Moses called the whole community of the

that the Lord commanded to make.

Six days work may be done, but on the

not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places

on the Sabbath day." (Shemot 35:1-3)

You shall not kindle fire

Whoever performs work thereon [on this day]

shall be put to death – and

adjacently [it is written] You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling

places. These verses could be interpreted as warning about work and

prohibiting it on the Sabbath, first saying Whoever performs work thereon

that is why it does not say "all work as per the law of the Torah and the

Writings regarding the Sabbath," and later it mentions in a warning for

the generations, You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places

on the Sabbath day . This is as if to say: "Do not

perform any kind of work in any of your dwelling-places, and all forms of

work are included in the work of fire-making, for it is known that most

human crafts use fire, and fire is their cause and essence. That is why the

Sages decreed that the commandment of havdala that marks the end of the

Sabbath and the granting of permission to do all forms of work should include

the blessing on fire, "[Blessed are you…] Who created the lights of

fire," since fire is the beginning of the works of Creation, as it is

written regarding the first day, Let their be light.

(Rabbeinu Behayeiy Shemot ad

loc)

On the one hand, kindling fire in itself is not a productive, creative,

but primarily, rather a destructive activity. But on the other hand, the

ability to produce fire artificially is just that which first gave Man his true

mastery over the materials of the world. Only by means of fire can he create

his tools, can he analytically and synthetically probe into the inner nature of

things. We can accordingly understand why it is mentioned separately by itself

as the classic example for all the other major work categories.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Shemot

35:3)

Nofekh,

Sapir, and Yahalom

the

Mystery of the Individual, the Unique, and the Joined Together

Yossi

Hatav

We have been commanded to believe that every calligraphic

flourish in the Torah can sustain mountains of interpretation. Accordingly, it

is impossible to distinguish between more and less important chapters, verses,

or even letters in the Torah. It is therefore surprising to see how some parshiyot

– such as those read this Shabbat – have been the subject of such little

exegesis in comparison with other sections of the Torah.

If, as the midrash has it, all the souls of Israel from all

the generations were present at Mount Sinai, where they all received and

understood the Torah in its entirety, one must wonder what happened to all

those explanations they received, especially those relating to the apparently

simple – and even boring – words and verses that repeat themselves over and over

again, stating measurements, inventories, and the like connected with the

construction of the Tabernacle.

Everything that has been or will be said about the Torah is

already contained within it; there is nothing original in it – it all had

to be said. In other words: every thought that comes to one's mind in the wake

of reading any word or letter of the Torah is actually written in the Torah.

The very fact that, upon reading the Torah, something occurs

to me that I would not have thought of if I hadn't read the Torah, proves that

the thought in question was and is part of the Torah itself.

Furthermore, given the belief that Torah comes from Heaven, I

had simply discovered and gave expression to something that God Himself wrote

in His Torah. Ipso facto, no interpretation is wrong.

Such is my understanding of the midrash that describes Moses'

visit in the beit midrash of R. Akiva, in which R. Akiva – without generating a

paradox – becomes Moses' teacher.

Even the "driest" sections of the Torah are too

rich to be subject to completely rational understanding. Hearing and reading

the Torah awakens in us countless thoughts, imaginings, feelings and fantasies.

We "see the sounds" and hear the letters with our

whole selves: the entire soul praises the Lord, and not just that

department of the soul known as "mind."

No commentator, however, ever attended to the inner

experiences generated by reading the Torah and set them all – be they rational

or emotional – down on paper to thus honor the entirety of the Torah, leaving

out nothing. Instead, the commentators always limited themselves to specific

words, verses, and themes found in the Torah.

Consider three explanations for this phenomenon. First, there

may be verses in the Torah which are fundamentally beyond our understanding – however,

the Torah was given to humanity in order to be understood by them. Alternatively,

there might be verses so simple that they require no interpretation beyond

their immediate plain meaning. That suggestion does not jibe with the notion

that the Torah possesses "seventy aspects." If so, it is our purely

rationalistic approach to understanding and receiving the Torah which limits

it. An open, attentive, and emotional approach would allow us to take in every

sign and letter of the Torah, barring none and without discrimination.

Parashat Pekudei tells us about the completion of the

Tabernacle's construction and the preparation of the priests for the holy

service that they had been commanded to perform in parshiyot Truma and

Tetzaveh.

