At the outset of Parshat Vayekhel, we read that Moses assembles all the Israelites and gives them instructions concerning the Sabbath. He states as follows: “Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death” (Exodus 35: 1-3). It is an established fact that the Sabbath was to override the building of the Tabernacle and not vice-versa, that the building of the Tabernacle should override the Sabbath.
In Professor A.J. Heschel’s book, “The Sabbath, it’s Meaning for Modern Man”, he illustrates that the whole of our technical civilization is bent on conquering space and in increasing the number of things coming under man’s dominion that occupy space. He writes that to enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective. Yet to have more does not mean to be more. Man must not surrender unconditionally to space and become enslaved to material ‘things’. Heschel asserts that Judaism is more concerned with time than space and he explains as follows: We must forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment, it is the moment that lends significance to things.
One of the most distinguished words in the Bible is the word ‘kadosh’ – holy; a word that is more than any other representative of the mystery and majesty of the Divine. Now, what was that first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain? Was it an altar? It is indeed a unique occasion at which the distinguished word kadosh is used, and this is done for the first time in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation. How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy”. There is no reference in the record of creation to any object in space that would be endowed with the quality of holiness.
This is a radical departure for accustomed religious thinking. The mythical mind would expect that after heaven and earth have been established, God would create a holy place – a holy mountain or a holy spring – whereupon a sanctuary is to be established. Yet it seems as if to the Bible, it is holiness in time, the Sabbath, which comes first. When history began, there was only one holiness in the world – holiness in time. When at Sinai the word of God was about to be voiced, a call for holiness in man was proclaimed: “Thou shalt be unto me a holy people”. It was only after the people had succumbed to the temptation of worshipping a thing – the golden calf – that the erection of a temple, of holiness in space, was commanded.
In Chapter 29:32 of Parashat Pekudei the Torah tells us: “All the work of the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed, and the Children of Israel had done everything that Hashem commanded Moses, so did they do.” Rabbi Chayyim Ben Attar discusses that the torah teaches that a person’s delegate is accounted as like the person who has delegated them. The Torah here credits all of the Israelites with having constructed the Holy Tabernacle although it was only Betzalel (and his helpers) who had actually performed all the work. While it is true that Betzalel had received his instructions from God and not from the Israelites, the fact that the Israelites had given their silent consent to Betzalel’s appointment meant that he acted as their delegate.
It appears that the Torah is trying to teach us a general rule about how the way the Torah can be observed successfully by showing how the Israelites conferred merits one upon the other. The Torah is only capable of fulfillment by means of the entire Jewish nation. Every individual Jew is charged with the duty to perform those commandments that they are able to fulfill. This is the true meaning of Leviticus 19:18: “you shall love your fellow Jew as he is part of yourself.” Without the fellow Jew, no individual Jew would be able to function as a total Jew. Each Jew has a task to help another Jew to become a more fulfilled Jew by means of his fulfilling commandments, which the second Jew is unable to fulfill alone. As a result, the fellow Jew is not ‘acher’ – someone else, but is part of ‘kamocha’ – oneself. It is interesting to note, however, that we cannot fulfill all of the 613 commandments.
The Or Hachayyim asks if we are to be at a permanent physical and spiritual disadvantage? He answers that clearly, Torah and its observance is not only a project for the individual but for the community. The Torah prove home this point by legislating laws which can be performed only by women, only be Levites, only by Priests, and in some instances, only by sinners, i.e. sinners who are anxious to rehabilitate themselves. Our verse teaches us this lesson. The reason that this was an appropriate time to teach us this lesson is that the 13 basic raw materials needed for the Tabernacle were as interdependent one upon the other as Jews are dependant upon each other in order to achieve the harmonious personality that God desires for each Jew to develop into by means of their good deeds. It makes perfect sense therefore, that the Torah considers every Jew as having contributed all 13 kinds of raw materials needed for the Tabernacle.
~Devorah Abenhaim
