VAYAKHEL_EXODUS XXXV:1-XXXVIII:20 – PEKUDE’I_EXODUS XXXVIII:21-XL:38

When did the Hebrew people receive the order to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle that would accompany them during the desert journey? According to Rashi and most commentators, the Mishkan was a response to the worship of the Egel Hazahav, the “Golden Calf” that the Hebrews manufactured as a substitute for Moshe, who took longer than anticipated to return from Mount Sinai. According to Ramban, the construction of the Mishkan is related to the revelation at Mount Sinai. The Kodesh HaKodashim is the holiest place in this enclosure because it contains the Ark that kept the two Tablets of the Law where the Ten Commandments were engraved.

In assuming the idea of Rashi, one must think that the Mizbeach, the altar on which the offerings were made, was the central place of the Mishkan because its function was to obtain Divine forgiveness for transgressions. This idea follows from the fact that the sin related to the “Golden Calf” was the apparent motive for constructing this House of God. 

Ramban points out that the Tora repeats the order to construct the Mishkan. The first time, as we mentioned, preceded the episode of the “Golden Calf” and its purpose related to the Law that the Hebrews received at Sinai. This instruction is repeated in the Tora to point out that God had forgiven the transgression of the Hebrew people after the sin of Egel Hazahav. Moreover, the Mishkan will also serve to obtain forgiveness in the future.

For Ramban, however, the Mishkan was not only an answer to the problem of sin. The Mishkan allowed experience the moment of revelation again in Sinai when the Hebrew people contracted a Brit and made a covenant with God. On the other hand, the Tora precedes Sinai because, in Egypt, the Hebrews had already received specific instructions regarding the counting of the months, that is, about how to value the time that will be consecrated, especially with the weekly celebration of Shabbat, the day of rest, which also precedes the revelation in Sinai. Otherwise, the formulation Zachor et Yom HaShabbat lekadsho, “Remember to keep Shabbat day holy,” would not be correct. 

At Mara, the Hebrews had been instructed with reference to Shabbat and several additional laws. In other words, the legal content of the Tora was progressively revealed during the desert journey. The Mishkan was the place chosen for this continuous teaching of the Law contained in the Tora. Following Ramban’s thought, the Mishkan was a continuation of Sinai because God communicated there with Moshe, who transmitted His Will to the Hebrew people. Just as the synagogue became a Mikdash Me’at, a “little House of God” that accompanied the Jewish people in the Diaspora after the destruction of Yerushalayim’s Beit HaMikdash, similarly, the Mishkan represented Mount Sinai.

According to Benno Jacob, the Divine revelation at Mount Sinai was a preparation for God’s “continued presence” in the Mishkan, in the middle of the Hebrew camp in the wilderness. The Mishkan was a kind of itinerant Mount Sinai. This idea is accentuated by the Kodesh HaKodashim, the holiest site in this enclosure, containing the Two Tablets of the Law received at Mount Sinai.

The book of Shemot can be divided into three parts. The first section recounts the events in Egypt, the period of slavery that culminated in the exodus. The second part narrates the events leading up to Mount Sinai and the bestowal of the Tora. The third section concerns the construction of the Mishkan and the consecration of the Kohanim with their special garments, the theme of our chapters.

MITZVAH: TORA ORDINANCE IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS ONE PROHIBITION

114 Exodus 35:3 A court shall not carry out capital punishment on Shabbat.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK SHEMOT

PEKUDE’I_EXODUS XXXVIII:21-XL:38

With these chapters, we conclude Shemot, the second book of the Tora, which can be divided into three parts. The first section recounts the details of Egyptian serfdom and highlights the leadership of Moshe, who manages to convince Pharaoh to allow the Hebrew people to leave Egypt. Pharaoh finally acceded to Moshe’s request because God sent ten plagues that caused great suffering to the Egyptians. Only when the plague affected the house of the Pharaoh – as was the case with the last, the death of all the Egyptian firstborns – was it possible to bend the monarch’s will. A decision that was later altered because Pharaoh sent his soldiers and chariots to chase the Hebrews through the desert, but these hordes were defeated when they drowned in the Red Sea.

The second part of Shemot refers to the Divine revelation at Mount Sinai. The third describes the construction of the Mishkan with detailed information about the elements that made up this structure. Although the importance of biblical accounts and instructions should not be hierarchized, the event at Sinai, the revelation of God’s Will, looks like the central episode at first glance. However, it can be argued that the revelation was not confined to Sinai. 

Even though in Egypt, the Hebrews received basic instruction about the importance of time in the chapter commanding Hachodesh haze lachem rosh chodashim, “this month shall be for you the first of the months,” a reference to Nisan, the month of the exodus. At the same time, the people were instructed to choose the sheep to be sacrificed as Korban Pesach, the Passover sacrifice, a fact that was to be consummated on the 14th of that month. Therefore, the Tora designates that day as Passover, while the holiday that we usually call Passover is usually called Chag HaMatsot. It should be noted that the Korban Pesach had to be offered on the evening of the 14th of Nisan and, since at present we lack the Beit HaMikdash and no offerings are made, some Chassidim insist on baking the Matsa for the Seder in the afternoon of that same day, because the Matsa stands out and can take the place of the Korban as a Mitsva in the absence of Beit HaMikdash.

The Tora also regulates the gathering of manna in the wilderness and commands the observance of Shabbat, all before the revelation at Sinai. So, the expression Zachor et Yom HaShabat, the fourth of the Ten Commandments that commands weekly rest on the seventh day, properly uses the word Zachor, “remember,” because the Laws of Shabbat had already been promulgated beforehand.

After the event in Sinai, the Mishkan served as the venue for enacting additional laws that were not revealed to Moshe at Mount Sinai. Why is revelation distinguished at Sinai if other places also served that purpose? Menachem Ben-Yashar suggests that the public nature of this revelation sets it apart from the others. While in the Mishkan, Moshe received direct and personal Divine instruction, in Sinai, all the people witnessed it, which gave it additional validity and allowed all the people to have a prophetic experience. 

Moreover, the bulk of the laws were revealed at Sinai. So, the Mishkan was not only the “residence” of God during the journey through the desert and in the following centuries until the construction of the Beit HaMikdash, but it was also Ohel Mo’ed, the place of the encounter between Moshe and God, site in which he was instructed about a large number of Mitzvot.