Vayakhel- וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל Shemot ~ Exodus Making Torah Personal 35:1 – 38:20 ~Seder /Order

We come to this parsha after the sin of the Golden Calf, which depicted in stark terms the consequences of doubt and the lack of Emunah. After a reconciliation between God and the people, they are given instructions for building the mishkan, despite the huge break in trust. The message is that God again will be with them.

With the middah of Seder / Order there can be an imbalance on either side of the spectrum. On the one side, disorganization, chaos, a lack of focus and purpose while on the other there is rigidity, strictness, and an unwillingness to change. This middah inspires us to commit to a steady practice, without which we would be unable to increase in holiness. Think of the hours it might take to master a new skill (and instrument, a physical achievement). The development of your inner life requires an attention to order. Seder / סדר means arrangement, orderliness, tidiness, and sequence. Yet, when we change the letters, דרס means to trample, run over. ~RS

How do we balance the middah of Seder with the observance of Shabbat? In the text, the description of Shabbat becomes before the work on the Mishkan, seemingly out of order. What might be the reason for this?

There are seven characteristics of a wise person. One is that he responds to first things first and to last things later. ~Pirkei Avot 5:7

This, then, is our first step in teaching ourselves the middah of seder: Contemplate: What do you want? When you have the answer, ask yourself, what—according to your current level—can be done to actualize your resolutions? ~ Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, Alei Shur

Quick Summary

Moses assembles the people of Israel and reiterates to them the commandment to observe the Shabbat: no work is to be done on that day. He then conveys the instructions for the materials for making of the Mishkan.

Moses asks for voluntary ("whose heart is so moved") offerings of gold, silver, copper, precious stones, fine linen, wool, wood, oil, spices...all to be used for the mishkan. The people donate the required materials in abundance and Moses has to tell them to stop giving.

Moses appoints Bezalel and Oholiab, skilled craftsmen, to oversee the construction of the mishkan: (as detailed in Terumah, Tetzaveh and Ki Tisa): three layers of roof coverings; 48 gold-plated wall panels, and 100 silver foundation sockets; the parochet (veil) that separates between the Sanctuary’s two chambers, and the masach (screen) that fronts it; the ark, and its cover with the cherubim; the table and its showbread; the seven-branched menorah with its specially prepared oil; the golden altar and the incense burned on it; the anointing oil; the outdoor altar for burnt offerings and all its implements; the hangings, posts and foundation sockets for the courtyard; and the basin and its pedestal, made out of copper mirrors.

The instructions for building the Mishkan are repeated here from Ki Tisa (Exodus 25 - 31), almost word for word. The differences are worthy of consideration: Before, the furnishings were described in order of sanctity (starting with the Ark and moving outward) whereas here, they are in reverse (the outer structure first, then the interior). Also missing are how the items are to be used, focusing instead on their fabrication. Also, Moses' name is more predominant than Aaron's. Here, women specifically are mentioned as significant contributors.

...when the people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, they were cleansed of the effects of any previous wrongdoings and restored to the spiritual status of Adam and Eve before they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. They lost this status when they committed the sin of the Golden Calf. Thus, when God first gave the Torah, He gave the people the opportunity to live life in the way wholly righteous individuals live it; afterwards, their approach to life became that of penitents.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both states of being, and, as was noted above, it was because of the opportunities available only to penitents that God orchestrated the sins involving the Tree of Knowledge and the Golden Calf in the first place. Righteous people do not have to contend with the challenges of temptation; they can perform their Divine mission naturally, without impediments. Their lives are an ongoing process of realizing their own God-given potential and transforming the world around them into God’s home.

Penitents, however, have to exert themselves and tap reservoirs of inspiration and self-discipline that the righteous have no need of. Their lives are a process of striving beyond themselves; by rectifying their previous wrongdoings, they transform realms of reality that the righteous never touch.

Essentially, then, the difference between righteous people and penitents is that the former work with their God-given gifts and with those aspects of reality that are a priori fit to become God’s home, while the latter work with their own powers and with realms of reality that are initially antithetical to Divinity. ~ Kohot Chumash

