Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Pekude 1

good evening we're learning parat P this is the last Torah portion in seph sheot in the book of Exodus in most years it is read together with parak the previous par but because this year is a leap year we have an extra month so we split these two parot and few other uh par that are usually read together we split them and um we read par by itself last week we we learned about the um construction of all the parts needed for the structure of the Tabernacle of the mishkan and in this week's paral we will learn about about uh making of garments for kohanim as well as we will have a counting of all the materials and the command to actually set up the mishkan now let us start on page 531 of the artc Kash these are reckonings of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle of testimony is called the Tabernacle of testimony because the Ten Commandments the L the tablets are called the tablets of the uh testimony testimony being that this is our covenant this is the testimony of our covenant with God that he gave us this document in stone that we are committing to fulfill his commands and he's committing to be our God to be the one who protects us and guides us the labor of the Levites was under the authority of itamar son of Aaron the kohen verse 22 B son of U of son of of the tribe of yudah did everything that hasem commanded Moshe and with him was his helper a son of the tribe of Don verse 24 we count all the gold that was donated all the gold that was used for the work for all the holy work was 29 talents and 700 30 shekels now how what is a talent talent is a an ancient measure of 3,000 shekel um so alt together there were 87,7 golden shalim verse 25 how much silver was donated the silver of the census of the community and uh we say the census because Jewish people donated silver through the sensus through counting the people and uh the total was 100 talents 1,775 shekels in the sacred shekel and that is a total of 3017 775 silver shekels and that is because the total number of the Jewish people was just above 600,000 people and if each one donated half a shekel so the total amount of silver was three 3 1,775 shalim and verse 27 explains what silver was used for the 100 Talons of silver were cast were to cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the partition what is that we had the wooden beams standing upright but the beams were placed into the silver socket silver socket was like the foundation of the beam and also the socket had a hole in the middle and there was a peg coming out of the wood inserted into the socket so there were 100 of those sockets all together used in mishkan and each socket weighed one Talent again a talent is 3,000 shekels so that accounts for uh 300,000 shalim what about the remaining 1,775 shakim so on page 53 3 verse 28 and from the 1,775 silver shekels he made hooks for the pillars and covered their tops and banded them so the the the that little silver that was remaining were used for um the hooks which were made from Silver as well as bands and and covers uh okay now what about the copper in 20 verse 29 the offer. copper was 70 Talons and 204 uh uh and 2,400 shekel together totaling 22,400 shalim verse 30 explains what they made with from this copper with it he made the sockets of the entrance to the tent of meaning pillars outside of the tent of meaning had copper um foundations as well as the copper altar the copper altar was plated with copper it was made of wood and plated with copper as well as the copper mesh work that was on it and all the vessels of the altar in verse 31 continues sockets of the courtyard and the sockets of the Gate of the courtyard and all the pegs of the Tabernacle good now we finished um listing Gold Silver and copper and now chapter 39 tells us um about making off the the garments verse one from the turquoise purple and Scarlet wool they made knit vestments they were the um cloth that they used to cover all the holy utensils when they travel they would cover them into this cloth the the the kohanim and when they were all covered then the Levites would come and carry them so that the Levites and the Israelites should not um see the Holy G the holy utensils and verse one continues and they made the holy vestments for Aaron as Hashem commanded Moshe now we describe how they made each one of the the garments of Aon we start with EOD EOD is the apron like garment that had shoulder straps going from the back until the shoulders and on the shoulders it had two precious stones with names of the Jewish people um the tribes engraved on them he made the EOD of gold turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and twisted linen uh how did they introduce gold into the fabric of the for verse three explains they hammered out the thin thin sheets of gold first they took a chunk of gold they hammered it out into very thin sheet of gold very very thin like paper maybe even thinner and then they took this piece of uh golden paper and and they cut it into very thin strands strips of gold and they used those strips of gold as uh thread and they mixed it together they Twisted it together with uh turquoise wool purple wool and Scarlet wool and linen and created one large thread and from it they made a F verse four they attach shoulder straps to it attached to its two ends verse five describes the belt of the EOD the belt with which it was imp placed which was on it was made from it from the same workmanship of gold turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and linen Twisted as hasem had commanded mosha now we speak about the stones that were on the shoulder straps verse six they're called shoham Stones they made the shoham stones encircled with gold sings engraved like