Vayakhel is one of those portions that, like the genealogies, can be hard to get through. But there has to be something important about all these lists, because we like to think that G-d doesn’t include information in the Torah just for kicks. Based on the heavy emphasis on the details of the Mishkan{Tabernacle}, there must be something significant about exactly how it was built. On a closer look, one detail in particular stands out. Although most of the instructions for building the Mishkan are physical, the first instruction that Moshe gives his community is this:
This is the thing which the L-rd commanded, saying, Take from among you an offering to the L-rd: whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering to the L-rd (35: 4-5).[1] | וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה" לֵאמֹר : קְחוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם תְּרוּמָה לַה" כֹּל נְדִיב לִבּוֹ יְבִיאֶהָ אֵת תְּרוּמַת ה"[2] |
Variations on the phrase לב נדיב(“willing heart”) occur repeatedly throughout the rest of the parsha, with three points of emphasis during the initial construction phase:
And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the L-rd’s offering for the work of the Tent of Meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. (35: 21) | וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ אֹתוֹ הֵבִיאוּ אֶת תְּרוּמַת ה" לִמְלֶאכֶת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וּלְכָל עֲבֹדָתוֹ וּלְבִגְדֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ |
And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing of heart…(35: 22) | וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל הַנָּשִׁים כֹּל נְדִיב לֵב הֵבִיאוּ חָח וָנֶזֶם וְטַבַּעַת וְכוּמָז כָּל כְּלִי זָהָב וְכָל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיף תְּנוּפַת זָהָב לַה" |
The children of Yisrae’el brought a willing offering to the L-rd, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the L-rd had commanded by the hand of Moshe, to be made (35: 29) | כָּל אִישׁ וְאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָדַב לִבָּם אֹתָם לְהָבִיא לְכָל הַמְּלָאכָה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה" לַעֲשׂוֹת בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה הֵבִיאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל נְדָבָה לַה" |
Eventually, in verse 5 of the next chapter, Moshe has to tell the people to stop. When the people bring G-d the offerings from the willingness of their hearts, there are so many gifts that the artisans building the Mishkan are overwhelmed.
To check the significance of this detail, we can look at the instructions for the other holy structure that G-d commands the Israelites to build. In Vayakhel’s Haftarah in I Kings, we find another long list of description surrounding how Beis Hamikdash{Holy Temple} was built. This time, what stands out is not something present, but instead something missing. Unlike the building of the Mishkan, here the description includes only the physical details – the materials and measurements of the Temple, and nothing more. The haftarah gives no comment on what the condition was of the hearts of those who built the temple. But looking deeper into the surrounding material in the rest of I Kings, we can make an educated guess.
In chapter 5, we learn that Solomon’s construction plans involved sending shifts of thirty thousand Israelites, under forced labor, to work in a foreign land for the sake of the house of G-d. To Solomon and to those who came after, the first Temple was a symbol of G-d’s presence in an often painful world. But to the Israelites who were sent into exile, however briefly, to work in stone quarries for the sake of its construction, G-d’s Temple was probably a source of their pain, not the reprieve.
Were the Israelites who gave freely of their possessions and the work of their hands less obligated to do so than the Israelites who were sent in shifts to build the Temple? It doesn’t seem that way. Each instance required resources and manpower to complete a necessary task. The Tabernacle had to be fashioned, the Temple had to be built, and each according to a highly specific blueprint. The Mishkan required blue, purple, and scarlet linen and goats’ hair; the Temple required cedar wood imported from Lebanon. But while Solomon fulfilled the temple’s construction needs by means of coercion, Moses accomplished equally intricate and demanding requirements by the willingness of his people’s hearts.
However, the parsha still makes it clear that the significance of one’s motivation does not outweigh the importance of what one does. Even before Moses instructs the people to give as their hearts move them, he instructs them in the laws of Shabbat, a serious obligation regardless of however motivated the Israelites do or do not feel about it. Laws like these, and halacha as a whole, can sometimes feel even more overwhelming in their details than Vayakhel: what we eat, when we pray, which shoe we put on first in the morning. This week in Princeton NJ, candlelighting is at 5:27 pm, not 5:25, and we will cut our singing short at seudah shlishit to make Ma’ariv at 6:28. In my religious observance, like when reading Vayakhel, sometimes I get the urge to ditch all these minute requirements and skip to “the good stuff.” Forget about how I put on my shoes – why can’t I just not sell a poor guy for them and call it quits?
But like the details of the Mishkan outlined in Vayakhel, maybe the lengthy details of halacha are one way G-d helps us internalize that both what we do and how we do it are important. Putting on my right shoe first might not seem as important as social justice, but observing the “small things” creates a mutually reinforcing system with the “big things” that preserves the importance of the details of both. And Vayakhel reminds us that one of these details is the motivation of our hearts. It is that motivation that turns halacha, the endless instructions for how to build our structured religious lives, from tedious labor into a joyous and overwhelming expression of devotion to our G-d.
(Almost) Shabbat Shalom,
Rivka
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