Shabbos Parashas Pekudei - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Pekudei - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

All the work of the Mishkan, the Tent of Meeting, was completed, and the Children of

Israel had done everything that Hashem had commanded Moshe, so did they do.

[Shemos 39:32]

Our parsha begins with "These are the accountings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan

of the testimony." The passage then reviews the building project. We then get to our

verse, which tells us that this project was completed, but the wording is confusing.

Talelei Oros asks, "The order of the verse seems reversed. First, we should be told that

'the Children of Israel did according to all that G-d had commanded Moshe' and only

afterwards that 'all the work of the Mishkan of the Meeting Tent was completed'."

Nechama Leibowitz asks more or less the same question, citing Alshich, "It should first

have stated, "the children of Israel did", and then have added, "thus was completed all

the work."

It would be easy to think that because Israel had done everything commanded that the

work was now done. So why did the Torah reverse these phrases?

Judaism has a history of endings and new beginnings. This week, we conclude our

reading of Sefer Shemos, the Book of Exodus. We start on Vayikra, Leviticus, next

week. The nation left Egypt, concluding centuries in a land not their own, and began

a generation in the desert, only then to end the desert wandering and begin life in the

land of Israel. Our parsha begins with "These are the accountings of the Mishkan",

which seems to be an end of something, in particular the process of building the tent

that would be the mobile Temple for another few centuries. It marked the beginning of

the service to G-d as outlined in the Torah.

Our verse certainly seems like an ending. If so, what would be the corresponding

beginning?

Alshich thinks that the purpose of our verse is to show that, even though G-d assists

those who are performing His commandments, He doesn't take credit, rather gives

full credit to the one doing the mitzvah. This is, of course, an example that we are to

follow in living in His image. Although a valuable lesson, this approach does not give

us a clue to what new beginning might be derived from our verse.

Our answer comes from the purpose of the Mishkan just completed. The people now

begin the ritualized service. Instead of reading our verse to mean that the "everything"

they had done, and "so did they do" refer not to the work of building the Mishkan, but

to the newly-begun service itself. Our verse is a transition, moving from what was done

thus far, to what is to be done in the Jewish nation. In this way, we can even include

the Alshich in our understanding, as one of the things that we are carrying forward as

service to G-d.