Generosity of Heart: Parashat Vayaq’hel-P’qudei/Shabbat Parah

Posted on by

0

tired

Parashat Vayaq’hel-P’qudei/Shabbat Parah 
Exodus 35:1 – 40:38

Moses gathers the entire community (-vayaq’hel) to organize them for their national project of creating a sacred home in which God will dwell among them. He calls to everyone who is generous of heart to contribute their materials and their time and effort toward realizing this goal. Then the Torah tells us a seemingly simple fact: “And all of the community of Israel exited from before Moses’ presence.” (Ex. 35:20) While this report sounds unremarkable, it is really exceptional. In all the many times that the Torah tells us of Moses instructing the Israelites – throughout the Torah – we are never told of the  prosaic fact that the Israelites then leave after Moses is finished speaking! Of course they leave! We understand that they will go to their homes or other places and resume their lives after hearing Moses. Why, here, is it necessary to tell us this obvious fact?

A few commentators have noticed this peculiar verse and they have offered various speculations as to its significance. Abraham Ibn Ezra, the great Biblical commentator of the 12th century, who was committed to explaining the plain meaning of the Torah, offers a down-to-earth, yet surprising insight. He deduces: “We learn from this that the entire community of Israel came to the Tent of Meeting one group after another.” Ibn Ezra notices that Moses insisted on telling “the entire community of Israel” (Ex. 35:1 and Ex. 35:4) about this work. Ibn Ezra calculated that it would be impossible to fit all of the community into the courtyard of the Tent. Thus, he reasoned, Moses must have had to collect group after group and go over the same information, again and again. We always notice that these Torah portions that tell us of the construction of the Tabernacle are repetitious. But Ibn Ezra’s comment tells us that we have been spared many more repetitions!

Our verse means to convey that, finally(!), the last group has heard Moses’ call and has left the Tent. This explicit mention of this seemingly unremarkable fact masks a remarkable element of the story. How many times did Moses have to meticulously go over his instructions? How many times did he have to energetically try to rouse the people? How many times did he have to patiently field all questions that each separate group brought up, again and again?

We are explicitly and eloquently told about, and we are meant to marvel at, the great generosity of spirit that animated the Israelites in their response to this challenge to build a Tent of Meeting. But our seemingly extraneous verse can alert us to another example that the Torah glosses over – the example of the largeness and generosity of heart of Moses himself.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein


Subscribe to Rabbi Greenstein’s weekly d’var Torah

Image: collage of commercial stock images. authorship unavailable.

Latest posts by Rabbi David Greenstein (see all)

What do you think?