א"ז ישיר מאת הרב אבנר בן אברהם זרמי: Parshath Va-Yaqhél-Pëqudei (Exodus XXXV,1-XL,38) 3/12/10

Transliteration Scheme

Though most connected passages quoted from Hebrew and Aramaic sources have been written in the original spelling, the following transliteration scheme has also been used:

א alef Not indicated at the beginning of words; medially and finally, indicated by apostrophe (’).
ב beyth With a dagesh, “b” in “boy”; without a dagesh, “v” in “vow”
ג gimmel Always “g” in “go”
ד dalet Always “d” in “do”
ה hé “H” as in “hay” initially and medially; finally, only where pronounced (i.e., when hé serves only to indicate the presence of a final vowel, it is not indicated)
ו vav When used consonantally, “v” in “vow”; when used vocalically, see below
ז zayin Always “z” in “zoo”
ח cheith Always “ch” as is “Bach”
ט teth Always “t” in “toy”
י yud Consonantally, “y” in “yes”; vocalically, see below.
כ,ך kaf With dagesh, “k” in “key”; without dagesh, “ch” in “Bach”.
ל lamed Always “l” in “leaf”
מ,ם mem Always “m’ in “man”
נ,ן nun Always “n” in “noon”
ס samech Always “s” in “sit”
ע ‘ayin Always indicated by single open quotation mark (‘).
פ, ף pé With dagesh, “p” in “pot”; without, “f” in “life”
צ,ץ tzadi Always “tz” in “Schultz”
ק quf Always “q” as in “Qur’an”
ר reish Always “r” in “row”
ש shin, sin When shin, always “sh” in “shoe”; when sin, always “s” in “sit”
ת tav With dagesh, always “t” in “to”; without dagesh, always “th” in “thin”

An intervocalic consonant with dagesh is generally indicated by doubling the consonant (e.g. shabbath, as opposed to the verb shavath).
Vowels: The vowels in general have the “Sephardic” values (though tzere is usually marked “é”, except when it is written as a diphthong, “ei” or “ey.” When yud is used to indicate a diphthong, it is transliterated “y” if it one of the root consonants, otherwise “i”.
Whether or not shva na is specifically indicated depends whether it is usually pronounced in contemporary speech; as a rule, prefixes with shva na are written with an apostrophe, e.g. b’, k’ l’, m’ ; prefixes with other vowel marks are set off by dashes, e.g. ha-aretz, ba-‘am.

Parshath Va-Yaqhél-Pëqudei (Exodus XXXV,1-XL,38) 3/12/10

A.

Our parasha begins ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל לאמר אלהם אלה הדברים אשר צוה ד' לעשת אתם (“And Moshe convened the entire community of bënei Yisra’él to say to them, 'These are the things which Ha-Shem has commanded to do them'”), and goes on to discuss the prohibition of mëlachoth on shabbath: ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהי' לכם קדש שבת שבתון לד' כל העשה בו מלאכה יומת: לא תבערו אש בכל משבתיכם ביום השבת: (“Six days mëlacha will be done, and on the seventh day you shall have a holy institution [qodesh], a sabbath of rest [shabbath shabbathon] for Ha-Shem; anyone who does on it a mëlacha will be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day”).

Here there is a break in the text, a paragraph, if you like, and the next paragraph begins: ויאמר משה אל כל עדת בני ישראל לאמר זה הדבר אשר צוה ד' לאמר (“And Moshe said to the entire community of bënei Yisra’él to say, 'This is the thing which Ha-Shem has commanded to say'”), which introduces the recapitulation of the donations of materials and skilled labor, and the production of the various objects and components of the Mishkan, culminating in the erection of the Mishkan, which takes up the rest of the double parasha.

Hazal tell us that the presence of the vav ha-hibbur (“and”) at the head of each of these passages indicates a continuity and connection between the passage and what has gone before it (עיי' למשל שמות רבה פ"ל סי' ב'); hence, we are justified in asking why the prohibition of performing mëlachoth on shabbath, which had already been taught at Mara (Exodus XV, 25, Rashi ad loc.) and again at Mt Sinai (ibid., XX, 8-11) is yet again repeated here, and how it is connected to last week’s parasha, which was largely concerned with the incident of the Golden Calf and its aftermath, and with the account of the construction of the Mishkan.

Furthermore, while we are asking, we note that Moshe first proclaims אלה הדברים אשר צוה ד' לעשת אתם (“these are the things which Ha-Shem has commanded to do them”), yet the prohibition of mëlachoth on shabbath is a matter of שב ואל תעשה (“sit and do not do”), i.e., refraining from action, rather than positively doing something. What, then, was Moshe getting at?

B.

