Parashat Vayakheil / Pekudei

Parashat Vayakheil / Pekudei

Adar 27, 5773 ~ March 9, 2013
by Alex Hart

Here in Vayakheil, there’s deliberate singling out individuals for their unique skill: לב חכם (35:10), translated as ‘naturally talented individual’. These individuals would be building the tabernacle itself and everything it contained. It doesn’t sound like there’ll be a great deal of teamwork. But then the Torah describes the throngs of volunteers both men and women. Now, everyone alike is spinning and donating, offering sacrifices; all become a multitude, no one person receives especial mention. This is the very first time we see the Bnei Yisrael working together and we can almost feel the camaraderie. Beautiful items are brought as donations and now, whereas these parshiyot follow directly on the heels of the sin of the Golden Calf, idol worship, the tangible is now being celebrated, all for the glory of G-d.

Considering the tangible, if we think back to the beginning of Shemot, In (4:1) we see that Moshe disagreed with G-d as to the appropriate manner of leadership. Moshe had maintained that the people, collectively, would only believe what they could see, i.e. leading them to faith by virtue of visual evidence. Here, gold and ornaments, tangible objects, are happily provided for a different purpose.  The emphasis on all of this pomp and splendor is not for idolatry but to enhance the serving of G-d, the Omnipresent but invisible.

Each person is a part of this new kehilla but each interprets his worship of G-d in his own way. It’s reminiscent of the manner in which we live for gratification; we’re governed by experiential learning and an era of ‘1000 Places to See Before You Die’. These too are experiences that are most personal: one man’s appreciation of an experience is not the same as another’s; they are difficult to share or articulate. Through the provision of the tangible it appears that there’s enormous hope that will be the medium through which to enhance deveikut, devotion to G-d.

I work to eradicate anti-Semitism each day. Even in an environment devoid of Jews, the irrational hatred pervades. A recent publication by Professor David Nirenberg ‘Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition’ may yet prove to be a seminal work defining this abhorrence of our nation. Anti-Semitism is directed against a person, yet if there’s still hatred in a space in which there are no Jews; it boils down to a hatred of Judaism, the idea.  Others are frightened by that that has no earthly representation and I’m rapidly coming to it the conclusion that it’s simply because Jews worship an invisible G-d.

Here in these parshiyot, is the very first presentation of the same. We see talented individuals morph into a team and furthermore, they are working with one mindset, to serve G-d. For those on the outside looking in, it seems incomprehensible, cultish, the incongruous donation of precious objects into a wooden structure.

I’m inclined to believe that it’s this unswerving attachment to G-d, our central tenet, that leads to a universal wonderment ‘How could a whole nation be motivated in such a manner?’

‘Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the examination of this tribunal. But, if they are exempted, they become the subject of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free public examination.’ (Kant, Critique of Pure Reason)

Others are scared of that which can’t be seen, they need the tangible.

Bnei Yisrael are human too but in their joint donation of their precious items for the Mishkan and the work behind the scenes to produce it, there’s achdut, such a shared experience promoting stability and adding a quality to the entire nature of that being built, that it becomes something ethereal.

The repetition is most apparent on reading these parshiyot. The details describing the building of the mishkan, down to the minutiae that appear in perek 37, parallel those in chapter 25:10 – 40. Nachmanides (יא,ס רבה בראשית) tells us that these details are actually repeated 5 times throughout the Torah. This is quite astonishing if, as we’re told, every word, every letter, has meaning in the Torah.  No matter which way it’s cut, the details, in all their glory, are very much a case of repetition.

However, the repetition has a message. Each time that an element was dutifully completed, we note Moshe’s response: משה את ה צוה כאשר – as HaShem had commanded Moshe. There was teamwork after all and the beauty in working together in unison garnered a blessing from Moshe. The work done required repetition because, as Ramban says, it was deserving of recognition. Bnei Yisrael had for the first time tackled a program with the one mindset, the talent came from the לב חכם to deliver the end product, a place for G-d’s presence to reside. As if a symphony, each note, each item added, rises to its full potential in what is being represented in the outer product, without ego. A symphony so beautiful, it bears repetition. As Heschel would advise, the majesty and awe in a sunrise remind us that ‘we do not create the ineffable, we encounter it’.