of the conjunctive letter ו between the words משכן and אהל. The Torah does use the conjunctive letter ו when referring to מכסהו, to indicate that the various hides used as outer layers were of similar degrees of sanctity. The Torah informs us by the use of the letter ו that the difference in sanctity between the different hides was so insignificant that they were not separated from one another by omission of the conjunctive letter ו. The reason the Torah goes on to say את קרסיו instead of ואת קרסיו, is to inform us that the respective sanctity of these clasps was not of the same level as that of the coverings. The Torah goes on to mention the boards by using the letter ו i.e. ואת קרשיו. This indicates that these materials ranked equally with the clasps. On the other hand, the Torah omits the conjunctive letter ו when mentioning the בריחים, the bolts which held together the boards to tell us that they were not of the same level of sanctity as the boards which they hold together. The pillars also were of a lower degree of sanctity compared to the bolts and that is why they do not appear with the conjunctive letter ו. The אדנים, the sockets which held the boards were of the same level of sanctity as the pillars and that is why we have the letter ו i.e. ואת אדניו.

את הארון ואת בדיו, The Holy Ark and its staves, etc. The Torah lists the most sacred of the furnishings of the Tabernacle first just as it started by mentioning the most sacred of the various covers of the Tabernacle, the ones made of twisted linen first in 36,8. The reason that the staves are mentioned next with the conjunctive letter ו is that they formed an integral part of the Holy Ark and were not allowed to become detached from it as we have been told in 25,16. The Torah next mentions the lid of the Holy Ark, omitting the conjunctive letter ו, seeing that it was not as sacred as the Holy Ark itself. The fact that it was not attached permanently to the Holy Ark also suggests that it was not as sacred as the Ark itself. On the other hand, the dividing curtain, פרוכת המסך is introduced by the Torah with the conjunctive letter ו, indicating that it was of the same level of sanctity as the lid on the Ark.

את השלחן ואת בדיו, The table and its staves, etc. The level of sanctity of the table was lower than the sanctity of the furnishings listed previously. This is the reason the Torah introduces it with the word את, suggesting it is auxiliary. The same is the case with all the other items listed from here to the end of verse 19. All the items up to the end of verse 15 are joined by the conjunctive letter ו to emphasize that all were of comparable degrees of sanctity. The Torah introduces the candlestick with the conjunctive letter ו, i.e. ואת מנורת המאור ואת כליה, to make plain that all the parts of the candlestick were of the same level of sanctity as the candlestick itself. The Torah goes on to say ואת מזבח הקטורת, and the golden altar, to indicate by the letter ו that its sanctity was equivalent to that of the candlestick and the table. The same applies to the curtain at the entrance of the Tabernacle. The copper altar (verse 16) is introduced without the conjunctive letter ו to indicate it was not of the same level of sanctity as the furnishings listed previously. Its very position outside the Sanctuary makes this clear already. The copper grating is introduced with the letter ו indicating it was of the same degree of sanctity as the altar itself. The staves by which the altar was carried were not of the same degree of sanctity as the altar itself and that is why the Torah omits the letter ו when mentioning it. Other appurtenances of the altar were of the same category as its staves. The basin from which the priests washed their hands and feet is introduced without the letter ו as its sanctity was of a lower order, serving priests who had to sanctify themselves. Its stand was of the same order as the basin itself, seeing the Torah uses the letter ו when introducing it. The hangings of the courtyard, i.e. "walls," are introduced in verse 17 without the letter ו, as of a still lesser degree of sanctity, followed by mention of the pillars supporting those hangings, again without the letter ו. The sockets for these pillars are introduced with the letter ו to indicate that they were of the same degree of sanctity as the pillars which they supported. The same applied to the curtain at the entrance of the courtyard. The pegs (verse 18) fastening the various hangings or coverings of the Tabernacle itself to the ground are introduced without the letter ו as, understandably, they were of a lower order of sanctity. The various cords shared the same degree of sanctity as the pegs which were attached to them. Finally, in verse 19, the Torah lists the בגדי השרד, the plaited covers for the holy furnishings to be used when they were transported. If you will read what I have written on Exodus 25,7 you will find that someone who made profane use of the priestly garments was not subject to a penalty whereas if one did so with any of the holy vessels one was liable to a penalty. When the Torah mentions the priestly garments of Aaron and those of his sons, they are connected by the use of the conjunctive letter ו to show they were both of equal levels of sanctity.

ויצאו כל עדת בני ישראל מלפני משה. The whole congregation of Israelites departed from the presence of Moses. The Torah emphasises that they all left simultaneously, eager to bring their contributions for this sacred project.

מלפני משה. From the presence of Moses. This is mentioned to indicate that contrary to general practice, the Israelites did not wait for Moses to formally give them permission to leave this assembly. This was in contrast to a halachic ruling recorded in Yuma 53 according to which a disciple must not leave the presence of his teacher without first obtaining permission to do so. The Israelites reasoned that seeing Moses had said: "take from yourselves a gift, etc." the fact that he stopped addressing them was equivalent to his having dismissed them. Alternatively, the Israelites' love to contribute to the sacred project made them forget their good manners. They may have been anxious to contribute what they could before Moses himself would anticipate them. Moses personally was very wealthy and certainly sufficiently motivated to contribute so much of his own that little would be left for the average Israelite to contribute.