The Radical Change Moshe Made After the Golden Calf | Vayakhel

Okay friends, para is Vakel. Vayak is an interesting parsha because on the surface it seems repetitive. God had commanded to Moshe to collect funds and build a sanctuary, build a Mishkan, build a house for God. And God was pretty explicit in detail how to build this home. And then Moshe conveys the exact same thing to the Jewish people in Parak and goes through the exact same detail. Now it would make sense that Moshe is going to be detailed when conveying it to the Jews. But why record those details in the Torah? Why essentially does there seem to be a repeat of two portions? So the Rambanes points out an important lesson here. He says, "Let's take a look at the historical context in which all this is taking place. We had left Egypt. 50 days later, we received the Torah. We're super inspired." 40 days later, sorry, before that 40 days takes place, we're super inspired. God realizes that inspiration is not sustainable because we kept on dying and expiring. Our souls couldn't handle that level of inspiration. So God says, "Build for me a sanctuary. I'll dwell in it. You'll come to me when you're ready." You'll build inspiration rather than just react to inspiration. Beautiful. In the meantime, 40 days later, the original inspiration wore off and now we cheat on God. The sin of the golden calf. Then comes our para para and Moshe is going through every single detail of that Mishkan of that sanctuary again to signify something very important. God still wants to dwell with us. We're forgiven. We're still needed. And it's not like, okay, go build your sanctuary now. It's we're going to go through every single detail. Every single detail is important. We are born and our soul is just so pure when we're born, right? Babies have an incredible purity. It's just pure life. And as we age, as we mature, we often get a little bit more corrupted. We make mistakes. But that doesn't mean our responsibility goes away and we're forgiven. we do tshoua. Rashi points out that parasel means to gather. It's the only time in the Torah where Moshe is gathering the Jews. Rashi makes it a point to say that it's right after Yum Kipper, right after we had been forgiven that we're gathering. And the way commentaries explain why this is significant that we're being gathered is because and specifically after Yam Kipper is because the Jews were were united when it came to the sin of the golden calf. One of the things that frustrated Moshe that compelled him to shatter the tablets. If you look at the just the storyline, God tells Moshe, "You're not going to believe what's going on." When Moshe is up in heaven, these people are serving a golden calf and Moshe says, "God, forgive them." Then Mosha's coming down the mountain. He sees what's going on and he smashes the tablets. It's like, "Bro, you knew about it. You didn't believe God when he told it to you." So the alik points out that what Moshe saw, he saw something else that God didn't actually say. God said they were serving idols. They were serving a calf, a golden calf. What Moshe saw was them dancing together around a golden calf. And that just blew his fuse. You want to sin, you have a Yates or you make mistakes, fine. But you're going to unite and celebrate sin together like it's a ritual. Come on, man. So then when it comes time for God to finally forgive us and say, "I still want to dwell among you. I still need you to make my presence known in this world through the mechanism of the mishkut." At this point, Moshe has to reather and reorient everybody and say, "This time, we're gathering and huddling together, but not for the purpose of sin, not for mischievous purposes, but for the purpose of welcoming God back into this world, which is what the Mishkan signifies. It signifies God saying, "Even though from when I had commanded this to Moshe until when you're actually executing it, we've had a very dark middle spot, a very dark dip in our relationship. I forgive you and I want you back. I want to be back into her life." That's the Mishka. The Mishka is a mechanism to build God into our lives. When you read about the instruction on how to build a mishkun, how to build a space for God in our life. That's essentially what the Mishkan is. When we read about it in the earlier portions when had when God had commanded it to Moshe and when we read about it in our portion when Mosha is commanding it to the Jews, there's a subtle difference. And this difference is important. We'll soon see why. But what is the subtle difference? the order that everything takes place in. God says to Moshe, "Go fundra for the Mishkan. Collect those who from those who have generous hearts. Make for me a sanctuary and I'll dwell in them." And then the Torah specifies what to build. God specifies to Moses to Moshe, "This is what you should build." Then he starts with the inner vessels, the holy ark, the kuruim on top in which the ark uh in which the in which the lis the tablets are placed the on the table the minora all the vessels that are the misbeh the altar all the vessels that are done in the that are used on the inside to serve God. Then the exterior is described. Various tapestries that are used are made out of different animal skins and weaved and used as the roof is the exterior of the Mishkan of the sanctuary. Then God reminds the Jewish people to honor Shabas to respect the Shabas. That's the order by which God conveys this to Moshe. the inner vessels, the outer exterior tapestries or tap tapestries, tapestries, I don't know, whatever. Then chabas. Okay. Then we sin. God says, "I forgive you. I still want to be in your life." And Moses conveys the same exact details to the Jewish people, but in the reverse order. In Parasak, he gathers the Jewish people. reminds them of the importance of keeping Shabas then instructs them of the tapestries tapestries then the inner vessels. So first the Mishkan then Chabas and then when Moshe conveys it to the Jews