Vayakhel-Pekudei - 1st Portion

Join as we learn for Sunday parases vayakl generally on a non-leapier vayak and pud are read together on a lepier yak vayak and pakud are read separately theor reading thus now has told us about the laws how god told Moses about the building of the tabernacle we read about the sin of the golden calf and Now we are at that point where Moses comes down after the he asks God for atonement of the Jewish people and the Jewish people are forgiven and the day after Yumiper he gathers the Jewish people to tell them about the construction of the tabernacle. Chapter 35 verse1 Moshe gathers the entire congregation of Israelites and he tells them these are the things that God has commanded for you to do. He tells us when did this occur? put him the day after when he came down the mountain means that they gathered they gathered together meaning it happened because it wasn't that he collected the people with his hands it was because he said they should all come together he was the cause for them to gather and therefore the tarum the Aramaic translation of the says and he gathered notes and they and they and They gathered and he gathered. Verse two, for six days you should work. Work should be done. And the seventh day should be considered holy. Shabas, a holy of holies, a complete rest. Whoever does any work shall be put to death. He prefaced the laws pertaining to the Shabas before telling them about the construction of the tabernacle to tell them that the building of the tabernacle does not supersede the Shabas and the Shabas has to be observed and on Shabas they will not work from they will not work and will not be building the tabernacle. If you look at the words that the Torah mentions here six days a week, not you shall work but work will be done. Over here the Torah tells us that a person observes Shabasidus explains that when a person observes Shabas, the Shabas blesses the upcoming week that the six days automatically the work is done for them. A person also has to remember that when a person works during these six days of the week, he has to remind himself and remember that it's the God's blessing that gives him the ability to achieve and to prosper and therefore only his hands should be the working is with the work of one's hands that he's able to bring home the sustenance that he that he needs and shall leave his head space for godly matters. And this way the blessing of God will be in what he does. The Torah then continues with the prohibition of one should not kindle any fire in your dwelling place on Shabas on the day of Shabas. Why does the Torah single out this prohibition? There are those of the rabbis that explain that the reason why the Torah singles out this commandment of the 39 principal laws is because it's said here differently that in this case you for kindling a fire one does not get the punishment of death but only the punishment of lashes. However, others explain that it actually came to separate them, telling us that there were 39 categories of work. And if one was to transgress any of them or several of them inadvertently, you need to atone for each one separately. Just like the kindling of a fire is an individual prohibition. So to any of the prohibitions are individuals and they one is liable for them individually. Now the Torah goes on as Moshe tells the Jewish people about the items that are needed to build the tabernacle. Verse four Moshe tells all the Jewish people saying this is what God has commanded me to tell you. Why does he say twice that this is what Moshe says and saying he told it to me that I should be able to pass it on to you. Verse five, take from them through a donation for God. Any person who has a generous heart should contribute as the donation for God. Gold, silver, and copper. What does this mean? Because when a person has the generosity to give, it comes from the heart. And therefore, he calls it the generosity of the heart. Now rash over here gives us a general rule that he will not repeat things that are unnecessary. Therefore he says you will notice that rash over here will not be that much because he says I have already explained the details of the building of the tabernacle and over here it's just a review of what Mosha tells it to the Jewish people and therefore see earlier to its details and particulars. verse six. The other items being donated was uh turquoise wool, purple dyed wool, scarlet wool, linen, and goats here. Verse seven, red dyed ramkin wood, oil for illuminating incense for the oil of anointing. and for the incense offering. Verse 9, the onx stones and the incense stones for the aph and for the breastplate. Verse 10, and all the intelligent, smart people, wisehearted individuals shall come forward will come and do as God commanded. Verse 11ish, the tapestries of the tabernacle as and its cover and the cover that went on top of that crush and its clasps and its planks as and its crossbarss and its pillars and the sockets. Over here you notice it says the tabernacle. What's the tabernacle? Wasn't the entire structure called the tabernacle? Sarashi explains the underlying the one that was beneath the tapestries that were on the bottom that you saw from inside the tabernacle those are called the tabernacle the tent covering that was the goat skin covering which was made as and then the cover on top of that was that was the rams and the skin that went all the way on the top verse 12 the the arc there and its poles its cover and the partition curtain. was the curtain that separated between the holy of holies and the holy anything that separates whether on the side whether on top of it is called or as we know by it's called so to we find in the verses or we also find in that I will close off your way using the terminology as a divider from the word or verse 13 as of the table and its poles as kale of and all the utensils that came with it and the showbread. Why was it called showbre explained previously in chapter 25? Because it was facing one another like a sea was made like a box an open box and therefore you had the two ends facing one another. So it was called facing showbread. Verse 14 and the candalabra for kindling and its utensils and its lamps and the oil for kindling. These were the lamps that the oil and the wicks were put in it and the light for illumination. What was it so important that you needed intellectual, smart, talented people to make oil? This was because the oil for illuminating as we explained previously had to be made in a specific way. needed special people because this was made differently than any other type of oil. And this needed a special talent to be