Shalom Friends;
This year’s Parshat Pekudei vort is being sponsored by Dov and Lauren Greenberg and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh dedicated to Aharon Landau for spreading these Parshat Shavuas to the South African community. To the Greenberg family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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In previous vorts on the double Parshiyot of Vayakhel-Pekudei, or as is the case this year where the two Parshiyot are separated, Torah informs us in our Parshat Pekudei how Moshe brought Am Yisrael together, along with the donations of funds and material — gold, etc. which were then fashioned into the utensils of the Mishkan. Our Parshat Pekudei teaches about the performance of constructing the Mishkan as a paradigm for meticulously adhering to Hashem’s Commands. In addition, “The Midrash Says,” Sefer Shemos (page 357) informs us that not only did Moshe account for all donations, but that he “…gave his calculations to a second person, Ithamar Ben Aaron, for verification” lest there be any suspicion of any misappropriation or wrong-doing on Moshe’s part. Perhaps this was the first real paradigm of oversight: a Delloite-Touche CPA-like audit.
Our Parsha Pekudei begins;
“These are the accountings of the Mishkan (the Sanctuary), the Mishkan of Testimony, which were counted at the word of Moshe …” (Sefer Shemos, Perek 38, posuk 21, as rendered to English in The Sapirstein Edition, The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary)
The Artscroll Stone Chumash notes a Rashi on “the Mishkan, the Mishkan…”:
Midrashically, the two words allude to the two Temples [Batei Mikdashim] which were taken from us. In a play on words, Mishkan is pronounced as if it were vowelized Mashkon, a pledge or collateral, and intimates that the two Batei Mikdashim are collateral for the sins of Israel, and were taken from us until the nation repents and is restored to its former position. (The Artscroll Stone Chumash, Sefer Shemos, page 531)
The Sapirstein Edition, The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary (page 508) on the above-mentioned posuk from our Parsha refers to Tanchuma 5 regarding “an allusion to collateral and refers to a Rashi in Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 24, posuk 5, Bilaam’s “blessing” of B’nei Yisrael:
“How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov, your dwelling places, O Yisrael:” (as rendered to English in The Artscroll Stone Chumash, Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 24, posuk 5)
Rashi here notes:
Cit[ing] a Midrashic interpretation that both terms [“your tents” and “your dwelling places”] refer to the Batei Mikdashim and the Tabernacles, but that “tents” allude to them while they stood and “dwelling places” allude to them in their destruction. The comment on Mishk’notecha is on its similarity to Mashkon, collateral or surety. The implication is that when Yisrael sinned, Hashem took collateral, as it were, destroying the Batei Mikdashim instead of venting his anger at Am Yisrael. (The Artscroll Stone Chumash, Rashi’s note on Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 24, posuk 5, pages 870-871)
Rashi’s Midrashic intimation, or allusion of the Batei Mikdashim as collateral taken from us over what would be our future sins, seems to this author to relate with points which Rabbi Goldin makes in his sefer “Unlocking the Torah Text,” Sefer Shemos (pages 314-315):
A profound symbolic lesson potentially emerges [from the building of the Mishkan and the equally important elements of the sequence]…
Let us assume that the Mishkan represents the overall structure of Judaism’s observance while the various utensils represent the details of that observance. …Both the general structure and the details of the practice of Judaism are equally important.
To live as Jews, on the one hand, we must be consistently aware of our tradition’s overall goals. We cannot allow ourselves to be blinded by the intricacies of observance to the extent that our vision of the people that Hashem wants us to be is lost. At all times, we must remember that our task on this earth is to sanctify Hashem’s name through our actions. How we observe the Mitzvot — and how that observance affects those around us — is, therefore, often as important as the Mitzvot themselves.
At the same time, however, the details of Judaism’s practice are absolutely essential. Attention to detail demonstrates a conscious, concrete commitment to Hashem; infuses every aspect of our lives with connection to the Divine; and creates a practical system of ritual that has maintained our identity as a people throughout our turbulent history.
The Mishkan would have been empty without its components, while the utensils would have been meaningless without the Mishkan. So, too, only by maintaining both detail and overall structure in our personal and communal lives will we succeed in fulfilling Hashem’s will.
The lesson of Rabbi Goldin’s message is meant for all of us — the people, the politicians and the governance of Israel. When we follow these words, we will glorify Hashem’s Name and, thus, earn back the collateral, twice taken from us, in the form of Moshiach and the Third Beit HaMikdash, please speedily in our times.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now free of his parole and restrictions and that he is now in his second year at home in Eretz Yisrael. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of five and a half years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese corona virus pandemic and all like viruses. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Chodesh Tov and 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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