it's Shabas then about the Mishkan about housing God. Why the switch in gears? Why the switch in order? Moshe saw something that we needed to hear. Moshe realized for this to be sustainable, for this relationship with God to be sustainable, there has to be Shabas. Because what does Shabas represent? So in relationships, you have there's three components to a relationship. And this is an idea developed in in greater depth in the alterbasis um essays on this week's Torah portion of the para Torah or where he develops this idea where you have three components to a relationship. There is the what uh okay for lack of better word I'm going to say superficial part of a relationship and by superficial I mean It's not always internalized. It doesn't always it's not always doesn't always seem that deep. And that could be it could be deep. Could be very deep. But I'll give you an example. Something you would do for me or I would do for you in a relationship. Even though it could be deep, it signifies depth. But you could do it for anybody theoretically. it it could at least on the outside look superficial. It's something you're doing for me or to me. What that might represent in a relationship with God are mitzvah. Mitzvah are behaviors, which means by nature they're external. At least perceptually we don't see the full depth of that behavior. Obviously, mitzvah have an eternal connection, and what you do for somebody you really care about represents incredible depth, but on the outside, it's just behavior. It's something you're doing. Kabala calls mitzvah's garments because they go outside of you, embrace you from the outside. They dress you up. You might not feel the part. You might not feel like the guy who's putting on fill in but you're putting them on. And if you feel like it but you don't do it, it doesn't count. And if you don't feel like it and you do it, it counts. So there's a certain what and Cabala calls is Mak. There's a certain external um I don't want to say superficial, I'm trying to figure out the right word here, encompassing uh element of mitzvah. Then the relationship gets a little bit deeper. You have meaningful deep conversation. And conversation seeps in, deeper than at least perceptually deeper than a mitzvah might. You have certain conversations with people you trust and people who you don't trust, you could act the same way, but you're not going to talk the same way. You're going to put your guard up. And to people that you trust and that you can be vulnerable and honest with and that you feel comfortable with and that you want to allow in your life, you let that guard down. They could say whatever they want to you. You could say whatever they want to them. You could share what's on your mind. and you're comfortable with them sharing what's on their mind. This would be represented by Torah and prayer. When we study Torah, we allow God to be vulnerable. We allow God in our life. We understand and appreciate his values. You don't share values with everybody or anybody. You share values with somebody you trust, right? Try having a political conversation. I'm giving using politics as an example because politics are are deeply personal. They represent values. Try having a political conversation with somebody you don't trust, right? It's like you're going to tread on on eggshells. You're going to be very careful. But with somebody you trust, you say exactly what you believe, what matters to you most. And then prayer is the same thing with us to God. It's us pouring our hearts out to God. The cabalists refer to Torah study as sustenance because it's internalized. The mitzvah are garments. You can look the part and it counts. But the Torah, for Torah, you have to actually understand it. It seeps in much deeper. However, there's a third component, and this is important for a relationship with God, even a relationship with people. And if we're missing this component, um we the the other two could feel at times like theater, like we're just putting a show on, that we're just going through the motions. And that is not what you do in the relationship, what you do for each other, which is encompassing, or even the types of conversations you have, which could be really deep, but who you are in this relationship, who you are, irrespective of what you do. The way I like to frame it like on a more clinical level, there's the content of the relationship and there's the context of the relationship. The context of the relationship is huge. Who are you? This is signified by Shabas because during the week we focus on doing. During the week, we do things. We create. We build. We work. We generate. We generate income. We generate electricity. We generate. That's what we do. We produce. And on Shabas, we stop production. And the focus is on not doing. And people get offended like, you know, if they're not fully used to shabas, like why is there so many restrictions? And there are the Torah tells you more about what you can't do on Shabas than what you can do on Shabas. There's a lot more prohibitions than there are do this on the on Chabas and do that on Shabas because other than making kdish and Abdullah, you have to rest. You have to not work. You have to not do because when you're not doing, you're being you're existing. On a much deeper level, the Gmorrah says, the Talmud says that on Shabas, everybody has what's called a nishama, an extra soul, an additional soul. One of the reasons why we smell spices m shabas at the end of shabas during habdala is to calm ourselves down from losing that soul that additional soul. But what is that extra soul we have on chabas? Like how many souls do we have? Like what does that even mean? What is a soul? So on Shabas what we have is a higher level connection a higher level connection to God where we don't put on fill in like you cannot put on fill in because don't make the mistake that on chabas your connection to God is by doing things right so even spiritually it's about being not doing