Va-yakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and Haftarah (1 Kings 7:40-50): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Va-yakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and Haftarah (1 Kings 7:40-50): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin’s book The JPS B’nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827615823 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 24 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Va-yakhel: Exodus 35:1–38:20
Parashat Terumah gave the instructions for the design of the Tabernacle, and Vayakhel now follows through on those plans.
It emphasizes that the Israelites enthusiastically (we might even say too enthusiastically!) brought the materials for the building of the Tabernacle. The text singles out two Israelites, Bezalel and Oholiab, as the master craftsmen whose work went into the Tabernacle's construction.
Summary
• Moses expands upon the earlier commandment regarding Shabbat, as found in the Ten Commandments. Whoever does any work shall be put to death, and kindling fire is considered a violation of Shabbat. (35:1–3)
• Moses reminds the Israelites that they should bring donations for the construction of the Tabernacle, and he gives specific instructions about the materials. Moses's directions emphasize the role of the heart: gifts must come from "everyone whose heart so moves him" and those who are skilled (chakham lev, "wise of heart") should be involved in the project. There is a particular role for women as well — as spinners and weavers. (35:4–29)
• Moses showcases the talent of Bezalel and Oholiab, who are the master craftsmen of the Tabernacle. (35:30–35)
• The people bring an overabundance of gifts to the building of the Tabernacle, and their gift giving has to be stopped. (36:5–6)
The Big Ideas
• The building of the Tabernacle might have been an act of atonement for having built the Golden Calf. It follows right after the building of the calf, and some commentators believe the purpose of the Tabernacle is for God to demonstrate that the Divine Presence is still in the midst of the people and that they need not resort to an idol.
• Shabbat and the construction of the Tabernacle seem to be linked together. It is hardly an accident that the observance of Shabbat is mentioned in the same breath as the design of the Tabernacle. When later generations of sages tried to figure out exactly what kind of work would be prohibited on Shabbat, they decided that any kind of labor that was involved in the building of the Tabernacle would be a violation of Shabbat.
• While the building of the Tabernacle is a mitzvah, the Israelites must contribute to its building with willing hearts. It is not enough for God to simply demand that the Israelites do something. Their emotions have to be involved. They have to feel connected to what was going on. The text makes it clear that everyone was involved in some way. The building of the Tabernacle symbolizes the unity of the Jewish people.
• Judaism believes that there should be sacred roles for artists and craftspeople. Because Jews and Judaism are often associated with words and abstract thinking, it is important to remember the gifts of those who are artistically inclined and those who work with their hands. Israel's most prominent arts academy, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, in Jerusalem, is named for one of the Jewish people's ancient craftsmen. It is also significant that Bezalel is from the tribe of Judah (the most powerful tribe) and Oholiab is from the tribe of Dan (the weakest tribe). In the building of the Tabernacle, the strong and the weak work together.
• The people actually brought too much to the building of the Tabernacle. While this would probably be every Jewish leader's greatest dream, it teaches us that too much enthusiasm for a project — even a sacred project — could become dangerous.
Divrei Torah
Stop Giving — Please!
Here's the scene: You are raising money for your youth group or your sports team. It starts with people giving you a dollar or two, and then people start coming back and giving you five dollars, then twenty dollars, then fifty dollars. You cannot believe all the money that is coming in! You start to get uneasy and at some point even begin to wish that people would just stop already.
Hard to imagine, right? What would be wrong with all that money coming in? That people might go nuts giving? That people might get competitive with each other?
That is exactly what happens in the Torah portion. There is a collection of materials for the building of the Tabernacle. The people keep giving and giving, but at a certain point Moses says that they bring too much. The artisans who are getting the materials protest that there's no room for everything. Moses tells the people to stop bringing those precious materials.
But why do they go overboard? After all, think of the last time this happened. The Israelites had been equally enthusiastic in bringing their donations to the building of the Golden Calf.