able to do this like it's explained in 86A that they would take the ones that were on top of the olive tree and they would have to take from the best ones and then press it that it would have to be pure without any sediment. Verse 15. And the altar for the incense offering, the oil for anointing and the incense for offering and the entrance way for the entrance of the tabernacle. That was a curtain which was on the east side. There was no beams or skin there or any of the tapestries and it was only a curtain that blocked the entrance of the tabernacle. Verse 17, the the curtains that were needed for the courtyard of its pillars as well as the opening of the courtyard. It was a curtain that was hanging on the east side on center of the width of the courtyard because the width of the courtyard was 50. They had 15 on each side made it 30 20 center opening and that was covered by a curtain. There was 15 to the north to the south as we learned previously in chapter 27 that there were 15 for each side. 15 cumits on each side. Verse 18. The pegs for the tabernacle, the pegs for the courtyard and their tying ropes. Why were there pegs? Sashi explains these pegs. They took the big tapestries that were hanging. They would tie it down to the bottom. So therefore, they would not blow in the wind. These were ropes that were used to keep them down. Verse 19. There was netted packing blankets kept packing cloths that was used with the holy items the holy garments and the children's garments as well his son's garments that was used for priesthood for the rashi big and these were used to cover the they were moving blankets that were used to cover the ark of the covenant as well as the table and the manura and the altars is when they would travel on verse 20 and the entire congregation of the Israelites then left Mosha's presence on a non on a leap year this would end the first section on a leap year we continue now with the second section of four Sunday paras and together verse 21 And any person who and all people came everyone who had a generous spirit and whoever wanted to make that his spirit contri said I want to contribute to God say these individuals all brought their donation to God for the work of the tent of meeting and anything that was needed in service and for the garments. Verse 22. And the men and women accompanied the women. All generous individuals with a heart. They brought they brought bracelets and nose and rings. Bracelets and nose rings. And finger rings. The kumas and other rings as well. The cleav. All types of gold garments. of and any person who brought a donation to God. Rashi explains what these items were. First of all, he says doesn't mean they were on top of them, but they came accompanying them. Is a bracelet. It is a silver is I'm sorry is a round type of jewelry which is put on the way on the wrist and this is called a bracelet. The hum, the word humumas is clay. This was a golden piece of jewelry was put by the private parts of the woman. The rabbis explained that if you look at the word kumas alludes to it because the word kumas is an acronym of the word here is a place of immorality verse 23. any person that had with him turquoise wool, purple wool or scarlet red wool or linen or goats or rams skin dyed red or skin they brought it as well. What does it mean they hold at hand? Why does he use the terminology? It should say with them when the Torah says it's not it's referring to that any person that had any one of these kinds whether it was turquoise purple or scarlet will or any of these things they all brought it meaning what the person had could be a person has some of them a person only had one of them any thing that the individual had they brought as well verse 24 made him Any person that brought a donation of silver or copper view contributed towards the donation of God and any person who had with him for all the work of the service that was needed they brought it as well. Verse 25. And all the women who had this skill that they were able to that with their hands they were able to spin the different materials. They brought then the spun yarn. And this spun yarn had in it all the different material of the Turkish warm gum, the purple wani, the scarlet wach, the linen all were spun together. Verse 26. as in all the women whose hearts inspired them as well had the ability to spin the goats here. The goats here to spin was an extra special talent that they had to do it directly off the living animals into threads and that required a very special skill as Rashi says this was a special skill. They would do it right off the sc the goats here, right off the goat's back. And this was done that these goats here does not get dirty. And this was the cleanest and purest wool that could be used. Verse 27 and the leaders of the tribes brought the onx stones and the insert stones for the breastplate for the aphot and the breastplate. Rashi says, "Why does it tell us about the leaders that they only brought it at the end said? Why would you find when it came to the dedication and inauguration of the tabernacle, the first ones to bring the sacrifices were the leaders? When it comes to the building of the of the tabernacle, you only see their name later." This is what the leader said. Let everybody bring what's needed. Whatever is missing, we will then supplement. However, as we're going to see as we'll see in the next Torah reading that everybody brought so much to the extent that they told Mosh that it was more than enough. So the leader said, "What are we going to do? What are we going to bring? We have nothing left for us." Therefore, they were had the opportunity to bring these special stones. Because therefore when it came to the inauguration they saw they missed out on the building of the tabernacle that they were late. So therefore when it came to the inauguration they were there first because they were lax at the beginning in contributing. Therefore if you look at the word of here there are no yuds. Generally replaces a yud or yud replaces I should say. And over here we don't have any of those yuds and that is because they were laxed when it came to contributing to the building of the tabernacle. Verse 28 and as well as the spice and the oil of illumination to be illuminate for the anointing oil of the dictator and for the incense offering. Verse 29, every man and woman that was very generous from his heart, they themselves brought to all the work and that was needed in the holy temple that God commanded to do in the hands of Moshe. All the Jewish people generously contributed towards this building of the tabernacle. This concludes the tow reading for parasyak.