Vayakhel

All Together Now..........


“And Moshe assembled the whole of the Congregation of the Children of Israel and said unto them, “These are the things that Hashem has commanded to do them. Six days you shall do melocho, (the 39 prohibited labours), and on the seventh day in shall be to you holy, it is a Shabas Shaboson, (emphatically Sabbath’y), to Hashem, all who do melcoho on it shall be put to death. Do not burn a fire in all your dwellings on the day of the Shabos.”
“And Moshe said unto whole of the Congregation of the Children of Israel to say, “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded: Take from yourselves a Trumoh to Hashem, etc.” (Shemos 35:1-5) (Instructions appertaining to the construction of the Mikdosh from this point).

Why does the parsha begin with the very unusual term “And Moshe assembled” (Vayakhel Moshe)? This is the only instance of the usage of this term in the Torah!
Why did Moshe gather the people together?
Why does the verse say, “These are the things that Hashem has commanded to do them” And then continue with an exhortation not to do labour on Shabos?

These are all questions which need answers!

Rashi explains that Moshe preceded the instructions for the building of the Mikdosh with the warning against desecrating Shabos in order to show that the construction of the Mikdosh does not push aside Shabos.

The Ikar Sifsei Chachomim explains Rashi’s reasoning as that since the commandment to refrain from labour on Shabos had already been given by this point this repetition must be telling us about labour on vis-à-vis the Mikdosh. (If something is repeated in the Torah it must be telling us something new either directly or from deduction). Therefore, the main topic of this passage is the Miskon, Shabos is a detail within the construction thereof.

But, why would anyone think that the labour can be performed in Shabos for the construction of the Mishkon? Also, if this is all one passage about the Mishkon, why is it interrupted by, “And Moshe said unto whole of the Congregation of the Children of Israel to say,”? Shouldn’t the laws of Shabos flow directly into the details of the construction of the Mishkon?

The Maharil Diskin writes that the phrase “to do them” within the verse, ““These are the things that Hashem has commanded to do them.” (Second verse in the parsha), must refer to the construction of the Mishkon, since there is no relevance of using the word “doing” with regards to an admonishment to refrain from doing! The passage starts off with saying that there is something to be done “stam”, (closed – ie without specifying). Then the passage tells us that this can only be done for six days a week, excluding Shabos, then the passage goes into details and explains what it is that is to be done. The verse, “And Moshe said unto whole of the Congregation of the Children of Israel to say, “This is the thing that Hasehm has commanded:” is the beginning of the details and explanation, having established the conditions.


The Maharil Diskin also has an answer for why we should ever think that the labour would be permitted on Shabbos, so that we should require an additional warning to the contrary. There is a Midrash which says that all of the construction work for the Mikdosh was done through miracles, as soon as a worker would start a particular task, an angel would come and finish it for him. The halocho is that a person is only liable for the performance of labour on Shabos if he starts and completes the melocho. One person starting and another finishing, whilst not permitted is not considered to be a Torah violation of Shabos.
Thus the verse tells us that even so, labour may not be performed on Shabos. Furthermore, Shabos is a Shabas Shaboson to Hashem, it’s also Shabos for Him, and anyone who attempts to perform the construction work on Shabos won’t receive angelic assistance.

Going back to the question of why Moshe gathered the whole nation together, the Alshich explains that the construction of the Mishkon was performed as an atonement for the sin of the construction and worship of the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf represented the “booting out” of Hashem from our midst, the Mishkon was the house holy to Hashem from which His Presence dwelt amongst us. The verse Shemos 32:1 says, “And the People gathered together against Aharon”. Since the sin was done through the gathering of the whole nation, so to the atonement had to be done through the gathering of the whole nation. (If the whole nation demands an idol, it’s a desecration of Hashem’s name of great magnitude. If anything less than the whole nation is involved in the atonement it won’t be an equivalent sanctification of Hashem’s name).
In addition, continues the Alshich, the “whole of the Congregation of the Children of Israel” excludes the Eruv Rav, (Mixed Multitude), who incited the CCI to demand an idol.

To summarise, Moshe gathered the whole nation together in order to atone for the sin of the Golden Calf in which the whole nation was involved.
The main subject of this gathering was the work relating to the construction of the Mishkon but Moshe started by presenting a condition of the prohibition of work on Shabos which one may have thought was permitted due to the angelic assistance received, thus avoiding any Shabos desecration.





Have a delightful Shabos! (Sorry about last week, I was preparing for Purim/drunk/hungover. B’ezras Hashem I will post a vort for Kiy Sisa soon)