What Moses had to do after the Golden Calf was Vayakhel – turn the Israelites into a kehillah, a community. He did this in the obvious sense of restoring order. When Moses came down the mountain and saw the Calf, the Torah says the people were pru’ah, meaning “wild,” “disorderly,” “chaotic,” “unruly,” “tumultuous.” He “saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies” (Ex. 32:25). They were not a community but a crowd. He did it in a more fundamental sense as we see in the rest of the parsha. He began by reminding the people of the laws of Shabbat. Then he instructed them to build the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, as a symbolic home for God. Why these two commands rather than any others? Because Shabbat and the Mishkan are the two most powerful ways of building community. The best way of turning a diverse, disconnected group into a team is to get them to build something together. Hence the Mishkan. The best way of strengthening relationships is to set aside dedicated time when we focus not on the pursuit of individual self interest but on the things we share, by praying together, studying Torah together, and celebrating together – in other words, Shabbat. Shabbat and the Mishkan were the two great community-building experiences of the Israelites in the desert.~Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, commentary on Vayakhel

Constructing the Tabernacle was a microcosm of life in general: the purpose of the Tabernacle was to provide an earthly “dwelling” for God’s presence; the purpose of life in general is to transform the world into an earthly dwelling for God. Thus, the 39 categories of work required to construct the Tabernacle are the archetypes for all the work we do in the physical world in order to refine and elevate it. ~Kohot Chumash

One who separates himself from the community, even if he does not commit a transgression but merely holds himself aloof from the congregation of Israel, does not fulfil the commandments together with his people, shows himself indifferent to their distress and does not observe their fast days but goes on his own way like one of the nations who does not belong to the Jewish people – such a person has no share in the world to come.~ Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 3:11.

"Da'as is the koach hachibur," which, loosely translates as, "Knowledge, or awareness, has the power to unite." What this means is that unity, whether on the level of the individual, or the nation, or the whole world is a function of knowledge and understanding. The deeper the knowledge and understanding, the more willing and capable people are of getting along with one another. After all, isn't that what we are all after? Whether it's to become well and whole ourselves, or, to improve the "shalom bayis" of our homes, or, to unify our people, or, to unify the world ... it's all the same thing in the end: unity and shlaimus. We want "chibur" -- on the personal level, on the family level, and on the national level. The more esoteric side of our tradition tells us that this is only possible with "da'as" -- godly knowledge that heightens our awareness of what counts most in life and how to go about getting that "most in life." ~Rabbi Pinchas Winston

כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה Kol Yisrael Areyvim Zeh Bazeh ....the entire Jewish people are considered guarantors for one another. ~Talmud, Tractate Shevuot 39a

Eileh HaDevarim אֵ֚לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֔ים , the same words used for the Aseret HaDevarim, conceptually linking the instructions for Shabbat and the Mishkan to the most significant of all divine commands. ~The Women's Torah Commentary.

The Torah contains no one definition for work. The categories of work are derived from this parsha, Vayakhel and its description of the work necessary for the building of the mishkan. Rabbi Judah HaNasi, editor of the Mishnah, compiled the categories of work.

"Shabbat is a sanctuary in time"

The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world."--Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man

AND THE MEN CAME ‘AL HANASHIM’ (WITH THE WOMEN). The meaning of this expression is that because donations of ornaments were more common amongst women, and they all had these jewels [cited in the verse: nose-rings, and ear-rings, and signet-rings, and golden beads, all jewels of gold], therefore they immediately pulled off their ear-rings and signet-rings and were the first to come to Moses, and [afterwards] they brought with them those men with whom they found ornaments. For the phrase al hanashim indicates that they were there first, while the men joined them later. ~Ramban

This verse challenges the idea that only men worked in the tent shrine. Moreover, the fact that these women are mentioned in an aside in relation to their mirrors, rather than in a listing of Tabernacle jobs, raises the possibility that there were other female workers in the sacred complex....the fact that "at the entrance" is mentioned, that women were identified by where they did their job suggests that there may have been other women working elsewhere in the Mishkan....The Torah, A Women's Commentary

צָבָא (n-m) heb

1. • that which goes forth, army, war, warfare, host
     • army, host
       • host (of organised army)
       • host (of angels)
       • of sun, moon, and stars
       • of whole creation
     • war, warfare, service, go out to war
     • service

Ahad Ha'Am (Asher Ginsberg; b. 1856, Kiev; d. 1927, Tel Aviv. Father of Cultural Zionsim)

When the individual values the community as his own life and strives after its happiness as though it were his individual well-being, he finds satisfaction and no longer feels so keenly the bitterness of his individual existence, because he sees the end for which he lives and suffers.

This is what the Sage is saying: One who knows the correct (middah) value of blending together confidence for the community with humility, one who can suitably balance measure for measure, at the appropriate time, in the appropriate place, with the appropriate person -- that is a person who is accomplished and should be loved and always respected. ~Excerpted from Tiferet Yisrael on Pirkei Avot 2:4 (R' Israel Lipschitz; 1782-1860, Germany)