Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

From Moshe's presence they took the entire gift that the children of Israel had

brought for the work for the labor of the Mishkan to do it, but they brought him

still free-willed gifts in the morning, in the morning. [Shemot 36:3]

Our verse ends in a curious repetition of a word, ba'boker ba'boker. Literally, it

means "in the morning, in the morning", but why would the Torah tell us this?

Ramban says that it means early the next morning, sort of morning of the

coming morning. Rav Hirsch writes along similar lines, that the people "made

it their first business of the day to come with their gifts to Moshe", but the

implication is that it was every morning, not just the next one. This kind of

repetition could easily refer in Hebrew to "each and every morning", so either

of these explanations makes sense.

The Gemora in Yoma [75a] goes another direction, albeit related. "Rabbi Yonatan

said, they brought of what descended for them every morning. This teaches us

that along with the manna there descended for the Jews precious stones an

pearls." Rather than having the people come each morning, which is what the

others said, it refers to the people bringing the gifts that arrived for them each

morning, the jewels. Such an interpretation might change the translation of our

verse to end "from every morning" referring to what they were supplied then.