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a repetition!

Written by Anonymous

The opening of the sedra (and its name) repeats the totals of the donations given for the mishkan fund. Why repeat the donations which have already been discussed in previous sedras?
An answer given concerns the two types of reward given for effort in mitzvos. When one makes an effort to do a mitzvah, one receives two types of reward for it. First is the reward for the effort itself, regardless of whether you achieved the result of doing the mitzvah in the end, eg if you were prevented from doing it by unforeseen circumstances. And second is the reward for having done and completed the mitzvah, and its consequent effects – eg you gave tzedakah which made someone smile which made someone else be kinder to their friend, etc.
The donations in previous sedras concerned the first type of reward – for the effort alone, because the mishkan had not yet been built in those sedras. Now, in our sedra, when we are dealing with the fact that the building of the mishkan and its contents was completed, the donations are repeated to tell us that not only did the Bnei Yisrael receive the reward for effort, but they also received the reward for achievement – that their donations had now resulted in the mishkan having been built and its consequences of HaShem residing within us, so to speak.

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