Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayakhel 2

in verse 6 Marshall commanded that they proclaimed throughout the camp saying men and women shall not do more work toward the gift of the century not allowed to donate anymore it's not necessary thank you we don't need any more donations and the people were restrained from brimking he had to actually put guards and say no more donations and the work had been enough meaning the donations were enough for all the work to do it and there was extra work begins all the verse 8 all the wise-hearted among those doing the work made the Tabernacle 10 curtains of linen Twisted with turquoise purple and Scarlet wool they made them with a woven design of cherubs and then it goes into more details of how they were attached together we turned to page 523 verse 14 we read about the second roof of gold here he made curtains of gold hair for a tent over the Tabernacle he made them 11 curtains and again more details are given verse 19 the third and the fourth roofs are described he made a cover for the tent of red dyed Ram hides and a cover of tahash hides on top in verse 20 and on we speak about the planks the wooden planks he made the planks for the Tabernacle of acacia wood standing erect they were standing upright instead of being horizontal one on top of each other 10 cubits was the height of the plank 10 cubits is 15 feet the the height of the mishkan was 15 feet and a cubit and a half was the width of each Plank and the width of the plank was about two feet it was a very wide plank even more than the screen allows two feet wide beams very large beams and 15 feet very heavy that is why we will learn that when time came to stand them up no one could pick them up they were so heavy and Moshe told Hashem how should we build it and Hashem said never be afraid just try and Moshe went and he just put his hands and the beam went up by itself now verse 24 he made 40 Silver sockets under the 20 planks as we explained that each beam was standing on Silver bases two bases under each uh beam verse 31 he made bars of acacia wood the Bars were going across each wall two but two bars were visible one on top of the of a the the height of the wall towards the top and one towards the bottom going across all the planks connecting all the planks together and there was a middle bar going through the planks in the middle there was invisible they would bore a hole through the planks which was a miraculous in itself imagine you have a two foot wide beam and you have to drill a hole through it so that you can insert a wooden Pole uh a wide hole you have to drill a smooth hole and the the hole has to be same height on all 20 beams a very difficult job and similarly it was on the the Southern Wall on the Northern wall and Western Wall whereas the eastern wall did not have um the the solid wall rather it had a curtain okay now we are in verse 35 the partition the curtain separating the holy from the holy of holies he made the partition of turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and linen they were Twisted together he made it with a woven design of cherubs he made for it four pillars of acacia wood and plated them with gold their hooks were gold and he cast for them four sockets of silver so there were four um pillars in front of the doorway and upon them was hung the curtain now verse 37 on the bottom of the page we learned about the screen this is the outer partition that separates the holy from the courtyard the for the entrance of the tent he made a screen of turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and linen Twisted work of an embroider its pillars were five with their Hooks and he plated their tops and their bands with gold and their sockets were five of copper now we're on page 525 chapter 37 we now speak about the utensils that were manufactured made the ark the holy Arc of acacia wood it gives the dimensions verse 2 he covered it with pure gold on the inside on on the outside and he made for it a gold crown all around he made four gold rings into which he would he will insert the staves the poles of acacia wood and he covered the poles with gold as well now verse 6 we speak about the cover for the ark he made a cover of pure gold verse 7 he made two cherubs of gold the two a childlike statues of angels facing each other Standing On Top of the Ark hammered out did he make them from the two ends of the cover and what did these cherubs represent the one on the right represented God and the one on the left represented the Jewish people and they were facing each other and their wings were spread towards each other and they were touching each other over the ark that represented the love and connection between God and the Jewish people and the talmud says that in times of good they were facing each other however when the Jewish people would sin these cherubs would miraculously turn away from each other and therefore the Jewish people knew exactly what Hashem thinks about them if the cherubs faced each other they knew that God um approves of their actions and if they faced away from each other they knew that God is upset at them now on verse 10 we speak about the the table the he made the table of acacia wood its dimensions are given he covered it with pure gold and made for it a gold crown all around um the table had Rings into which the poles were inserted as well verse 16 he made the utensils that were on the table it's dishes it spawns its pillars and its shelving tubes with which it was covered of pure gold now in verse 17 the menorah is constructed he made the menorah of pure gold hammered out did he make the menorah the menorah was not Mel made from melted gold and poured into a mold which would be easy instead it was hammered um very tedious very hard work and I'll say just say that didn't know what how to do it and Hashem said don't worry just start and he picked up his little hammer and started banging and miraculously the menorah started taking shape foreign cups and knobs and flowers and six branches there were there were seven lamps one on a central shaft and three on each side there were almond designs now we turn to page 527 verse 23 he made its lamps seven and it's tongues to remove the burnt out Wick and spoons of pure gold of a talent of pure gold did he make it and all its utensils a talent is approximately 150 pounds so the menorah and the utensils were made from 150 pounds of gold um now verse 25 we learned about the incense altar the golden altar he made the incense altar of acacia wood verse 26 he covered it with pure gold and he made for it a gold crown all around um it also had golden rings for the poles verse 28 he made the staves of acacia wood and covered them with gold he made the anointment oil to anoint all the utensils and the Garment