Parshas Vayakel-Pekudei





This is in the merit of my grandmother, Esther bas Mazal, may she have a speedy and complete recovery.





Question:



(Speaking about the builder of the Tabernacle:) “He has imbued him with the spirit of God, with wisdom [chochma], with insight [tevuna], and with knowledge [da’as], and with [talent for] all manner of craftsmanship” (Exodus 35:31)



“The Lord founded the earth with wisdom [chochma], established the heavens with discernment [tevuna]. With His knowledge [da’as] the depths were split, and the heavens drip dew” (Proverbs 3:19-20)



What is the significance between this parallel?







Judaism, Love, Personal Sacrifices



The Torah tells us “Every man and woman whose heart motivated them to bring for any of the work that Hashem had commanded to make through Moses, the Children of Israel brought a free willed offering to Hashem” (Exodus 35:29).



This verse seems sloppily written. The “the Children of Israel” appears to be quite out of place and we would expect the verse to be written ‘Every man and woman whose heart motivated them to bring…brought a free willed offering to Hashem’



Instead we have “Every man and woman whose heart motivated them to bring for any of the work that Hashem had commanded to make through Moses, the Children of Israel brought a free willed offering to Hashem” (Exodus 35:29).



On the level of drash, the Malbim resolves the problem and derives a powerful message from this verse. He effectively tells us to read the verse as:



“Every man and woman whose heart motivated them to bring for all of the work that Hashem had commanded to make through Moses, the Children of Israel brought as a free willed offering to Hashem” (Exodus 35:29).



In other words, “Every man and woman whose heart motivated them to bring” were “brought as a free willed offering to Hashem”!





The Malbim says: “All these gifts were not the chief thing in the eyes of God, since it is the heart that the Almighty demands… [T]here were found needy people in Israel who contributed nothing materially, but nevertheless gave their hearts, making a mental reservation, that if they would have the means they would give it to build the whole Tabernacle and all its vessels… It was this type of man and woman which the Children of Israel brought as a free will offering to God. This man and this woman were the real free will offering which the Almighty received, as if Israel were brining them to [H]im” (quoted in Nechama Leibowitz’s Studies on Exodus, volume 2, page 669).



The Malbim interprets the verse “And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8) in a similar manner.



“He commanded that each individual should build [H]im a sanctuary in the recesses of his heart, that he should prepare himself to be a dwelling place for the Lord and a stronghold for the excellency of His Presence, as well as an altar n which to offer up every portion of his soul to the Lord, until he gives himself for His glory at all times” (page 483).





The Malbim’s comments are quite similar to the poem, Bilvavi, written by the Kabbalist, Rav Elazar Azkiri:



In my heart I will build a Tabernacle to glorify His honor

And in the Tabernacle, an altar I will place to the splendor of His glory

And for the Eternal Flame, I will take for myself the fire of the Binding of Isaac

And for the offering, I will offer to Him my unique soul



(Hebrew, a transliteration, a different English translation, and music are available at http://www.usy.org/songs/view_song.php?songID=120)





Nechema (page 669) finds support for the Malbim in Isaiah:



“Thus says Hashem: The heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool; what house could you build for Me, and what place could be My resting place? My hand created all thse things and thus all these things came into being – the word of Hashem – but it is to this that I look: to the poor and broken-spirited person who is zealous regarding my word” (Isaiah 66:1-2).





The concept that we need to love G-d and be constantly offering ourselves up to Him by redoubling our efforts to serve Him and be zealous is made explicit by Job “Were He to kill me, I would still yearn for Him…” (Job 13:15).



Similarly, we recite twice a day “And you must love Hashem your G-d… with all of your soul…” (Deuteronomy 6:5).



On this verse, Rashi cites the Mishnah (Brachos 54a) which says “‘and with all your soul’ even if He takes your soul.”





In this matter of love of G-d, we cannot be lax, we must do better! We cannot despair and say that the task is impossible because it does not matter where we are but where we are going. We must work on ourselves. If we can’t love G-d, we can want to love G-d, want to yearn for His Presence, want to long to cling to Him.



“Please Hashem, I am your servant…” (Psalms 116:16).





Biographies:

Rav Elazar Azkiri http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/azikri.htm

The Malbim http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/leibush.htm




Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai



[To avoid confusion with ambiguous pronouns, in the English translations from Nechama Leibowitz’s Studies, I capitalized in brackets the first letter of pronouns which I think are referring to G-d. I am in doubt however if all of my changes are correct since sometimes the translation on its own capitalizes the letters. However, where I have capitalized, it seems from the English it is referring to G-d and if it was referring to something else, the pronouns would have been written slightly differently. I really should have looked at the Hebrew. It is worth mentioning that throughout these Studies I have found numerous obvious typos and small problems in the translation so I really cannot be sure of much. Nechama wrote the Hebrew but she was not the translator.]