the engraving of the signant Ring according to the names of the sons of Israel he placed them on the shoulder straps of the EOD as remembrance stones for the sons of Israel as Hashem had commanded Moshe so that whenever kohen Gad goes into the bet mikdash or he goes into the holy or into the holy of holies the names of the Jewish people appear in front of Hashem and so to say Hashem remembers the Jewish people for good verse 8 describes the breastplate the square um woven garment that was folded in half and it had 12 Stones um in Golden setting and again on each Stone was engraved one of the tribes of the Jewish people verse 8 he made the breastplate of a Weaver's craft like the workmanship of the EOD was made from similar thread of gold turquoise purple and Scar wool and linen all twisted it was Square folded over did they make the breastplate its length was half a cubit half a cub Cubit is the half of the distance between the fingertips until the elbow this is called the Cubit amama half of that is the size of the breastplate it was uh half a cubit width and half a cubit um length folded over means really they made it double the size it was in entire Cubit uh length and and only half a cubit width and when they folded it you got two square two equal squares why they needed to have the fold because into the fold they put the name of God and that gave this eord special powers that if the king or the Ken Gul would ask God a question the stones on on the breastplate would light up and since each each Stone had um letters engraved on it the letters themselves would light up and depending on the letters that would light up theen would compose the answer the message was lighting up this was like the first screen um like the first computer screen with letters popping up and uh making words verse actually um verse 10 they filled it with four rows of stones and then the 12 Stones are listed verse 14 the stones were according to the names of the sons of Israel 12 according to their names verse 15 for the breastplate they made chains at the edges of braided craftsmanship of pure gold and with with these chains the breastplate was attached to the straps of the EOD now we turn to page 535 Verse 18 the two ends of the two ropes they placed on the settings and place them on the shoulder straps of the EOD toward the front vers 21 they attached the breastplate from they attach the breastplate from its rings to the rings of the eord with a turquoise Woolen cord that means that the breast plate was attached from above it was hanging above on the shoulder straps and it had turquoise Woolen cord on the bottom of it to attach it to the Belt now verse 22 we describe the the robe they made the robe of the EOD of a Weaver's craft entirely of turquoise wool it was blue wool like the entire garment was made from Blue wool um verse 24 on the Rob's hem they made pomegranates of turquoise purple and Scarlet wool twisted and they made bells of pure gold gold and they placed the bells between the pomegranates on the Hem of the robe which means on the bottom of the robe they were hanging bells and pomegranates golden bells and pomegranates made from colored wool alter alternating and the reason for that was so that when coin Gad walks his robe makes um noise and when he enters the holy it's uh as if we are announcing his coming into the uh the house of God now verse 27 we we describe the tunics of linen they made the tunics of linen of Weaver's craft for Aaron and his sons unlike the other garments which were only for Aaron and for the high priest for Coen Gad the tunics of linen were worn by regular kohanim as well and the turban of linen turban is the linen um hat and the splendid headdress of linen and the linen breaches breaches are um pants of Twisted linen white pants and white hat and a white undershirt verse 29 and sash of Twisted linen sash is a belt and this belt had uh Kim in it because it says the sash of Twisted linen turquoise purple and Scarlet wool the the um many of the garments of Ken Gad had Kim in it including this belt and as we explained before if at the time of uh doing a Mitzvah you also have to do a something that is normally prohibited and there is no other way of doing the Mitzvah except by doing something that is normally prohibited we allow you to do the Mitzvah despite the fact that it's attached to a Prohibition because we say uh that if God tells us not to do something and then he tells us to do something and by doing that we will be transgressing what he asked us not to do since he told us to actually do it it means it overrides the prohibition and the example is the garments of Ken Gad as well as the um strings ofit if they made from wool and we put them in a linen garment so that is K but because we're fulfilling the mitvah of that would be permitted um in verse 30 we describe the construction of the head plate the golden head plate upon which it was it said holy to to God they made the headplate the holy crown of pure gold and they inscribed on it with script like that of a Signet ring holy to Hashem they placed on it a cord of turquoise wool and put over the turban to put over the turban from above verse 32 the final verses of the of the um building of the the mishkan all the work of the Tabernacle the tent of meeting was completed and the children of Israel had done everything that Hashem commanded mosha so did they do the midash says that this was completed on the 25th day of KV which is nowadays the first day of kanuka of course at that time kanuka didn't happen yet verse 33 they brought the Tabernacle to Moshe the tent and all its utensils and the all the parts of the Tabernacle are listed we turn to page verse 42 like everything that Hashem commanded Moses so did the children of Israel perform all