Now it could be that the Israelites decide that the way to make up for the sin of the Golden Calf is to use their energies to do something better. In the words of Bible scholar Nehama Leibowitz: "They made amends with the very same thing with which they had sinned. It was their gold earrings that gilded the calf and again their 'earrings and every kind of gold ornaments' that they contributed to the Tabernacle."
There is another major difference besides the ultimate destination of the gifts. When the people brought donations of gold to the building of the Golden Calf, they just deposited their donations. The Torah doesn't say anything about how the people felt about what they were doing. On the other hand, the building of the Tabernacle explicitly calls for a willing heart. As the medieval commentator Isaac Abravanel teaches: "for the sake of the Lord and not for any other motive." So what could be bad about all this enthusiastic giving? Interesting: in Jewish law you are not supposed to give too much tzedakah (charity), lest you put yourself in a shaky financial position. You are supposed to be generous, but not go overboard (most often defined as giving away more than 20 percent of your income).
The bottom line: there are limits to everything. By all means, give charity. Support worthy causes. But make sure that you don't turn it into too much of a good thing. The making of the Tabernacle calls for self-discipline — like most things in life.
The Work of Our Hands
One of the greatest educational institutions in the State of Israel is the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, in Jerusalem. Some of the most creative people in the Jewish world have studied there. The origin of the name comes from this week's Torah portion, where we learn that Bezalel was the chief artisan of the ancient Tabernacle. (Note: Bezalel had a colleague, Oholiab. But there is no Oholiab Academy in Jerusalem.) All that those art and design students probably know about Bezalel is that he was the boss.
Who could blame them? Frankly, the Bible doesn't have that much else to say about Bezalel. We know the name of his father — Uri. Was Bezalel married? Did he have children? Was he gifted as a child? Who did he study with? We don't know. Bible scholar Avivah Zornberg writes: "Just as the Golden Calf emerged suddenly from the flames, so did Bezalel's talent. He enters the world without explanation."
Yet Bezalel's talent is nothing short of miraculous. How could he have learned his great skill? Certainly not in Egypt! The medieval sage Nachmanides teaches: "When Israel was in Egypt, they were crushed under the work of mortar and brick, and they had acquired no knowledge of how to work in silver and gold. It was therefore a wonder that there could be found among them someone as skillful as Bezalel. For even among those who study from experts, you cannot find one who is proficient in all these crafts."
No wonder that the biblical text says that Bezalel was filled with "skill, ability, and knowledge" (35:31). It was the only way that he could have pulled off such a wonderful artistic feat.
What do we learn from Bezalel? Judaism is not just about books and studying; it is also about the creative arts. Starting in the Middle Ages, there were beautiful Haggadot and illuminated manuscripts. Today, there is more creativity in Jewish ritual objects than at almost any time in history. Just go to any Judaica store or Jewish museum and you will see beautiful synagogue art, Kiddush cups, tallitot, mezuzot, Havdalah sets, etrog boxes, seder plates, and more. Sure — you can make Kiddush with a paper cup, but why should you? Judaism teaches the concept of hiddur mitzvah, that you should adorn or beautify a mitzvah whenever you can.
At the founding ceremonies of the Bezalel school, the first chief rabbi of prestate Israel, Rabbi Abraham Kook, said: "The desire for the beginnings of an art institution in the Land of Israel is in essence a sign of life, a sign of hope, salvation and comfort. Our nation looks well upon the sweet beauty of art which is expressed through human creativity." Let's remember the artists who have enriched Jewish life in our time by the wonderful work that they do. And if you have skills like that, put them to work for the Jewish people.
Connections
• What things do you think that modern Jews should not do on Shabbat?
• In what things do you invest your heart? In other words, what are those things that move your heart, and that you want to excel in?
• What skills do you have? How have you made them work for Judaism?
• A midrash says that Bezalel was thirteen years old when he built the Tabernacle. Why do you think the ancient sages assigned that age to that great feat? What might this have to do with thirteen being the age of bar and bat mitzvah?
