Parashas Vayakhel

In this week’s parashah, Moshe conveys to the Bnei Yisrael the commandments to donate materials for and the Mishkan and the Bigdei Kehunah and to create them, and they proceed to quickly fulfill those commandments.

Moshe prefaces those commandments with the command to observe the Shabbos, in order to teach the Nation that they may not violate Shabbos in order to construct the Mishkan.

Interestingly, when Hashem instructed Moshe, Hashem first gave the details of the Mishkan and the Begadim, and only then told him about Shabbos. Why did Moshe switch the order?

Let’s raise another question:

According to Rashi, the commandment to build the Mishkan took place on the 11^th of Tishrei, following Moshe’s descending with the Second Luchos, more than 80 days after the Jews had made the eigel. Why, then, does the Torah tell us about the cheit ha’eigel out of sequence, just before Moshe tells the Jews about the Mishkan, rather than at the end of Parashas Mishpatim?

Perhaps these questions can be resolved as follows:

The Mishkan was the abode Shechinah on earth, the spiritual epicenter of the universe. Additionally, it bore witness to the world that, even after the eigel, Hashem rested His Presence among the Jewish Nation (Rashi, Vayikra 24:3).

What could be greater than the Mishkan?!

Normally, Moshe would certainly have told the Bnei Yisrael about the Mishkan immediately, and then tell them about Shabbos, just as Hashem had told it to him.

But he had a concern.

The cheit ha’eigel indicated the Nation’s desire to connect to Hashem through a physical manifestation. So long as he, Moshe, was there, they saw him as their intermediary. When he was, in their minds, delayed in returning from Sinai, they quickly turned to creating a golden replacement god/leader, flouting the first two Commandments.

Now the Nation was being told to build a Sanctuary that would, as it were, be the physical abode of the Shechinah. Had Moshe first told them about the Mishkan, it would arouse their holy fervor to connect with the Divine through this physical structure; it would reinforce their belief that some physical means were necessary to achieve deveikus. Furthemore, he was concerned that they might now ignore the laws of Shabbos to hasten its construction, since that was the only way truly connect with Hashem.

Instead, Moshe first reiterated to them the laws of Shabbos, impressing upon them the need to connect with Hashem and kedushah through the way we behave:שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי יִהְיֶה לָכֶם קֹדֶשׁ, six days shall your work be done, and the seventh day will be holy for you. To become sanctified, we need only to follow the Torah, we do not need tangible creations.

It is through following the mitzvos that they would merit to become holy and thereby host the Shechinah; building a Mishkan while trampling on Shabbos would leave them with a tent devoid of sanctity.

It was because of the sin of the eigel that Moshe reminded the Jews about Shabbos before teaching them about the Mishkan, and that may be why the Torah juxtaposes the episode of the eigel with Moshe’s commanding the Nation about the Mishkan.

May we all live lives that will bring the Shechinah to this world.

Gut Shabbos.