Shabbos Parashas Vayakhel-Pekudei HaChodesh - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Vayakhel-Pekudei HaChodes - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

And Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the children of Israel and

said to them, "These are the things that God commanded, to do them."

{Shemos 35:1]

Right at the end of last week's portion, the people gathered to Moshe, just

after the Revelation and giving of the Torah. Why does the Torah now say

again that Moshe assembled the entire nation? Moshe here says to the

people, "these are the things that God commanded", and then three verses

later says, "this is the word that God commanded". Why the replications?

Ramban points out that the end of last week, Moshe's face shone and people

were afraid to be near him, thus Moshe had to call them to gather nearby if

he had something to tell them. Our verse could be a repeated scenario where

he had to call them together each time. Further, last week's call was to the

men, while this week was to "the entire assembly", including the women,

children, servants, etc.

Some commentators question what the calling or assembling means. Rashi

says that the form of the word vayakhel is causative hifil, that Moshe did

not gather the people, rather they gathered when he began to speak. Onkelos

says, "And he caused to gather".

Others look to explain these verses by what it was Moshe wanted to

accomplish. Rashbam sees it as tax time, that Moshe called the people

to bring their half-shekel donations. Malbim and Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky

note that the people had been splintered into small groups by the golden

calf episode, thus Moshe here is working on reunification of the nation.

Perhaps the most comprehensive understanding comes from Rav Moshe

Feinstein, based on the repetition in verse 35:4, and the closing of the

topic in 35:20, "The entire assembly of the children of Israel left Moshe's

presence", right after Moshe finished giving the commandments. Rav Moshe

says that these assemblies were to give the people these commandments,

in particular the Shabbos. The Torah is explaining by all this that this sign of

God's eternal covenant must be publicized, that Moshe gave over all these

commandments in public to all the people at once, since all are obligated in

them as a unified nation.