In the beginning of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, we find a humorous exchange between the town beggar and a rich merchant:
"Alms for the poor, alms for the poor," says the beggar. He suddenly stops and looks in disbelief at the coin just handed to him.
"Half a kopek?," he calls out. "Last week you gave me a whole kopek!"
"I'm sorry, I had a bad week," replies the merchant.
"You had a bad week, so I have to suffer?"
This interaction highlights a trait that is all too common: people will give tzedakah (charity) and act righteously when things are going well for them, but when their fortunes vanish, so do their good deeds.
"............a day of complete rest for Hashem....."(35:2)
In Mechilta ,Exodus 20:13 it states the following:"He who observes Shabbos testifies before the Creator that He(G-d) created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. As it says (Isaiah 43:10),You are My witnesses, said the L--d.
When the Jewish people keep Shabbos properly, they in essence proclaim to the world and themselves that Hashem is the Creator of the universe..........We coronate Hashem as King of the universe.......This is a very important fundamental principle in Judaism........Acknowledging and recongnizing Hashem as King can and will dramatically change how we perform the Mitzvot of the Torah
1)Fire!
The Zohar has a novel understanding/reading of the third pasuk in Vayakhel. The pasuk reads (35:3) ‘do not ignite a fire in your dwellings on the day of Shabbos. But the Zohar understands ‘fire’ here to mean arguments and bickering. This is party because fire represents passion. Whereas water symbolises a degree of calmness and serenity; water merely takes the shape of its container, fire, on the other hand, is more destructive, it moves, and can consume its container. Thus, according to the Zohar, the pasuk is warning us not to have destructive arguments with each other on Shabbos. In fact, Chazal (see gemarra Gittin 52a) reveal that the yetzer hara/sattan makes a special effort to push us to argue on Erev Shabbos - presumably he realises that an argument on Shabbos eve can spoil the sanctity and serenity of Shabbos.
2)Fire, Fire!
The only act singled out by the Torah explicitly as forbidden to do on Shabbos is igniting a fire. The other prohibited activities are learnt via non-explicit references or rules of extrapolation of the Torah. Why is fire-ignition singled out? There is a halachic dispute in the gemarra (Shabbos 70a) as to whether this singling out of fire is to tell us that fire is the exception or the norm in terms of punishment for violation of Shabbos. However, the Da’as Zekeinim here (35:3) gives us another answer. Lighting a fire is singled out as a forbidden activity because it does not seem like such a big act (compare the act of building or weaving), so one might (mistakenly) think that the Torah never prohibited such a thing. So the Torah specifically mentions that even the small act of lighting a fire forms part of the prohibited acts of Shabbos. Indeed, the fact that such ‘minor’ acts are forbidden on Shabbos (and can carry the death penalty) show how spiritually important Shabbos is. For the more important an event is, the less leeway for error there is. Take a heart operation, for example. The smallest act can have the most grave consequences. So too on Shabbos, seemingly ‘small/insignificant’ acts are forbidden as a result of the day’s immense holiness and importance.
Every morning, as we rise from our slumber, we say in our prayers, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem." And keeping this in mind, we try to live our lives accordingly. Of course, one of the best ways to do something is to follow an example, such as that which is presented at the very beginning of this week's parsha.
"Betzalel, son of Uri, son of Chur, of the tribe of Yehuda, made all that Hashem had commanded Moshe. With him was Oholiav, son of Achisomach, of the tribe of Dan. . ." (Exodus 38:22-23). On the surface, Hashem's choices for the builders of the mishkan appear to be rather odd. Betzalel, though of the most exalted tribe of Yehuda, was only thirteen years old; and Oholiav came from the least
This week we have a double sedra Vayakhel and Pekudei so that means a very long Torah reading indeed, over two hundred possukim! The sedras continue and conclude the theme of the building of the Mishkan which has flowed throughout the latter sedras of Shemos. Much of the text present in these two sedras appears to be a virtual repetition of the directions in the previous sedras of Terumah, Tetzaveh and Ki Sisa. So that saves me some time this week... just re-read them!Only joking, there is plenty of insight to be had... so lets get cracking.
Whereas the previous sedras were describing Hashem's instructions to Moshe regarding the construction of the Mishkan, this weeks sedras are a description of Moshe giving over those directives to the Jewish people. What becomes quite clear in Vayakhel and Pekudei (after dealing with the previous three
One of the main goals of the mishkan/mikdash is making HaShem’s Shechinah rest there (hashra’as haShechinah) - and this is exactly what happens at the end of Peudei. On a simple level, what exactly does this mean? On a deeper level, we know that HaShem created everything, and ‘He is everywhere;’ in order for anything to survive it must be connected to Him. If so, what does it mean that HaShem rests ‘more’ in the mishkan/mikdash; He is everywhere and everything, so how can we say that He rests/resides ‘more’ in one place than another? In asking these questions, we are essentially touching on the goal/aim of the mikdash itself.
These are two very deep questions, and I’m sure there are equally deep answers out there. We are going to cite a passage from the Sefer Hachinuch (mitzvah 95) who deals with this issue at the ‘pshat’ level, as he himself says
In any good series there is a ‘twist at the end,’ and I suppose this epic three-part series should be no different. Apart from the fact that the topic we are going to speak about is actually related to the parsha this week (shock horror), it is a much more central topic than the previous two parts of the series. Here we go: lights, camera, action! Apart from the cameo appearance of Shabbos at the start of the sedra (an ‘extra’ perhaps), the entire mass of our double-sedra is focussed on the mishkan. We are told about the donations, of those appointed to oversee the building, and then of the actual building of the mishkan and its vessels, with their being positioned and set up inside the mishkan. Finally, we reach
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Moshe Shlomo ben R'Shmuel | Shlomo ben R'Chaim | Aryeh Leib ben Pinchas Tzvi