The instructions regarding the priests' clothing found in

parashat Tetzaveh (chapter 28) includes a verse (18) detailing the

setting of stones in the breastplate [hoshen]. Rashi, Seforno, Ibn Ezra

and RaMBaM have nothing to say about the verse, while RaMBaN and Ki Yakar

interpret the whole matter in symbolic terms.

Or Hayyim and MaHaRaShA (in his Hiddushim ) try to get to the

practical truth of the passage. Their personalities compelled them to discover

the exact order in which the stones were set in the shoulders of the ephod and

in the hoshen hamishpat and how the names of the tribes were inscribed

upon them, since the verse states that six of their names were written on each

of the stones. Which names were written on the left side and which on the

right? That must be important. For some reason the Torah does not supply us

with those details.

According to Kli Yakar, the hoshen hamishpat [mishpat

= judgment] was true to its name, and the High Priest was a judge. Accordingly,

the hoshen was square shaped, since judgment must be equal on all sides.

Each row consisted of three stones, the minimum number of judges in a court,

and all of the stones were equal, as in do not favor any person.

What interests me about this verse is the names of the stones

chosen to be set in the hoshen. However, I have found no commentator who

relates to that issue.

I do not intend to explain each of the stones. However, the

second row and the second stone in that row (39:11) occupy a

unique position. That second stone is called Sapir – and the second row is

Nofekh, Sapir, and Yahalom.

Reading this verse awakens a symbolic thought which must also

have been intended by the Torah – I believe that the three stones represent the

three stages of a person's life.

Nofekh is birth And

He blew [yayifah] the spirit of life into his nose. By being

born, each person adds a new aspect [nofekh] to the world and to all of

humanity. He is a being unto himself. Sapir is the narrative;

the story [sippur] that is the essence of our lives. If we fill it with

content that can be told [lesapair], that we can identify with, and that

we can tell our children and to everyone, then we have truly fulfilled our

purpose in the world until death comes to strike [yahalom] us and put an

end to the row which each of us has filled. As Andre Neher said: "Only

death can transform life into fate": either into a real diamond [yahalom]

that sparkles throughout the generations, or, God forbid, into a story of

disappearance.

Each person is a precious gem in his own right – some more so

and some less so. It cannot be expected that two people could be identical in

their full personalities. As the Gemara states in tractate Sota, these are raw

stones that have "not been touched by a chisel." RaMBaN explains that

they "were created as such" and cannot share a precise common shape

or size. Isn't it wonderful how each found its place in the Torah and in its

own particular row so that together they formed a perfectly square formation?

While each person is an independent entity, he must not close

himself off in his own private realm. Rather, he must integrate into his family

and tribal circles, and from there to the national circle. If we recall that

the High Priest who bears the hoshen mishpat is the priest for priest of

priests, since the People Israel is a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,

then we will see that the High Priest also represents all of humanity, making

the hoshen mishpat the squaring of the circle and of the circles.

The row may be vertical, only connecting man directly to his

God, or it may be horizontal, connecting people only with each other. However,

the structure of the hoshen mishpat also permits a diagonal reading, as

found in MaHaRShaL's allegory of the tree, which describes the Israelite's simultaneous

connection both to God and to the entire People Israel. This interpretation of

the verse does not contradict or discount other possible interpretations. Quite

to the contrary. Here I find two main messages:

First, since one's understanding of Torah expresses the

conscious and unconscious parts of his personality, each person will possess a

unique understanding of the Torah. This is one of the reasons why we are more

sensitive to certain verses in the parasha, verses which, for some reason, were

unnoticed in previous years, since our interpretive approach is also dependent

upon our fleeting moods and present interests. This kind of open approach can

greatly broaden our Torah-world, and combine with all opinions and understandings,

even unto the point on the letter yod [kotzo shel yod].

The second lesson learned from the hoshen mishpat

itself and also derived from the first message, is that every individual is

unique in his primordiality and in his transcendent significance while finding

his place in the various circles.

May the Holy One, blessed be He allow each individual to

express himself, to be a sippur – a story – of his own, and may we all

reach the Holy of Holies, the Messianic Age in our perfectly joining together.

Dr. Yossi Hatav, director of the children's ward in the

Eitanim Hospital, is a psychoanalyst.

Righteousness, Justice, and Peace are Necessary

Conditions for the Indwelling of the Divine Presence

Moses then convoked

the entire Israelite community –

Rashi explains: This occurred on the day following the Day of Atonement, and in

the parasha of Yitro it is written: And on the following day, Moses sat to

judge the people. There Rashi explains that it also occurred on the day

following the Day of Atonement.

