Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 27 Adar 1, 5784
Parsha Va-Yakhel: (Exodus 35:1 – 38:20)
Fifth Portion: Exodus 36:20 – 37:16

Good morning!  It’s Thursday, and we are getting for the new moon of Adar II! The month we enter into Purim. We are coming to a close of the first part of the celebration of the work we’ve done this past year, and we start ANOTHER month of celebration!  Let’s dig in to what the Torah says!  The context for today is Bezalel’s continued manufacture of the tabernacle – putting all the pieces together:

20And he made the planks for the Mishkan of acacia wood, upright.

21Ten cubits [was] the length of each plank, and a cubit and a half [was] the width of each plank.

22Each plank had two square pegs, rung like, one even with the other; so did he make for all the planks of the Mishkan.

23And he made the planks for the Mishkan, twenty planks for the southern side.

So we are seeing the dimensions starting to take form. The southern side was 20 planks.

24And he made forty silver sockets under the twenty planks; two sockets under one plank for its two square pegs, and two sockets under one plank for its two square pegs.

25And for the second side of the Mishkan on the northern side he made twenty planks.

The northern side was ALSO 20 planks.

26And their forty silver sockets: two sockets under one plank and two sockets under one plank.

27And for the western end of the Mishkan he made six planks.

The west end was 6 planks. So we are starting to see the dimensions forming, right? 20 planks north/south, 6 planks west.

28And he made two planks at the corners of the Mishkan at the end.

29And they were matched evenly from below, and together they matched at its top, [to be put] into the one ring; so did he make for both of them; for the two corners.

30And there were eight planks and their silver sockets, sixteen sockets two sockets [under one plank and] two sockets under one plank.

The eastern side had a door, so only 1 plank in from the corner.  The doorway made up the other 4 planks.

So we have a 20 x 6 plank rectangle for the tabernacle; 120 square planks.

31And he made bars of acacia wood, five for the planks of one side of the Mishkan,

32and five bars for the planks of the second side of the Mishkan, and five bars for the planks of the [rear] side of the Mishkan, on the westward end.

33And he made the middle bar to penetrate in the midst of the planks from one end to the other end.

So now we get a height. 5 bars.  A total area would seem to be 120 square planks by 5 bars = 600 total square planks/bars.

That’s interesting, isn’t it? Considering the Torah has 613 mitzvahs, right? If we count Moses and the 12 tribes? We get the 13 people in the tabernacle.

More math – there are about 206 bones in the human body. If we look at the creation process – a man and woman have a baby – that’s 206 x 3 = 618.

I could be stretching here -but it does seem interesting these are all so close.

Let’s keep going:

34And he overlaid the planks with gold, and their rings he made of gold as holders for the bars, and he overlaid the bars with gold.

35And he made the dividing curtain of blue, purple, and crimson wool, and twisted fine linen; the work of a master weaver he made it, in a [woven] cherubim design.

36And he made for it four pillars of acacia wood, and he overlaid them with gold, their hooks [were] gold, and he cast for them four silver sockets.

37And he made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue, purple, and crimson wool, and twisted fine linen the work of an embroiderer,

38and its five pillars and their hooks, and he overlaid their tops and their bands with gold, and their five sockets were copper.

So we finish making the entire tabernacle. We now get into the items being placed inside

37:1Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

That’s 5.625 cubed cubits in area. Just if you are paying attention.

2And he overlaid it with pure gold from inside and from outside, and he made for it a golden crown all around.

3And he cast four golden rings for it upon its four corners, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side.

4And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

5And he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark.

6And he made an ark cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

7And he made two golden cherubim he made them of hammered work, from the two ends of the ark cover,

8one cherub from the one end and the other cherub from the other end; from the ark cover he made the cherubim from its two ends.

9The cherubim had their wings spread upwards, shielding the ark cover with their wings, with their faces toward one another; [turned] toward the ark cover were the faces of the cherubim.

So something interesting here. The Torah mentions the Cherubim and their position. And not only mentions it – repeats it: The cherubim were facing one another. That is something we need to pay attention to. Why?

Given what we’ve been talking about, it seems important that the Torah is saying the shield within us – over our hearts (the ark is representative of our hearts) is not just guarded by one cherubim. It is two – working TOGETHER in Unity. They can represent masculine/feminine or yin/yang – but they were together shielding our heart.  Their wings a shield.

I think this is the takeaway – we need to navigate our internal conflict as we work to love ourselves and others. What are your thoughts?

10And he made a table of acacia wood two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.

11He overlaid it with pure gold, and he made for it a golden crown all around.

12And he made for it a frame a handbreadth [wide] all around, and he made a golden crown for its frame all around.

The ark represents our heart – is it possible the table represents our head? The crown of the frame would seem to indicate our royalty.

13And he cast for it four golden rings, and he placed the rings on the four corners that are on its four legs.

14The rings were opposite the frame [as] holders for the poles [with which] to carry the table.

15And he made the poles of acacia wood, and he overlaid them with gold, to carry the table.

16And he made the implements that are on the table: its forms, its spoons, its half pipes, and its supports with which it will be covered of pure gold.

Finally, within the body – in the holiest of places – the instruments – the forms, the spoons, the pipes and supports – I wonder if those are connected to our senses?  Spoons indicates our sense of taste. Pipes may indicate our sense of smell. Forms may indicate our sense of hearing, and the supports could indicate our sense of being grounded in touch?

These are all the senses which our mind takes in data.

We are seeing the building of the heart/mind coherence within us, aren’t we? What are your thoughts?

Here is my thought from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Adar I, 5782

Todays portion continues the repetition of building the tabernacle. However, this repetition is the actual building of the tabernacle, whereas last time it was Hashem’s instructions on how.

We start with the beams made of acacia wood, with pegs. Then we move to the crossbars.

It seems like a basic construction; but it is a little backwards. Yesterday we started with the covering/roof. Then we see the walls and crossbars (the framing).

My understanding of construction is the foundation gets laid. Then the walls, then the roof.

I’m reflecting on the order here. One takeaway is the idea that the tabernacle was supposed to be temporary. It wasn’t built for long term stops.

If the tabernacle is a representation of our bodies, it would seem to indicate that Hashem is starting with our roof (our heads/brains). Then looking at the structure of our body – are we taking care of the beams? These seem to be important questions for us to ask ourselves.

But then, something cool happens – once the structure is set up, THEN the beams got coated with gold! The divisions within the tabernacle were setup – the partition. Then the entrance curtain. And again, after each step, Bezalel coated it with gold.

It is interesting again the order here; we are building the structure. In the instructions, if I am remembering correctly, the ark and instruments of the tabernacle were described in detail first.

But here, they are the last things to be constructed.

The portion ends with the building of the ark; and we are reminded that most of the tabernacle was wood covered with gold. But we learn that the cover of the ark was made of pure gold!

Rabbi Mordecai Joseph Leiner of Izbica had this to say;

“All the Tabernacle apparatus was made of acacia wood inlaid with gold, except for the lid covering for the holy ark, and the candelabrum, which were both made from pure gold.

The Tabernacle and its apparatus were modeled on the human body, each structural element corresponding to a different limb- the lid corresponding to the heart, and the candelabrum, to the eyes. Both of these must be especially pure, and not corrupted.

With the other limbs we say, “Eventually you will act for the sake of heaven. Keep trying. But with the eyes and heart you have to be especially careful, always.”

That is a really interesting take on this process. Our eyes and heart are the most critical components of our body.

What are your thoughts?