and kohanim and the incense spices the ketoric pure a perfumers handiwork chapter 38 we learn about the elevation offering altar he made the elevation offering altar of acacia wood verse 3 it was made of wood and covered with copper he made all the utensils of the altar the pots the shovels the basins the forks and the fire pans he made all its utensils of copper more details are given and now in verse 8 we speak about the lever the wash basin he made the labor of copper and his base of copper from the mirrors of the legions who amassed themselves at the entrance of the tent of meaning what is this all about you make a wash basin from mirrors how is that possible so in olden times mirrors were made from metal either gold for the King's Daughter or from from Silver for um princess daughter a Leader's daughter or from copper for regular people and every woman had a copper mirror which was polished so much that you could see your own reflection in it and when the women said when women women heard that copper is needed for the betamic dash they said I will give to Hashem the most precious copper utensil that I have it's not a cup and it's not a bowl it it is my precious mirror that I beautify myself or my husband and Hashem said I want to use them for purification of kohanim take the these mirrors and melt them down and don't use them not for the cover of the altar not for the utensils make the wash basin make the labor that purifies kohanim that allows them to become fit for service at the beginning Moshe didn't want to accept it he said what kind of thoughts they had when they were beautifying themselves maybe they wanted to beautify themselves for other men God forbid and Hashem said I can testify that these Jewish women are righteous and they only had pure thoughts for their husbands and therefore these these mirrors are holy now in verse 9 we learn about the construction of the courtyard walls from um lace hangings he made the courtyard on the south side The Lace hangings of the courtyard of Twisted linen 100 cubits their pillars were 20 and their sockets 20 of copper as well as hooks and their bands of silver and similarly on the North side 100 Cubit about 150 feet long now we turn to page 529 on the west side as well there were lace hangings of 50 cubits about 75 feet the pillows 10 on the socket stand and their Hooks and bands of silver and on the Eastern side there were some lace hanging curtains for walls as well as there was this the Central Area without those hangings and there there was a screen for the doorway on the Eastern side 50 cubits out of which 15 cubits were lace hangings at one shoulder and 15 Cubit lace hangings on the other shoulder with the middle so 15 plus 15 that's 30 and the entire length was 50 so the middle area for the doorway was 20. and that is described in verse 18. the screen of the Gate of the courtyard was embroider's work of turquoise purple and Scarlet wool and twisted linen 20 qubits in length and the height in the width was five cubits corresponding to the lace hangings of the courtyard so the the height of that screen was 5 cubits which is about seven and a half eight feet and the the length was uh 20 cubits about 35 feet verse 19 their pillars four and their sockets four of copper that's for the uh the the screen of the doorway the hooks of silver and the plating of their tops and their bands silver all the pegs of the Tabernacle and the courtyard all around were copper this concludes parshat pecode next week we I'm sorry uh concludes part shot next week we will learn parashat pikudi about the the the final um making of of um garments of kohanim and the accounting of all the material to show that the Jewish people were honest and they used all the materials um that were donated now uh this week we have a special Shabbat it is called parashat sheikhalim so in addition of the uh in addition to reading regular parashat parshat via Ken we also are going to read a special section for maftir which is called parashat sheikhalib and that is actually we're going back one week and we're going to read the first section of parashat kitisa which speaks about the the three donations that the Jewish people gave and the reason for this is uh double number one is when rosh hodesh Adar comes and this this coming week is going to be rosh Hodes which is the month before Nissan one month before Nissan announcements went out throughout Israel to make donations their yearly donations to be used for next year for all the offerings so that every Jew participates in every offering throughout the year and the the Jewish people were given one month to voluntarily bring the donations to yerushalayim and they had special collection chests in every town so that if you don't want to travel to Jerusalem you can bring it to your local collection site and then officials a delegation would be sent to Jerusalem to bring all the collected shekalim every person had to give half a shekel coin a coin one coin worth half a shekel for every member of his family uh as I said reason number two why we read parsaturated is because we want to um make and make make a donation in atonement for our soul for our life before Purim because we know that uh Haman gave a hashvaros a large sum of silver of money to receive the right the exclusive right to kill the Jews and we say to Hashem Hashem we are going to give money to cancel out the money of Hamad and we're going to give this money before Hamad we're going to give it before Purim and that is another reason why we read parashat khalim to remind the Jewish people to protect yourself make this donation for the corbanon next week we're going to have parashat piku day and it will also be rosh Hodes and then the the following week we will have um the Shabbat before Purim and also it will it will be a special Shabbat it will be called parashat zahor we will read about the the Commandment to destroy amalek and always remember about what they did so this week is the beginning of what we call the four special weeks foreign then we will skip one week after that we'll celebrate Purim and then after that we'll we'll have another special week it's going it's going to be called parashat Para and then again uh the following week is parashata hodish the the Shabbat before this Nissan is uh where we read a special portion about sanctification of the new moon and this all starts this coming week men should make an effort to attend synagogue even if they usually don't specifically this week because we read a special portion women are not obligated however uh the week before Purim when we did parashat zahor it is actually a Torah commandment an obligation for all men to attend the reading and many women try it's good for women to go as well but not this week uh thank you for listening shabbat shalom um