VAYAKHEL-PEKUDE 2001

In the Torah portions, Vayakhel Pekude, we learn how Moshe Rabbeinu built the Tabernacle according to the directions which were given to him by G-d.  Interspersed among these directions was the command to keep Shabbat.  In fact, the Torah portion, Vayakhel, starts with the command to keep Shabbat.  Why should this be so?  Why should the command about Shabbat be connected to the building of the Tabernacle?

What's more, we learn especially about the contributions of the women.  Why were the women's contributions stressed so much here?  We also learn how the princes of each tribe are written without the Yud.  The rabbis explain that the reason for this was because the princes, who were rich people, said that they would not give anything to construct the Tabernacle at the beginning, stating that they would make up any deficit.  They would first let the people give, and was missing from the campaign, they would add.  The people, though, gave more than enough, exceeding even what was needed.  The princes then did not have anything to contribute toward the actual building of the Tabernacle, although they did contribute the Shoem stones and the stones for the setting of the Aifud and the breastplate and the spice and the oil.  The rabbis tell us that their title prince is written without a Yud to emphasize that they adopted the wrong policy.  They should have participated initially in the campaign for the Tabernacle.
Almost all the commentaries tell us that the Tabernacle was built to facilitate the Jewish people's meeting with G-d.  In other words, the Jewish people wanted to continue the Sinai experience where they encountered G-d.  When they built the golden calf as a necessary vehicle to reach G‑d the rabbis teach us that __________.  They did not want the golden calf to be their god; they wanted the golden calf to be the vehicle through which they could reach G-d, just as Moshe had been the vehicle through which they could reach G-d.  They erred, though, and confused the vehicle with G-d.  They worshipped the work of their own hands.  We know that we do not need a vehicle to reach G-d.  We can reach G-d directly.  It is true that if we encounter certain experiences, we can reach G-d more readily.  We can put ourselves in the mood for meeting G-d.  The Tabernacle was to put us in this mood.  It was to be a place which would enable us to meet G-d.  It, however, was not superior to the Shabbat, and, therefore, it could not be constructed on the Shabbat because Shabbat is where we meet G-d every week.  They knew that you could not worship the work of your own hands, as many men do.  They enshrine relationships, but women very rarely worship the work of their hands.  They knew that the golden calf could only lead to idolatry and not to reaching up to G-d.  The Tabernacle was a different thing.  It was a place which would prepare you to meet G-d, and although they refused to give their gold earrings and bracelets to worship the golden calf (their husbands had to take them by force), they willingly gave to construct the Tabernacle.

It says, "And all wise hearted women spun with her hands and they brought the spun yarn of purple, scarlet and linen, in all the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom spun them with goat hair."  The rabbis ask, what's the difference?  They say that the women spun the goat hair on the goats.  Rashi explains that the goat hair that was spun on top of the goats was actually used for the upper curtains which surrounded the Tabernacle, while the other woven garments were used below.  The goat, we know, is probably the most beneficial animal to man.  Pound for pound, it gives more milk and wool than other animals.  Its horns are valuable.  It can even pull a cart.  However, a goat has two disabilities:  it has an uneven tamper and it smells.  It is our purpose to use the goat positively, to keep it clean so it does not smell, and to make sure we deal with it in a proper way so its temper does not come to the fore.  On Yom Kippur, we send one goat out to roam free, and the other goat we sacrifice on the altar.
Women know they can achieve reaching up to G-d not through destroying the past, but from building on the past.  The inner curtains could be made out of detached wool, but the outer curtains had to be made out of the attached goat's hair.

At the end of this month Shabbat HaChodesh comes where we talk about renewing the Jewish people.  Shabbat HaChodesh is the Shabbat immediately before the month of Nisliv.  The month of our freedom.  The Jewish people were not to give up their families in order to obtain freedom.  They were to renew themselves, to strike out in liberty, by breaking the bonds of bondage, but not by destroying their families in the process.  They were to take the symbols of slavery and turn them into symbols of freedom, which is what we do with the matzah.  Matzah was the bread of affliction, but it became the bread of freedom.  If you eat only matzah because that is all your oppressors will give you, that is the bread of affliction, but if you eat matzah so you can strike out in freedom, so you can sacrifice for the future, then it is the bread of freedom and not oppression.  The women knew that you do not reach up to G-d by destroying the past, but by building on it.

That's why Shabbat is the day of meeting G-d with your family around the Shabbat table.  The Shabbat atmosphere is actually created by women, the Shabbat candles, the spic and span house, the Shabbat meal, the whole aura, the love between husband and wife, which is supposed to come to a crescendo on Shabbat.  The Tabernacle prepares us to meet G-d.  On the Shabbat, we can actually meet G-d.  We, though, must build on the past.  The goat hair is attached, and only after the curtain is finished is it detached.
In this Torah portion, too, we learn how the mirrors of the women were used to make the laver.  The laver was actually in the wrong place.  It was between the altar and the Holy of the Tabernacle.  You would have thought that it would be at the entrance, that they should wash themselves before they approached the altar, but it was placed between the altar and the Tabernacle to demonstrate that we have to think about what we have done in the past before we can approach the Holy.  Are we still attached to our people, or have we rejected them?  Have we sacrificed our family and the values of the peopled to achieve success?  Then we cannot approach the Holy.  The women knew that the golden calf would never do.  The Tabernacle was a place of preparation, but Shabbat is supreme.

I am reminded of the story of a man who came into a drugstore.  He asked the druggist if he had something for the hiccups.  The druggist looked at him and, unexpectedly, hit him hard on his shoulder.  He asked, "Did that help?"  The man replied, "I don't know.  I'll have to ask my wife who is in the car with the hiccups whether it helped."  The women played a special role in constructing the Tabernacle because they knew that reaching up to G-d must be built on the past and not on golden calves and that Shabbat is even more important than the Tabernacle.  Let us all hope and pray that we will all realize this so that we will have strong families so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.