"Listening to Heart-Wisdom" (an excerpt)
Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible
Jill Hammer
There are two modes of Revelation in the Torah. One mode is that of Sinai; revelation comes from a mountaintop, in the form of laws and principles. The laws treated everyone equally. It is a transcendent law, Divine in origin, and descends to touch every member of the covenant with it's truths. The other mode is that of the mishkan, the Tabernacle or Sanctuary. As the Israelite people build the mishkan, the shrine they will carry through the wilderness, they rely on their inner wisdom and individual gifts. Although the pattern of the mishkan comes from the Eternal, the gifts that make the sanctuary what it is comes from the depths of the human heart. The mishkan is replete with images of love and relationship: images we can use to transform our experience of what Torah is.
Both of these models appear at the beginning of Parashat Vaykhel. Moses assembles the community and reminds them of Shabbat: "Six days you shall work, and the seventh day shall be for you a holy Sabbath. Whoever does work on it shall die" (Ex. 35:2). Moses is communicating in the mode of Sinai, in which law is paramount. You have Moses then moves to the second mode, that of the mishkan. He says, "these are the things G-d has commanded: take from among you a gift for the Eternal. All those whose hearts are willing shall bring a gift for the Eternal" (Ex. 35:5). The Tabernacle cannot be built only according to law. It must be built by those whose hearts are willing.
The people immediately respond to this plea. "Everyone whose heart lifted him up and everyone who was moved by a spirit of generosity, came bringing the gift of the Eternal for the work of the Tent of Meeting, for its service, and for the sacred vestments: men and women, all who were generous of heart" (Ex. 35:21-22). Notice that the genders, so carefully separated by Torah law, come together to create the sacred shrine. There is no division between man and woman. All desire to be part of the building of the Tabernacle.
The Israelites respond, not out of obedience, as they did at Sinai, but because their hearts speak to them…An inner sacred truth is coming out of the people through acts of creation. As the Tabernacle grows in beauty, every single Israelite becomes part of the process of putting it together.
"A Knack for Design"(an excerpt)
Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible
Lisa Edwards and Laurence Edwards
From where comes our tradition's attention to detail, this passion for design and construction, for building a suitable dwelling for G-d and for the proper attire to tend the altar of worship?
In the women's commentary, Rabbi Elana Zaiman notes that the root of Pekudei, P-K-D, often occurs in the Bible in connection with birth: Sarah giving birth to Isaac (Gen. 21:1), Hannah to Samuel (1 Sam. 2:21). On the basis of this connection, Zaiman suggests that birth imagery is also here, in the "birth" of the Mishkan/Tabernacle. Birth, specifically childbirth, is one tangible and essential means of transmitting culture, of sustaining identify over generations and the root P-K-D reminds us of that fact.
Here, however, the root has another meaning at the level of peshat, the simplest, contextual understanding. Pekudei refers to the accounting, the recording, the inventory of all the materials donated and used as well as the labor involved in the construction of the wilderness sanctuary--"These are the records of the Tabernacle [Pekudei hamishkan], the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses' bidding" (Ex. 38: 21). The parasha accounts, recounts, and summarizes the conclusion of the work.
P-K-D thus relates to another meaning of cultural preservation and transmission. If birth is one essential aspect of sustaining identity, equally crucial is the concern for careful record-keeping and creation and preservation of the material artifacts that bear testimony to civilization.