on Shabas we avoid working we avoid generating income we avoid generating anything. This is exactly what God did in creation. He created for six days and on the seventh day he pulled back. I'm not doing. I'm now being. There's a lot of language for this and and and vocabulary for this in the language of the cabalists where they call it the alias the elevation of the world where the world is on a higher level or consciousness or connection. to God. But think about this in the context of our love for God. Because the way the cabalists and the way unpacks this is that when the Torah tells you six days you shall work and the seventh day you shall rest, the work is not just talking about generating income. That is the literal meaning of the text of the Torah. But it's not just about income generation or working the fields and and it also means working on ourselves because the as we know when the Torah says build a sanctuary which is there was 39 steps in building this sanctuary and those are the 39 things we don't do in Shabas the 39 general categories we don't do in Shabas lighting fire construction whatever it may be but as we No, the building of the Mishkan wasn't just about the physical structure. It was building our own lives into a space for God. So when it says six days you shall work, the 39 works that are done to build the Mishkan, there's also work that we do on ourselves. We work on ourselves. We try to be better people. We try to be better Jews. And one of the fundamental ways or um of doing this is through constantly trying to make sure our our head is in the right spot, our minds are in the right spot. Are we oriented in our own lives around what is most important? Because what we orient ourselves around is what um becomes most important to us. What we put our attention on is what becomes emotionally relevant in our lives. I learned something new this week. You know my thing with like translations, right? So the Hebrew word for dot dot knowledge. Dat can mean knowledge. Dat can mean attention. Um you usually when we say dot in Hebrew when as knowledge it it translates as attention. It's the it's the active pursuit of knowing something. And one way um illuminates what that means, what knowledge means is its intimacy. When Adam and Eve were first intimate and produced the next generation together, it said Adam knew Eve knew Eve. Knowledge to know something means to be intimately familiar with it. But there's another meaning from the word knowledge. And I'm trying to let me see if I could quickly pull up the verse. There's a verse that actually indicates this. Apparently, knowledge that also means desire. God tells the Jewish people. And here's what the verse says. This is a a verse in Hold on, let me find this. I think I'd be prepared by now, huh? No, I can't find the actual I can't find the citation. Okay. But but but the verse says only you which literally means I know among all the other families but also means I desire among all the other families. All this to say that the word da knowledge or attention means to desire because what we put our attention on is what we end up desiring. And during the six days of the week, our job is to put our attention on God through prayer, through mitzvah, through Torah study, behaviorally engage even on the surface through mitzvah. Engage deeper intellectually and emotionally through Torah and through prayer. And as we're working on ourselves, we're creating desire for what is most important in our lives. That I mean that's how relationships work. What you decide to focus on becomes most important to you. But then there's shabas where we pull back. We don't pull back from most Jewish responsibilities from being Jewish. But we pull back from the focus on doing because I don't need to put my attention on something so I could care about it. I just assume I already care. I don't need the fillin as a reminder as a sign. The Torah calls it a sign. Shabas is that sign. It's a day of identity of this is just who I am. The way I like to put it, Torah and mitzvah are the content of our relationship with God. And Shabas creates the context of what our relationship with God is. That sensitivity where it's not about working on ourselves. This is just who I am. That sensitivity is what our sages in the Talmud referenced as the the extra soul on Shabas. Okay, we with me? We're all good so far. Okay, now let's get back to our original question. Why did Moshe switch the order on God? God tells Moshe to build the vessels, build the tapestries, then keep shabas. And Moshe urges the Jews to keep the shabas first, then tells them how to build the tapestries and and the vessels because the tapestries and the vessels represent Torah and mitzvah. The vessels are what happens inside the Mishkun. That's the Torah and the prayer seeping into our own heart. The tapestries, the roof, and the coverings, that's the mitzvah. The mitzvah that encompass our lives. Mitzvah are on the outside for the most part. They're things we do. But in order for the things that we do and even for the things that we experience intellectually and emotionally to actually carry meaning which are just content, there needs to be context. There needs to be identity. Shabas is that identity. Shabas is the day we experience God. Not based on doing, but based on not doing, based on being. And in that context, the content, the Torah and the mitzvah, the vessels and the outside of the Mishkan thrive. Like a relationship, when there's context, this is just there's an identity of this is who I am. So now what I do and even how I speak and how I listen and what I put my attention on all of a sudden becomes much more meaningful. And Moshe understood that these Jews had raw inspiration. And if it's going to come without identity, we're going to have another another fall. If we want this Mishkan to actually house God in our lives, it has to be backed by the identity which is represented by Chavez. Okay, that's my story and I'm sticking to