Let us deal with the second relationship first. The Mëchilta points out that, after having twice elaborated the laws of shabbath, G-d told Moshe, ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתכם (“And [Israel] will make for Me a sanctuary and I shall dwell in their midst”; ibid., XXV, 8). As Ramban points out in his introductory remarks to parshath Tëruma, the construction of the Mishkan and, later, the Béyth ha-Miqdash, enabled the purpose for all of history up to that point, the permanent residence of the Shëchina, the “Divine Presence,” in this world amongst His Holy Nation. One might imagine that such a lofty purpose might override the sabbath, at least temporarily.
Not so, said Moshe: אלה הדברים אשר צוה ד' לעשת אתם, ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה – בחול ולא בשבת (“These are the things which Ha-Shem has commanded to do them. Six days mëlacha will be done – on weekdays, and not on the sabbath”). The sabbath’s testimony to the world that Ha-Shem created and reigns over the universe thus takes precedence even over the imperative of mëlecheth ha-Mishkan.

But if the above is true, our attention is drawn to the undeniable fact that the recapitulation of the mëlecheth ha-Mishkan is independently prefaced by the words זה הדבר אשר צוה ד' לאמר (“this is the thing which Ha-Shem has commanded to say”), suggesting that the dëvarim in the first passage refer to shabbath, and the davar in the second passage refers to the Mishkan.
What is more, if we look at the next verse, which prohibits kindling a fire in one’s house on shabbath, we conclude that it surely has nothing directly to do with the mëlecheth ha-Mishkan. Why is it there?

Though we find the prohibition of mëlachoth on shabbath mentioned several times in the written Torah, a transgression so serious that, as we see from our own passage, it can incur a death sentence, G-d forbid, it is striking that the term mëlacha is nowhere defined in the written Torah. What, precisely, a mëlacha is would seem to be a vital issue to anyone wishing to observe shabbath properly and avoid possible execution!

The Talmud derives the 39 fundamental categories of mëlacha – avoth mëlacha – from the various categories of work performed in fashioning the Mishkan, summarized in the rest of our parasha (עיי' שבת מ"ט: וע'.), and Hazal spy an allusion to this fact in the two phrases mentioned: רבי חנינא דצפורין בשם רבי אבהו, אל"ף – חד, למ"ד – תלתין, ה"א חמשה, "דבר" חד "דברים" תרין, מיכן לארבעים חסר אחת מלאכות שכתוב בתורה (“Rabbi Hanina of Sepphoris [says] in the name of Rabbi Abbahu, [the numerical value of] alef [the first letter of élleh, ‘these’] is one, that of lamed is thirty, that of hé is five; davar is one, dëvarim is [minimally] two; from here [we see a reference to] forty less one mëlachoth written in the Torah”; ירושלמי שבת פ"ז ה"ב, עיי' קרבן העידה שם).

We see, therefore, that the connexion between shëmirath shabbath and specifically our account of the Mishkan is organic and whole (וע"ע רמב"ן וכלי יקר על אתר).

But how is shabbath related to the incident of the Golden Calf?

D.

To understand the connection, it is necessary to establish that, whatever Aharon’s pure and holy motives in fashioning the image (which Ramban ad loc. discusses at some length), the fact is that the ‘erev rav, the “mixed multitude” who had left Egypt with the bënei Yisra’él, had already deified Moshe in their own minds, creating an illicit shittuf, a “artnership,” as it were, between a deified human being and the ineffable. unique Creator. To them, and those influenced by them, the calf was a substitute for Moshe in this shittuf, as is evident from their words: אלה אלהיך ישראל אשר העלוך מארץ מצרים (“These are your gods, Israel, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt”: XXXII, 4) which, of course, constitutes idolatry.

With this in mind, we learn: כל המודה בעבודת כוכבים ככופר בכל התורה כולה (“Anyone who grants credence to idolatry is like one who denies the entire Torah”; ספרי פר' ראה פיסקא ב' וע"ע פר' שלח פיסקא ה'). The entire point of Mattan Torah and the whole of the historic process which had led up to it is negated by the acceptance of some other deity alongside or instead of Ha-Shem, Creator of Heaven and Earth. Hence, the incident of the Golden Calf had the effect of nullifying, as it were, the full panoply of 613 mitzvoth in the Torah.

But Hazal also tell us, in several places: שקולה שבת כנגד כל המצות (“Shabbath is weighed equally with all the [rest of the] mitzvoth”; עיי' למשל ירושלמי ברכות פ"א ה"ה, שמות רבה פכ"ה סי' ט"ז וזוה"ק ח"ב פ"ט.).

Viewed in this light, Moshe’s declaration of אלה הדברים אשר צוה ד' לעשת אתם (“These are the things which Ha-Shem has commanded to do them”) becomes an exhortation to tëshuva, a recognition that the major significant step back to performing mitzvoth lies in the abstentions of shëmirath shabbath.

We have thus answered our three questions, and in the course of doing so, affirmed the wisdom underlying the common Jewish custom or referring to seriously observant people as shomér shabbath.

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