Vayyakhel

Hi,

In many years this portion is doubled-up with next week's Pekudei, but this year is a leap year, providing us with extra Shabbatot, so Vayyakhel and Pekudei are spread across two weeks.

Moshe descended from Sinai on Yom Kippur with the second set of Tablets, as recorded in last week's portion, and now the Jews were ready to begin building the Mishkan, which would be their Temple in the desert and for their initial entry into Israel. On the day after Yom Kippur, the Jews were instructed to keep Shabbat - and that's the way Vayyakhel begins. The Jews needed the instruction to keep Shabbat in order to teach that even construction of the Mishkan would not override Shabbat.

Moshe then communicated all of the building instructions to the Jews, and he recruited craftsmen. The Torah specifies that both men and women volunteered and contributed their materials and their work. Betzalel and Ahaliav were commissioned to lead the work.

The craftsmen soon informed Moshe that the the nation was bringing more supplies than were needed. The fact that they brought extra was, itself, an atonement for the spirit of volunteerism which was involved in creating the Golden Calf.

The Torah then goes out of its way to list everything the Jews made, even though all of these items had already been listed in Gd's instructions to Moshe. This redundancy serves to praise those who donated their time, and to show the value of their efforts.

Moshe was the one to actually assemble the Tabernacle; our Sages teach that Gd specifically left this job to him, so he would have a role in the physical creation of the Tabernacle.

Have a great day,
Mordechai