For
many, the parshiyos of Vayakhel and Pekudei seem superfluous. They
wonder why, after discussing the mishkan and the role of the Kohen in
parshiyos Terumah and Tetzaveh, the implementation of those two
topics had to be repeated, and in painstaking detail to boot.
Additionally, why is Betzalel re-introduced as the artisan who is
given the job to build the mishkan, after already having been
introduced in Ki Sisa? While one may simply suggest that he is
re-introduced as the building is going to commence, I believe
something deeper is going on here. What follows is an attempt to show
that the “repetition” is anything but, and that it teaches a
fundamental Jewish concept.
When
Moshe ascends Har Sinai, he goes to get luchos, which are written by
the “hand” of God. These miraculous tablets have, according to
the midrash, letters that float. The angels ask God to not part with
these luchos “which proceeded creation by 974 generations”. The
midrash further suggests that Moshe could not absorb the Torah that
he was taught and that God had to give it to him as gift, at the end
of the 40 days. Finally, the luchos were made of a mysterious
material that reminds one of heaven.
Additionally,
Bnei Yisrael are able to reach the level of Adam HaRishon before the
sin. The Torah, which after all is an
Eitz Chaim, returns to them the potential for eternal life and
knowledge. Of course, once they sin, they go back to their previous
state.
Even
stranger is how Chazal view Moshe’s breaking of the luchos. The
letters float in the air back towards God. Chazal imagine God
congratulating Moshe on breaking them, and even suggest that, as with
Eitz Hada’as, the sin that led to them breaking, had to occur.
Not
so, the second luchos. Those are crafted by Moshe and brought UP to
Har Sinai. Although Chazal cryptically suggest that they were made
with the “psoless” (chaff, as opposed to the unknowable Ikkar) of
the first luchos, they are not miraculous. This time, the angels are
silent and fail to protest.
Interestingly
when the Aron is made, both the broken luchos and the second
set go there (although not necessarily in the same place).
The
story with the luchos is not the only story that seems to change. In
Terumah one can certainly conclude that Moshe is to be the artisan
who builds the mishkan and all that goes in it. In fact, Chazal seem
to suggest this when they say that Moshe struggled to understand how
to make the menorah out of a solid block of gold until he threw it
into the fire, and the menorah emerged on its own (certainly
suggesting a connection to the Golden Calf). When it is actually
built, God says that it is Betzalel’s job to help create it. No
impression is given to suggest that he struggled to do so.
The
mephorshim debate when the commandment to build the mishkan was made.
Some say it was before the sin of the golden calf, as the story
appears in the Torah, while others suggest it came after the sin, to
make amends. It is my contention that they are both correct, with the
first commandment coming before, with the second commandment and the
implementation coming after.
The
initial commandment was given before the sin. The mishkan was to be
built by Moshe, with the miraculous assistance of God. It was to host
the perfect luchos, crafted by God. These represent the essence of
God, which even Moshe can not grasp. The menorah as well, being made
of a block of gold that is to remain whole and indivisible, also
represents this unknowable perfection. If Moshe can not understand,
no other person can do so. How can such a Torah, created when there
was none but God (because how can there be generations, or even time,
before the creation of physical matter?), be given to man, ask the
angels. These luchos are thus smashed, indicating the inability of
man to grasp the essence of God. The perfect mishkan is never
actually built.
The
second luchos represent man’s limited ability to understand God.
They are not miraculous, and are produced by man, and brought up
towards God. They are imperfect, representing only the limited amount
that man can understand God. No need for the angels to protest luchos
like these going to man. Indeed, they come from man. Moshe is
able to grasp the Torah that they represent, as he is the human who
comes closest to understanding God.
This
also helps explain why Betzalel is re-introduced. At first he was
chosen as Betzalel, the one who is in the “shadow of God” and
knows how to “join the letters of creation”. He is to craft the
mishkan, which will be a traveling Har Sinai, where man can encounter
God. After the sin, the focus is on him as the grandson of Chur who,
Chazal say, was killed when he tried to prevent the cheit haeigel.
Just as the parah adumah is used to atone for the sin committed with
“its mother”, Betzalel does the same with the sin committed
against his grandfather. He is able to build the mishkan without
difficulty, because this mishkan does not represent the perfect
mikdash from above. It is only the limited one, built from below. It
will contain gold which now reminds us of the sin. It will contain
the broken luchos and the second set as well, reminding us that any
understanding that we have of God and his Torah, can not be fully
perfect. (While the reason for their absence from the Second Beis
HaMikdash is beyond the scope of this essay, see Rav Yaakov
Kaminetzky’s “Emes L’Yaakov” for a resolution of this
question).
One
may still ask, if Bnei Yisrael had to sin, why did it have to come
through Aharon? If he is to be the Kohein Gadol, the one who can
achieve atonement for Bnei Yisrael, he must truly understand the
concepts of teshuva and kapparah. While before the sin he could
understand these concepts intellectually, after the sin, he grasps
them through experience as well.
The
parsha (as well as the sefer known as Sefer HaGeulah) ends with the
erecting of the mishkan. Paradoxically, the midrash teaches that no
one but Moshe could do so. Why should this be? After all, his help is
never needed again. Perhaps, we can suggest that the first time this
mishkan is erected, it must be done by one who is free from the Cheit
HaEigel. While those who were active in the commission of the sin
have already been killed, the rest of Bnei Yisrael has committed a
sin of omission (what Moshe terms a “chatah gedolah”), and are
not guilt free. Finally, the Ananei HaKavod, which had disappeared
after the sin, return (see The GRA for an explanation that connects
this idea to Succos). God will no longer send an angel to lead them
as he had said after the sin. He alone, kivyachol, will do so.
While
the first Beis HaMikdash was built by Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of
all men (who, despite his great intellect, still could not understand
the reason for the parah adumah), it too was a man made and thus,
inherently imperfect structure. We await the perfect Mikdash shel
maalah, which will, suggest Chazal, descend complete, from heaven,
and usher in a day when the knowledge of God will finally fill the
earth.
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