It seems to me that it is

known that the convocation was made in order to announce to them the commandments

of the Tabernacle and the gift, as shall become clear there. Moses was worried

that one of them might offer something for the Tabernacle which was not his

own. It was impossible to build that great and holy House from stolen property,

making evil found in the place of justice. Moses thought that he could

catch the thieves in court, so he announced ahead of time: Whoever has a

dispute, come to me for justice, so that all of the people would find peaceful

resolution [for their grievances], and everyone would know what did and what

did not belong to him by judging their disagreements. Only then did he announce

the matter of the gift, saying, take from yourselves a gift: – from yourselves and not from what belongs to your fellow.

It is hinted at that this

convocation was called to bring peace between them, for a man cannot live

together with a snake in the same dwelling, and since he wanted to tell them

about the building of the Tabernacle, in which they would all be involved, it

is as if he placed them all together in one dwelling place, so first he had to

first gather them together so that they could become one united body.

(Kli

Yakar on Shemot 35:1)

Regarding

Devotion and the Service of God.

All

that God had commanded Moses, thus they made.

It being common knowledge that Israel deeply desired that the Divine Presence

dwell in their midst, one might be prompted to think that this was the motive

for all their effort; therefore, Scripture explained that only because as God

had commanded Moses, thus they made.

(Haamek Davar, Shemot 39:32).

These

words of the Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin are directed against the idea of deveikut

– of intense devotion, of amazement and fervor – being the highest degree of

service of God. He calls our attention here to the fact that the goal of

service of God is not enthusiasm and exaltation of the soul or spiritual

elation. Rather, it should be – As God had commanded Moses – this alone

is what is to be done.

When

one does something for the purpose of spiritual exaltation, he does it for

himself, there is no service of God in this. This is the case not only with

prayer. The significance of all the commandments lies not in the satisfaction

of man's urges as he serves God – service of this sort ceases to be service of

God and becomes service which Man provides for himself.

(From Prof. I. Leibowitz. Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al

Parashat Ha'Shavua, p. 431)

When

Lord.

(I Kings 7:51 – the beginning of the Haftara for Parashat

Pekudei, when it does not fall on one of the four Parashiyot)

Solomon

brought – from that which his father

had consecrated. He donated it to the construction of the House in honor of his

father, even though he did not need those materials since he already possessed

abundant silver and gold, and copper. However, out of respect for his father

David he gave some of it towards the work on the Temple and the remainder he

deposited in the treasuries of House of Lord.

Regarding

the midrash that states that Solomon used none of the funds which his father

David had consecrated in construction of the Temple, there are those who say:

Since Solomon knew that that it eventually would be destroyed, better that the

nations of the world not say that it was destroyed because it was built with

materials which David had stolen and plundered. Others say: Thus said Solomon –

In Father's days there was a famine which extended three years, and he should

have spent these treasuries on keeping the poor alive; let them be put aside

for times of need.

(RaDaK, I Kings, 7:51)

In

other words, if the Jewish People builds its House with spoils taken from the

nations, or in a modern style, using available resources for splendor and honor

– even if the splendor and honor are for religious purposes – instead of

serving human needs and sustaining the impoverished of Israel, the project will

be severely blemished.

The

subject is very timely. It is important that all know that the possessions of

the nation and the state exist not in order to glorify the state and the

nation, and not even its holy sites and projects, but first of all they exist

to meet the needs of the nation's deprived members.

(Leibowitz, ibid., p, 436)

We Must be Purified in Order

to be Redeemed

And Parashat Ha-Hodesh [is read on the] fourth

month of Nissan is the beginning of all months and of the order of the

festivals. Our Rabbis of blessed memory said: It would be logical for Parashat

ha-Hodesh to precede Parashat Parah; [after all,] the Tabernacle was erected on

the first of Nissan, and the parah aduma (red heifer) was burnt on the

second of Nissan. Why is Parashat Parah read first? Because it deals with

Israel's purity, purity from the impurity of the dead, so that their offering

of the paschal lamb need not be pushed off to the "second" Passover.

(Sefer

HaShLHa, Meggilah 42)

Thus said the Lord

the Lord God.

(Ezekiel

45: 9, the haftorah for Parashat Ha-Hodesh according to Yemenite custom)

But the prince

My people may not be disposed of their holdings.

(Ezekiel

46:18 – the conclusion of the haftarah for Parashat Ha-Hodesh according to

Ashkenazic custom)

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