Illustration credit: Rivka Tsinman
Benei Yisrael finish creating the mishkan, all its כֵּלִים (keilim, vessels), and the clothing for kohanim. Here’s how the Torah summarizes the way that Benei Yisrael did this work.
כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה' אֶת מֹשֶׁה
כֵּן עָשׂוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
אֵת כׇּל הָעֲבֹדָה׃
וַיַּרְא מֹשֶׁה אֶת כׇּל הַמְּלָאכָה
וְהִנֵּה עָשׂוּ אֹתָהּ כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה' כֵּן עָשׂוּ וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם מֹשֶׁה׃
Just as God commanded Moshe,
that’s what Benei Yisrael did,
for all the work.
Moshe saw they had done all the work—as God had commanded, so they had done—and Moshe blessed them.
- Why do you think these pesukim emphasize that Benei Yisrael did everything exactly as God had commanded? Why is this so important?
- What might have happened if they didn’t follow all the directions exactly, and made one of the keilim in a slightly different way?
- Why might building the mishkan and then getting a blessing go together? What kind of blessing do you imagine Moshe gave Benei Yisrael? What blessing would fit this moment?
- Back in Bereishit, at the end of the sixth day of creation, God sees the world that God created, calls it good, and then gives a blessing.
- Compare our pesukim above to these pesukim about the creation of the world: Bereishit 1:31 to 2:3. What similarities do you notice?
- It seems like the Torah might want us to think about a connection between the creation of the mishkan and the creation of the world. Why? What can this tell us about the mishkan?
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