Torah Study Vayak'hel - Pekudei

Shemot/Exodus 35:1-40:38, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18, Luke 22:1-13

Torah Portion Shemot/Exodus 35:1-40:38

Exodus35:29 Every man and woman whose heart made them willing gave toward all the work that Adonai had commanded to be done by Moses’ hand. So Bnei-Yisrael brought it as a freewill offering to Adonai.

This is the first place that a freewill offering is named specifically. What is a freewill offering?

An offering made without any other purpose. A true gift.

Could be all sorts of materials, appropriate animals though they need not die, crops, and even meals.

Could be made only by Israelites.

Could not be made by someone who was a known Idolator, descecrated the shabbat publicly, heretic, or was known to be guilty and unrepentant or still engaged in some other SIN.

Mishneh Torah (Rambam), Sefer Avodah, Maaseh Hakorbanot chapter 3

What does this mean of those that brought the freewill offerings at this time?

They where guiltless of SIN at least in that they had brought atonement first.

Where is the definition/description of a freewill offering given?

Oral Torah

not in the written Torah

Exodus 35:30 Then Moses said to Bnei-Yisrael, “See, Adonai has called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

Who is Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah? Hint 1 Chronicles 2:19

Great-Grandson of Caleb and Mariam. One of Mariam’s other names is Ephrath.

Miriam is said to have had also the following names: Ephrath

Isidore Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 12 Volumes (New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906), 609.

Name means in God’s Shadow

Who is Hur?

Son of Caleb and Mariam.

Helped Moshe hold his hands aloft during battle.

Died trying to stop the worship of the golden calf

Isidore Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 12 Volumes (New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906), 506.

Was appointed as one of the Judges in Moshe’s absence Exodus 24:14.

Exodus38:8 He made the basin and the base from bronze, with mirrors from the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

Exodus 38:8 And he made the Laver of brass, and its base of brass, of the mirrors of the women who come to pray at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance. - The Targums of Onkelos

J. W. Etheridge, trans., The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch; With the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: From the Chaldee (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.; Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green., 1862–1865), Ex 38.

There is 2 very good explanations for this and I think both are important to consider.

RASHI From the mirrors of the women who performed tasks. The Israelite women had mirrors that they used when they were adorning themselves. But they did not hesitate to bring even these as contributions to the Tabernacle. Moses spurned them as having been made for the purposes of the evil inclination. The Holy One told him: Accept them! They are more precious to Me than all the rest. For by means of them the women produced vast armies of Israelites in Egypt. When their husbands were exhausted from the ruthless toil imposed on them by the Egyptians, they would take them something to eat and drink, and would bring along the mirrors. Each of them would look at herself and her husband in the mirror, and entice him, saying, “I’m better looking than you are!” In this way they would arouse their husbands’ desire and have relations with them, conceive, and bear children: “Under the apple tree I roused you” (Song 8:5). So the words of our verse can also be translated: “By means of the mirrors, the women made armies!” The laver was made from these mirrors because of its role in maintaining peace between a husband and his wife. For it is from the water in this laver that the woman who is suspected by her jealous husband, because she has been alone with another man, drinks to prove her innocence.

IBN EZRA The laver. Its dimensions are not given, as are those of the lavers built by Solomon. It was simply made of as much copper as all the mirrors that were brought. The stand. Naturally this was made of the correct size to fit the laver. The mirrors of the women who performed tasks. These were the skillful women who spun the five types of cloth previously mentioned. Or it may refer to the women who came regularly to pray at the tent, and to study the commandments. They had abandoned all the vanities of the world; hence they gave up their mirrors, which they no longer needed.

Michael Carasik, ed., Exodus: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition, The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2005), 324.

Exodus 38:24 The entirety of the gold that was used for the work of the Sanctuary, including the gold of the offering, was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the Sanctuary shekel.

Approximately 2175 lbs plus 730 shekels of gold.

The gold, silver, and copper that was used in the Tabernacle was much less than that used in the First Temple (as the Book of Kings makes clear), and that used in Herod’s Temple was greater still. Yet the Shekhinah was much more constantly present in Moses’ Tabernacle than in the First Temple, while in the Second Temple it was not present at all. For “the Lord values those who fear Him” (Ps. 147:11), and their deeds—that is why He dwells among them.

Michael Carasik, ed., Exodus: Introduction and Commentary, trans. Michael Carasik, First edition, The Commentators’ Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2005), 327.

Haftorah Portion Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

A large part of the Haftorah is detailing the activities of the Prince or Ruler.

Why does the Prince or Ruler have a different obligation for offerings than the rest of the people?

Ezekiel 46:13“You are to prepare a lamb of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering to Adonai daily—morning by morning you are to prepare it. 14Also you will prepare a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour—a grain offering to Adonai continually. It is perpetual statute.

What can we learn from this to apply in our lives?

What do you understand “It is perpetual statute.” to mean?

Ezekiel 46:18The prince must not take from the people’s inheritance, evicting them wrongfully out of their property. He must give inheritance to his sons out of his own property, so that My people will not be displaced, anyone from his own property.”

What does the limitation on the power of the government in Israel do for the common person? What does this setup for the authority structure?

Though the Prince is appointed by HaShem he does not replace HaShem. Though the Prince is the guardian of the land he does not own the land. Though the Prince is the leader he is still an inheritor of the promise and the land just as all the other people.

Basorah Portion Luke 22:1-13

Luke22:2 And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.

The Holy Bible: King James Version., electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. (Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), Lk 22:2.

Who are the chief priests and scribes?

Chief Priests where the Sadduccees.

Scribes where the lawyers and government officials.

W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H. Box, The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue: An Introduction to the Study of Judaism from the New Testament Period (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907), 120.

Neither group are the Pharisees.

Luke22:3Then satan entered into Judah, the one from Kriot, one of the twelve.

What implications do you gather from this verse, specifically in the word “Then”? some version may use the word “and”.