Smadar Peretz
We have just finished reading a highly detailed and technical parasha. Not sure about you but I found myself slightly overwhelmed by TMI (too much information). Even in a dense narrative of an elaborate architectural blue print for the MISHKAN there are interesting ideas.
I'd like to start and end my comments with the idea of order, what comes first and why? It is important to note that parashat Vayakhel opens with Moshe telling bnei Israel about keeping the SHABBAT, and only then gets to the instructions of building the mishkan. As we know nothing is random in the Torah, least of all the narrative order. However, I chose to reverse the order and start with the mishkan and conclude with a brief discussion of the dynamic tension between Shabbat and the mishkan.
On to the first point. Verse 29 reads:
כל איש וכל אשה אשר נדב לבם אותם להביא לכל המלאכה אשר צווה ה לעשות ביד משה הביאו בני ישראל נדבה לה"All the men and women whose hearts moved them to bring anything for the work that god, through Moshe, had commanded to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to god."
Long before the use of politically correct language he/she and very much unlike the mostly male-dominated language of the Torah, here is an explicit reference to men AND women. This indicates that the huge enterprise of building the MISHKAN is meant to be truly collective. As reflected in the name of this week's parasha vaayakhel derived from the root kuf-hey-lamed meaning gathering, audience, community, this project is meant to bring together everyone. Men and women possessing what the text refers to as chochmat lev
Now, this is an interesting expression, and it is obviously an important one as it is repeated, in various forms at least 11 times in the text. The Etz Chaim translates it merely as "skilled person". I find this translation unsatisfactory and suggest that chochmat lev actually means emotional intelligence.
The phrase is closely echoed in the remarkable verse 31. In English: "He has endowed him with a divine spirit of skill, ability and knowledge in every kind of craft."
Here again, it seems the translation takes a narrow view focused on the skills relating to the task of building the MISHKAN and does not do justice to the concepts of chochmah, tevunah?, daat.
Rashi offers an interesting commentary on this triad of qualities. According to Rashi the "spirit of God" actually consists of:
Nechama Leibowitz concurs with Rashi's definition of דעת as the 'holy spirit' because it is associated with the Hebrew verb yod-dalet-ayin "to know", from which דעת is formed. דעת then connotes the spiritual kinship formed by the coming together of two forces, as in Adam knew (ידע) Eve his wife, indicating the physical intimacy between them. Any intense feeling, whether of pleasure or pain, caused by close contact of the body with something external is expressed by the verb ידע. Namely, we can express the perceptiveness and wisdom in a human soul through its contact with the Divine by the word ידע
.The spirit of this collective enterprise is so infectious that bnei Israel flock to BRING their offerings. Nechama Leibowitz actually did the counting and notes that the word 'bring' recurs, in one form or another, nine times in the chapter. In fact they bring so much that at one point the craftsmen in charge of building the mishkan tell Moshe "we have too much" and Moshe then tells the people: "Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the MISHKAN!"
Now some thoughts about the proximity and association of SHABBAT and the MISHKAN in this parasha and the fact that Shabbat comes first.
The mitzvah to build the MISHKAN is all about doing, specific instructions as to materials, measurements, ornamentation, colours, shapes, lighting including the proverbial copper sink (with its own beautiful midrash). Given that level of detail, could we assume that the mitzvah of building the MISHKAN might override keeping the SHABBAT? As we all know, the answer to that question is a resounding NO. Not even building a holy place for god can trump keeping SHABBAT. At the risk of making a sweeping assumption I'd argue that most of us subscribe to the notion that doing, acting, saying are far more valuable and meaningful than not doing, not speaking, not going about some action or another. For most of us 'performance' is far more perfect than 'non-performance'.
However, as I said earlier, nothing is random in the Torah, and certainly the order at which things are narrated holds supreme importance. Therefore, the explicit instruction to cease from doing any and all work is critical. In essence, the mitzvah to keep Shabbat is an emphatic reminder, a virtual highlighter, if you will, on the notion of conquering the human need to act, achieve, push forward, do, and instead an invitation to take the day to rest and to reflect, take the time to BE.
Finally, there is an additional, perhaps more abstract idea about the two themes Mishkan and Shabbat. The Mishkan is a physical presence in space symbolizing god's presence amidst bnei Israel, a physically magnificent structure. The perfection of the Mishkan lies in ACTION and performance of the many people who will devote their talents to building it. After all, it is easy to argue that a physical building in space is far more eloquent a proof of faith than a non-building?
Shabbat, as we all know, has already been communicated as a mitzvah, or a "super mitzvah" in the Ten Commandments. Why then does Moshe repeat it here again before the instructions about the MISHKAN?
Heschel offers a most elegant explanation. He writes: ""To enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective, yet to have more does not mean to be more." We must NOT surrender to space and become enslaved to 'things', he further writes: "We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment, it is the moment that lends significance to things.
According to Heschel Judaism is much more concerned with time than with space. How do we know that? One of the most important words in the Torah is the word kadosh, holy, which more than any other word represents the mystery and majesty of the divine. Now think, what was the first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain, an altar, a physical place in space? No! The first time the word kadosh is used is in breisheit (Genesis) at the end of the story of creation and it is applied to TIME. "And god blessed the seventh day and made it holy". After creating heaven and earth, god did not create a holy mountain or a holy spring, upon which to build a sanctuary, a MISHKAN.
In the beginning there was only holiness in time. Only after bnei Israel succumbed to the temptation of worshipping the golden calf, came the commandment to build the Mishkan, holiness in space.
Order does matter!
Shabbat Shalom!
In loving memory of my late father Albert Peretz and in honour of our children