Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Pekudei 1

good evening we are learning parashat peku day this is the last total portion in sever shemot in the book of Exodus in most years it is read together with parashat vayaquel the previous Parsha but because this here is a leap year we have an extra month so we split and a few other partiot that are usually read together we split them and we read parashat pekuday 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 Parsha we will learn about making of garments for kohanim as well as we will have accounting of all the materials and the command to actually set up the mishkan now let us start on page 531 of the art scroll kumash these are reckonings of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle of testimony it's called The Tabernacle of testimony because the Ten Commandments the Lu hod the tablets are called the tablets of the testimonial 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 is 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 aharon De Cohen verse 22 bit salil sang of URI of the sound of whole of the tribe of you that did everything that Hashem commanded mosh and with him was his helper a holy of son of his tribe of Dan verse 24 we count all the gold that was donated all the gold 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 all together there were 87 730 golden shekalim verse 25 how much silver was donated the silver of the senses of the community and we say the census because Jewish people donated silver through the census through counting the people and the total was 100 talents 1775 shackles in the sacred shekel and that is the total of 301. 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 have a shackle so the total amount of silver was 3 and verse explains what silver was used for the 100 talents of silver were cast were to cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the circuits 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 three thousand shekels so that accounts for uh three hundred thousand shakalim what about the remaining 1775 shakalim so on page 533 verse 28 and from the 1775 silver shekels he made hooks for the pillars and covered their tops and bended 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 covers okay now what about the copper in 20 verse 29 the offer dot copper was 70 talents and uh and two thousand four hundred shekels together totaling 212 and 400 shakalim verse 30 explains what they made from this copper with it he made the sockets of the Ancients to the tent of meeting pillars outside of the tent of meeting had copper foundations as well as the copper altar the copper altar was plated with copper it was made of wood a plated with copper as well as the copper mesh work that was on it and all the vessels of the altar and 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 uh listing gold silver and copper and now chapter 39 tells us about making off the garments verse 1. from the turquoise purple and Scarlet wool they made knit vestments they were the cloth that they used to cover all the holy utensils when they traveled they would cover them into this cloth 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 see the holy guard the holy utensils and verse 1 continues and they made the whole Investments for aharon as Hashem commanded moshev now we describe how they made each one of the the garments of Aaron we start with a Ford effort 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 effort of gold turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and twisted linen how did they introduce gold into the fabric of the effort verse 3 explains they hammered out the thin thin sheets of gold first they took a chunk of gold they hammered it out into a very thin sheet of gold very very thin like paper maybe even thinner and then they took this piece of golden paper and they cut it into very thin strands strips of gold and they used those strips of gold as a thread and they mixed it together they Twisted it together with turquoise wool purple wool and Scarlet wool and linen and created one large thread and from it they made a phone verse 4 they attached shoulder straps to it attached to its two ends verse 5 describes the belt of the effort the belt with which it was in place which was on it was made from it from the same workmanship of gold turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and linen Twisted as hashemian command motion now we speak about the stones that were on the shoulder straps verse 6 they're called shohan Stones they made the shoham stones encircled with gold settings engraved like the engraving of the Signet ring according to the names of the sons of Israel he placed them on the shoulder straps of the effort as remembrance stones for the sons of Israel as Hashem had commended Moshe so that whenever kohen gadol goes into the betamic dash or he goes into the holy or into the holy 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 the golden setting and again upon each Stone was engraved one of the tribes of the Jewish people verse 8 he made the Press played over Weaver's craft like the workmanship of the ephob was made from similar thread of gold turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and linen all twisted it was Square folded over did they make the breastplate its length was half a cubit half a cubit is the half of the distance between the fingertips until the elbow this is called the qubit Amma half of that is the size of the breastplate it was half a cubit width and half a cubit length folded over means really they made it double the size it was in the entire pubic length and only half a qubit 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 a Ford special powers that if the king or the kohen gadol would ask God a question the stones on the breastplate would light up and since each each Stone had letters engraved on it the letters themselves would light up and depending on the letters that would light up the kohen gadol 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 making words verse 14. actually [Music] 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 these chains the breastplate was attached to the straps of the effort now we turn to page 535 Verse 18 the two ends of the two ropes they placed on the settings and placed