the labor Moshe inspects the Tabernacle all the work Moshe saw the entire work and behold they had done it as Hashem had commanded so they had done and Moshe blessed them now Moshe and the Jewish people expected that Hashem will tell them now that everything is ready assemble the Tabernacle right away which would have been the first day of kanuka but in chapter 40 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying on the day of the First new moon which means the first month which is Nissan not kave on the first of the month you shall erect the Tabernacle the tent of meia everyone was surprised now it's K and you're telling us to wait until Nissan we have to wait the entire month of tet the entire month of shabat the entire month of Adar and only then cons build the mishan why should we wait three months and Hashem said I want the holy service in the Tabernacle start on the first month on the month of Miracles when the Jewish people left Egypt and midash says that the the the days of the five the last five days of K and the first three days of uh tet complained they said it was fitting for the Tabernacle to be be inaugurated for 7 days and then finally built on The Eighth Day on us why are you postponing it we are missing out and Hashem said don't worry I'm taking this away from you but I will give you another inauguration of the temple in the times of the second temple when the Greeks defiled bet mikdash theim came and fought and conquered the betam mikdash back and they inaugurated betam mikdash for um 8 days again and we celebrate that in our holiday of kanuka and the days were appeased so now we have two periods of inauguration of of the temple one on kanuka the eight days of kanuka and one from the the last seven days of Adar and the first day of Nissan the seven days of Adar mosha would set up the Tabernacle serve in it for practice as the Coen Gad himself and then towards the evening he would disassemble the mishan the next day he would do the same thing he would assemble serve and disassemble and like that for seven days and on the eighth day which is the the first day of the first monthon became theen and together with their with his sons they served in the mishan the mishan was built for the final time and the kohanim um started official service in it now verse three once you make the tent of meeting which is another name for Tabernacle there you shall place the Ark of testimony the holy Ark with the uh L the tablets of the Ten Commandments and Screen the ark with the partition and they they hung the part ition in front of the holy of holies you shall bring the table into the holy and prepare its setting the bread bring the minora and Kindle its lamps you shall place the gold Altar for incense in front of the Ark of the testimony and place the curtain of the entrance of the Tabernacle place the elevation offering altar in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle place the laor the wash basin next to it next to the Altar and put water in it create the courtyard all around with lace hangings and pillars and place the curtain as the Gate of the courtyard take the anointment oil and anoint the Tabernacle and everything that is in it by sprinkling the oil on all the utensils and onto the on the Tabernacle sanctify it and all its utensils and it shall become holy you shall anoint the elevation offering altar the the copper Altar and its utensils and you shall s sanctify The Altar and the altar shall become holy of holies you shall anoint sprinkle some oil over the labor and its stand and sanctify it now page 539 Aaron and his children are anointed the word anointed means mashu or the person who is Anointed is called mashia that is why uh Our Redeemer is called Messiah or mashiach mashia means the anointed one because mashia is going to be our King and Kings as well as kohanim were Anointed with this anointment oil verse 12 on page 539 you shall bring Aaron and his sons near the entrance of the tent of meaning and immerse them in water they have to go to the Mikvah first to purify themselves and then verse 13 you shall dress Aon in the sacred vestments and anoint him with oil you shall sanctify him and he shall minister to me and his sons you shall bring near and dress them in tunics you shall anoint them as you had anointed their father and they shall minister to me mosha did according to everything that Hashem commanded him so he did and now 3 months later verse 17 the Tabernacle is erected it was in the first month of the second year on the first of the month that the Tabernacle was erected the first month is Nissan on rodes Moshe erected the Tabernacle he put down its sockets and imp placed its planks and inserted its bars and erected its pillars now the midash says that when the time came to lift up the the the the beams of wood Moshe and the Jewish people felt that it cannot be done these were huge beams two feet in uh length 1 and 1/2t in width huge beam solid wood and they were 15 ft high and Moshe said God how can it how how is it possible how is it humanly possible to lift such a huge Beam without any machinery and Hashem said to mosha don't worry just try so mosha went to the pillar and touched it as soon as he touched it the pillar started rising up and all Moshe had to do just touch it as he was touching the pillar stood straight up this was to teach us that if God tells you to do something or if you volunteer to do something for God there are no limitations All the Rules of Nature are going to be twisted in order to accommodate you you will receive special Divine help and therefore a Jew should never give up should never Place artificial limitations on himself whatever you think is right try to do it and you will see that you will be successful now verse 19 he spread the