Shabbos Parashas Vayak'heil - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Vayak'heil - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

Every man with whom was found turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool, linen, and goat hair,

red-dyed ram skins, and tachash skins, brought them. [Shemos 35:23]

Moshe, in our parsha, instructs the people about contributions for building the Mishkan, the

Sanctuary in the desert. He explains who should be donating. But the words the Torah uses

seem confusing, as though there is some hidden meaning. This verse in particular seems

to stand on its own, separate from the other similar verses in this section.

Three things stand out. It refers to "every man", it does not refer to "wise-hearted", and it

specifies "with whom was found". What is the significance of these differences?

Some of the verses tell us specifically what men did, or specifically what women did. The

verse before ours says, "And the men came with the women." This is to indicate that while

the two genders each had their own role, they were equal partners in a team to build the

Mishkan.

Talelei Oros states, "The place of wisdom would seem to be the brain, the source of all

intellectual endeavor. Why then does the Torah speak of a wise-hearted person,

connecting wisdom to the heart which is the repository of human emotion?" He brings

source to show, based on Pirkei Avos [4:1], "Who is wise? One who learns from all" that

one who knows much but does not love that knowledge is a fool, but one who thirsts for

knowledge, even if he does not know much, is wise because eventually he will gain that

knowledge. A person who is knowledgeable in the intellectual sense is essentially ignorant.

The other verses each talk about what a person who is inspired to do so should bring.

Only ours speaks of what a man must give, whether he is inspired to or not. It seems

that the leaders of the nation even had permission to search each man's belongings to

look for items. Perhaps this applied only to those who had not been inspired in their

hearts to donate under the other verses. We also know from other contexts that giving is

a direct cause of love. Someone who gives becomes inspired.

How do we pull this together to understand our verse? It seems that there were some men

whose hearts did not inspire them to get involved. They held themselves apart from the

nation. In order to bring them in, the Torah directed that they be given a specific role, one

that did not ask for volunteers. From our verse, we learn that this method was actually

successful. A giving heart can be created.