…יִשְׁמָעֵאל אֱדוֹם וְיִשְׂרָאֵל Ishmael, Edom and Israel בֵּין וַיַּקְהֵל לִפְּקוּדֵי Between Vayakhel and Pekudei אֵין אִישׁ בָּעִיר וּבַשָּׂדֶה Not a person in the city or the country כְּבָר אֵין מוּל מִי לְהִתְנַהֵל Not a soul left to talk to מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל שׁוּב מִתְבַּלְבֵּל The Tower of Babel is confused again וּמָה אַתָּה רוֹצֶה שֶׁנָּבִין מִזֶּה And…
The Torah in Parshat Vayakhel, which describes the making of the Mishkan, goes out of its way to emphasise the role women played in it: The men accompanied the women, and those who wanted to make a donation brought bracelets, earrings, finger rings, and body ornaments, all made of gold. Every skilled woman put her hand to spinning, and they…
Finally the long narrative of the construction of the Tabernacle – to which the Torah devotes more space than any other single subject – is at an end. The building, its frame, drapes and sacred furniture, were complete. Moses inspects the finished project. We then read: The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses….
Right at the end of the book of Shemot there is a textual difficulty so slight that it is easy to miss, yet – as interpreted by Rashi – it contains one of the great clues as to the nature of Jewish identity: moving testimony to the unique challenge of being a Jew. First, the background. The Tabernacle is finally complete. Its…
A long drama had taken place. Moses had led the people from slavery to the beginning of the road to freedom. The people themselves had witnessed God at Mount Sinai, the only time in all history when an entire people became the recipients of revelation. Then came the disappearance of Moses for his long sojourn at the top of the…
…Ki Tissa, Vayakhel, Pekudei – I didn’t count them up: it’s somewhere between 500-600 verses. In other words, it takes almost twenty times as long to build a shul as to create the universe – the reason being fairly simple. Shuls tend to be put together by a committee! But it is a very striking thing. You will forgive me:…
…three verses of Bereishit ch. 2). The making of the Mishkan takes hundreds of verses (Terumah, Tetzaveh, part of Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei) – considerably more than ten times as long. Why? The universe is vast. The sanctuary was small, a modest construction of poles and drapes that could be dismantled and carried from place to place as the…
…book of Shemot and spans five parshiyot (Terumah, Tetzaveh, half of Ki Tissa, Vayakhel, and Pekudei). It is interrupted only by the story of the Golden Calf. Why is it so long, and so detailed? In Bereishit, God’s creation of the entire universe is described in just thirty-four verses. Why focus on the Mishkan, which was just a temporary structure…
…here. Rabbosai, Parshat Terumah begins a most extraordinary sequence. Hakamat haMishkan, the building of the first collective House of God, occupies Terumah, Tetzaveh, half of Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei, an enormous length – the longest, as it were, single sequence in the Torah. And there is something very strange about it. As the late Nechama Leibowitz, of blessed memory,…
…teachings, and wisdom. Taking place at South Hampstead Synagogue, the eighteen ambitious young professionals who are participating in this LSJS programme inspired by the late Chief Rabbi gathered together for the inaugural Shabbaton on parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei, 17-18 March, a week in the Torah cycle where Rabbi Sacks famously taught about the importance of community and the value of coming together…