them on the shoulder straps of the effort toward the front verse 21. they attached the breastplate from they attached the breastplate from its rings to the rings of the effort with a turquoise Woolen cord that means that the breastplate 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 effort of a Weaver's craft entirely of turquoise wool it was a blue wool like the entire garment was made from Blue wool um verse 24 on the robes hem they made pomegranates of turquoise purple and Scarlet wool twisted and they made bells of pure gold gold and they place the bells between the pomegranates on the Hem of the Rope which means on the bottom of the robe they were hanging bells and pomegranates golden bells and pomegranates made from colored wool alternating and the reason for that was so that when coin got all walks his robe makes um noise and when he enters the holy it's uh as if we are announcing he's 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 the tunics of linen were worn by regular kohanim as well and the turban of linen turban is the linen head and The Splendid headdress of linen and the linen breaches breeches are 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 key lime in it because it says the sash of Twisted linen turquoise purple and Scarlet wool the the um many of the garments of kohen gadol had Kilim in it including this belt and it was 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 normal prohibited we allow you to do the Mitzvah despite the fact that it's attached to a Prohibition because we say 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 Cohen gadol as well as the strings of sitsit if they're made from wool and we put them in a linen garment so that is Key Lime but because we're fulfilling the Mitzvah of that would be permitted in verse 30 we describe the construction of the head plate the golden head played upon which it was it said holy to God they made the head plate the holy crown of pure gold and the inscribed on it with script like that of a Signet ring holy to Hashem they placed on it a chord of turquoise wool and put over the turban to put over the turbine from above verse 32 the final verses of the of the building of 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 Moshe so did they do the midrash says that this was completed on the 25th day of kisled which is nowadays the first day of Hanukkah of course at that time Hanukkah didn't happen yet verse 33 they brought the Tabernacle to Moshe the tent and all its utensils and all the parts of the Tabernacle are listed we turn to page 537 verse 42. like everything that Hashem commanded Moshe saw did the children of Israel perform all the labor motion 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 Hanukkah but in chapter 40 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying on the day of the First new moon which means the first month which is Nisan on the first of the month you shall erect the Tabernacle the tent of meaning everyone was surprised now it's Kiss Live and you're telling us to wait until Nissan we have to wait the entire month of tevet the entire month of Shabbat the entire month of Adar and only then cons build the mishkan 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 midrash says that the the the days of the five the last five days of Kiss Live and the first three days of uh tevette complained they said it was fitting for the Tabernacle to be inaugurated for seven 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 betamic Dash the hashmonayim came and fought and conquered the betamic dust back and they inaugurated vitamic Dash for um eight days again and we celebrate that in our holiday of Hanukkah and the days were appeased so now we have two periods of inauguration of of the temple one on Hanukkah the eight days of Hanukkah and one from the the last seven days of Adar at the first day of Nissan the seven days of Adar mosho would set up the Tabernacle serve in it for practice as the coin gadol himself and then towards the evening he would disassemble the mishkan 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 rosh hodesh Nissan the first day of the first month aharon became the kohen gadol and together with theirs with his sons they served in the mishkanda mishkan was built for the final time and the kohanim started official service in it now verse 3. once you make the attempt of meeting which is another name for Tabernacle there you shall place the Ark of testimony the holy Ark with the uh luhot the tablets of the Ten Commandments and screen the ark with a partition and they they hung the partition in front of the holy of holies you should bring the table into the holy and prepare its setting the bread bring the menorah 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 Ancients of the Tabernacle place the elevation offering altar in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle place the lever 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 copper Altar and its utensils and you shall sanctify The Altar and the altar shall become holy of holies you shall anoint sprinkle some oil over the lever and it's stand and sanctified now page 539 aharon and his children are anointed the word anointed means mashua or the person who is Anointed is called mashiach that is why Our Redeemer is called Messiah or mashiach mashiach means the anointed one because mashir 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 aharon 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 Aaron in the sacred vestment 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 Moshe did according to everything that Hashem commanded him so he did and now three 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 Moshe erected the Tabernacle he put down its sockets and emplaced its planks and inserted its bars and erected its pillars now the midrash 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 length one and a half foot in with huge beams solid wood and they were 15 feet high and motion 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 Moshe don't worry just try so Moshe went to the pillar and touched it as soon as he touched it the pillar started rising up and almost I 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 gonna be to uh 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 that