Moses Needed a Few Pointers

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Three matters were difficult for Moses to comprehend precisely, until the Holy One, Blessed be He, showed them to him with His finger, and these are the three matters: The form of the Candelabrum, and the exact size of the new moon, and the impure creeping animals. The Candelabrum was shown to him, as it is written: “And this is the work of the Candelabrum” (Numbers 8:4). The new moon was shown to him, as it is written: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2). The creeping animals were shown to him, as it is written: “And these are they which are unclean for you among the swarming things” (Leviticus 11:29). [Note: there is commentary that instead of the creeping animals, God showed him the Machatzit Hashekel, the half shekel.] And there are those who say that God also showed Moses the halakhot of slaughtering, as it is stated: “Now this is that which you shall sacrifice upon the altar” (Exodus 29:38), and slaughtering is the first ritual of sacrifice.

(17) He made the lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand—its base and its shaft—of hammered work; its cups, calyxes, and petals were of one piece with it. (18) Six branches issued from its sides: three branches from one side of the lampstand, and three branches from the other side of the lampstand. (19) There were three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on one branch; and there were three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on the next branch; so for all six branches issuing from the lampstand. (20) On the lampstand itself there were four cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals: (21) a calyx, of one piece with it, under a pair of branches; and a calyx, of one piece with it, under the second pair of branches; and a calyx, of one piece with it, under the last pair of branches; so for all six branches issuing from it. (22) Their calyxes and their stems were of one piece with it, the whole of it a single hammered piece of pure gold. (23) He made its seven lamps, its tongs, and its fire pans of pure gold. (24) He made it and all its furnishings out of a talent of pure gold.

(22) Now Bezalel, son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, had made all that יהוה had commanded Moses;

(1) ובצלאל בן אורי וגו׳ עשה את כל אשר צוה יהוה את משה AND BEZALEEL THE SON OF URI etc. MADE ALL THAT THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES — Moses further said to him: (בצלאל), you must have been sitting in the shadow of God (בצל אל), for certainly did thus God command me!” (cf. Berakhot 55a).

The Rabbis have also said: “Bezalel knew how to combine the letters with which heaven and earth were created.” The purport of this saying is that the Tabernacle alludes to these matters [heaven and earth], and he knew and understood its secret.

(2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

(2) הזה THIS [STAGE OF RENEWAL] — Moses was in perplexity regarding the Molad of (the exact moment when begins) the new moon — how much of it must be visible before it is proper to consecrate it as new moon: He therefore pointed it out to him in the sky with the finger and said to him, “Behold it like this, and consecrate it” (i. e., when you see the moon in a stage of renewal similar to this which you now behold you may proclaim that a new month has begun). (Mekhilta).

(12) When you take a census of the Israelite men according to their army enrollment, each shall pay יהוה a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled. (13) This is what everyone who is entered in the records shall pay: a half-shekel by the sanctuary weight—twenty gerahs to the shekel—a half-shekel as an offering to יהוה.

(1) זה יתנו THIS SHALL THEY GIVE — He (God) showed him (Moses) a kind of fiery coin the weight of which was half a shekel and said to him, “Like this shall they give” (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9).

Elijah, may he be well remembered, asked Rebbi Nehorai: Why did the Holy One, praise to Him, create abominable and crawling animals in His world? He said to him, they fill a need because, when men sin, He gazes at those and says, if I am keeping those who have no utility, certainly I shall keep these who might have utility. He said to him, still they have utility104A similar statement is found in Babli Šabbat 77b, by Rav Yehudah in the name of Rav.: a fly for wasps105Rashi in Babli Šabbat 77b explains that as antidote for the poison of the sting of a wasp, one grinds up some flies and puts them as ointment on the sting. He explains the same for the use of semamit for the sting of a scorpion, but the Babli (loc. cit.) notes that the scorpion is afraid of the semamit. Hence, it seems more likely that flies carry diseases into wasp’s nests and therefore curb their numbers, and semamiot eat scorpions., bedbugs for a leech, snail for skin rash106The last two must certainly be explained as medical uses., semamit107Arukh gives two Italian explanations of this word, the first ragnatello“spider” is also given by Rashi (araignée) in Babli Šabbat, the second lucertola “lizard” is more probable, in particular the gecko, Arabic סַאם אַבּרַצ, which is known to eat scorpions. Arabic סַאמָּה “poisonous animal”, but cf. Accadic summatu “pidgeon”, simmatu “poisoning”. for the scorpion.