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Our Parsha Vayakhel discusses the appointment and role of Betzalel ben Uri, ben Hur in the building of the Mishkan.
The question is asked; why does Torah mention Betzalel’s lineage here?
This author discussed Betzalel in the context of Parsha Mishpatim our question of Yithro’s meriting to pronounce the concept of a Judiciary system to Moshe.
Betzalel, a Jew-from-birth, was instilled with the ability and insight to build the Mishkan.
After all, we learn Hashem imparted to Betzalel ben Uri the insight and ability to build the Mishkan. We learn that Betzalel was the grandson of Hur who was the son of Calev and that the Malchut was promised to Miriam — Moshe’s sister and Calev’s wife. Just as we learn that later the Malchut, under Dovid and Shlomo, built the Beit HaMikdash, so too Betzalel’s building of the Mishkan seems the fulfillment of the Divine promise to Miriam.
But the merit of Betzalel ben Uri to build the Mishkan runs deeper still.
Rabbi Mordechai Katz cites Sanhedrin 7a in L’lmod U’Lamed to answer the question of the necessity of mentioning the lineage of Betzalel ben Uri;
Hur was one of the few individuals who emerged from the episode of the Eigel Zahav with distinction. When the B’nei Yisrael began insisting upon the construction of a golden calf, it was Hur who tried to bring them back to their senses. He lectured them severely, warning that their act was sacrilegious and that they would later be sorry. But this opposition only aroused the Jews’ fury and they compounded their sin by killing Hur.
Hur… made very noticeable his loyalty to Hashem. By way of reward, he was blessed with a grandson who, helped by Hur’s merit, became the chief craftsman of the Mishkan.
How very like contemporary history where those loyal to their fellow Jews, to Hashem and to the Land of Israel, are vilified by the leftist politico which runs the gamut from Meretz, to Labor, to Kadima, to Shas. It is they, along with the print and electronic mainstream media, the Universities and and the few hundred families who control the flow of currency in Israel, who control the police and the legal “justice” system. These leftists and revilers of Yiddushkiet dictate foreign and domestic policy delineating fair from foul and foul from fair dependent upon their whimsical agenda.
These modern-day vilifiers are cut of the same mold as those who bludgeoned Hur to death. They coddle and protect the Arabs who seek our/their very destruction, while vilifying and persecuting the good Jews who cleave with all of their hearts to Eretz Yisrael. They play tricks with the words of their forked tongues — i.e. “We will leave the government if they begin dividing Jerusalem. We will leave if the continue to divide Jerusalem.”
And just as Betzalel, heir to the future Malchut, merited to build the Mishkan on the basis of the deeds of his grandfather Hur, so too, perhaps the rebuilt Beit Hamikdash and the Ge’ula Shlaima will come on the merit of those who stood against the revilers.
May we be zocha in this coming year that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the 3 captive Chayalim and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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