• Can you think of times when people have become overenthusiastic in doing a good thing?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Va-yakhel: 1 Kings 7:40–50
Despite the fact that the second book of the Torah is called Exodus (or, in Hebrew, Shemot, "Names"), the greatest number of words in the book of Exodus is devoted, not to names, but to the construction of the ancient Tabernacle (the mishkan). It's not because religious buildings are the most important thing in the world; it's because those buildings make community possible. That is why there are several haftarah about the construction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, which was the successor to the desert Tabernacle and King Solomon's biggest project.
In this haftarah, we meet a talented bronze worker named Hiram (in Hebrew, Hirom). (That name may sound familiar to you, but he's not to be confused with Hiram in Haftarat Terumah, who is King Hiram of Tyre, a city-state in modern-day Lebanon, who helped King Solomon build the ancient Temple.)
In this haftarah, we read about Hiram the artisan. His bronze contributions were so heavy that King Solomon could not weigh them. We also read about the gold furnishings that Solomon made for the Temple: altar, candelabra, basins, ladles, and doors. All these details of the Temple parallel the description of the Tabernacle.
Call Me Hiram/Hirom
How many ways can you spell the name Deborah. Yes, there's Deborah — or is it spelled Debra? And her nickname: Debbie, or Debbi, or Debi, or Debby?
The same thing is true with Hiram. It's spelled two different ways in Hebrew. So sometimes it is more like Hirom. To make matters worse, there are two different people with the two variations of the same name!
First, as mentioned above, there is King Hiram of Tyre, who helped King Solomon build the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. And now, in this haftarah, we read of another person with the same name, and he also helped with the building of the ancient Temple.
King Hiram was mostly involved in sending building materials — notably, those majestic trees known as the cedars of Lebanon — to Solomon to use in the construction of the Temple. This other Hiram is involved in the same project but from a different angle. He is a talented bronze worker. It seems that his major talent is in crafting huge, rounded pieces made of bronze. He comes from Tyre, like King Hiram. But he definitely is not a king, because he does not come from anything resembling royal lineage. We read that Hiram's father was a craftsman of Tyre, and that his mother was a widow of the tribe of Naphtali. That would make him half-Israelite on his mother's side. Whether he considered himself Jewish is unclear, since in those days lineage passed from the father.
Shall we imagine a backstory for this "new" Hiram? Where did he come from? How did he get his name? How did he learn his trade?
As I have written: "It would start with a nameless Israelite widow. She meets a nameless Tyrian craftsman, and they fall in love. She gives birth to an infant whom she names Hiram, and, as fathers will often do, his father teaches him everything he knows about metalworking and other kinds of craftsmanship." As for Hiram's mother, perhaps she also taught him things. Perhaps she taught him of her own people — their stories, dreams, and songs.
And so, Hiram became a craftsman. A rather good craftsman. Perhaps the actions of his royal namesake had inspired him, and he willingly and enthusiastically made the trip to Jerusalem to become part of the holy process of building the Temple. Perhaps — just perhaps — Solomon's request sparked something inside this Hiram's soul, just like the spark in the king that led to his collaboration with Solomon. True, he had not been raised in the Land of Israel. True, he had been cut off from his people. But he knew one thing: when Solomon called him, he wanted to help.
Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut writes: "In the Torah, God chose Bezalel to do the work on the Tabernacle; in the haftarah, Solomon chose Hiram to help." I wonder what Solomon thought of the coincidence that the king and the key craftsman had (almost) the same name. Maybe it wasn't just a coincidence ...
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Va-yakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and Haftarah (1 Kings 7:40-50): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Introduction,
What Is Torah?,
And What Else? The Haftarah,
Your Mission — To Teach Torah to the Congregation,
How Do I Write a Devar Torah?,
How To Keep It from Being Boring (and You from Being Bored),
The Very Last Thing You Need to Know at This Point,
The Torah: Va-yakhel: Exodus 35:1–38:20,
Summary,
The Big Ideas,
Divrei Torah,
Stop Giving — Please!,
The Work of Our Hands,
Connections,
The Haftarah: Va-yakhel: 1 Kings 7:40–50,
Call Me Hiram/Hirom,