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Please include Israel's
captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam Baumel,
Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah Katz, Ron ben
Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever, Gilad ben Aviva Shalit. Friday, 26 Adar 5770 – March 12, 2010 The
Midrash (Shemot Rabba), commenting on the first verse of Parashat
Pekudei, relates that after the Mishkan was
constructed, Moshe found that were some excess materials that had been
donated toward the Mishkan but were
not needed for the construction. God
instructed Moshe to use these extra materials to build a “Mishkan la-eidut” (“Sanctuary of Testimony”). The Midrash does not clarify what exactly
this structure was. Some writers assume that the
Midrash refers to a building that served as a study hall where Moshe would
teach Torah. However, Rav Yaakov
Ettlinger (author of Arukh La-ner) is cited as explaining this comment
differently, as referring to a gold plating for the kodesh ha-kodashim
(interior chamber of the Mishkan).
The Mishna in Masekhet Shekalim (4:2) tells that in the times of the Beit
Ha-mikdash, leftover funds collected through the annual machatzit
ha-shekel tax were used to make a gold plating for the walls and floor of
the kodesh ha-kodashim. Thus,
Rav Ettlinger suggested, it stands to reason that this was also what God
instructed Moshe to do with the leftover materials donated toward the Mishkan. A different Midrashic passage
tells of other “leftovers” from the donations. Rabbenu Bachya cites a comment from the Midrash
that when Moshe prepared the accounting of the precious metals donated toward
the Mishkan, as the Torah records in the first section of Parashat
Pekudei, he found some silver unaccounted for. We read that each of the nation’s 603,550
adult men donated a mandatory half-shekel tax toward the Mishkan, and the silver
collected from 600,000 of them, which amounted to one hundred kikar of silver, was used to make the sockets which formed the Mishkan’s foundation (38:27). The
remaining 3,550 men donated a total of 1,775 shekels of silver (a half-shekel
for each man). The Midrash relates
that when Moshe prepared his accounting, he at first could not remember for
what these 1,775 shekels of silver were used.
A Heavenly voice then announced that the extra silver, which was not
needed for the foundation of the Mishkan, was used as adornments for the pillars in
the courtyard of the Mishkan. Rav Zev Wolf, in his Birkat
Shalom (London, 1958), makes an insightful observation concerning these
two “leftovers” – the extra gold used for the kodesh ha-kodashim, and the extra silver used to decorate
the pillars in the courtyard. The
surplus gold went toward beautifying the inner chamber of the Mishkan,
whereas the excess silver was used in the outermost area, in the courtyard. What this might represent is the need to
properly balance the needs of the “kodesh
ha-kodashim” and the needs of
the “courtyard.” We must utilize our
resources for strengthening both the “sacred chambers,” our institutions of
prayer and Torah learning, as well as the “courtyard” – general communal
needs. Neither may be neglected in
deference to the other. Even though
the kodesh ha-kodashim served its role without the gold plating,
God instructed Moshe to use the extra gold to adorn and enhance the
chamber. Likewise, even though the
pillars in the courtyard could stand without adornments, the extra silver
that was needed for the Mishkan’s
foundation was used for the purpose of decorating the courtyard and thus
enhancing the experience of visitors to the Mishkan. Both goals – improving our “inner chambers”
and enhancing the lives of those outside the Mishkan – are
important and worthwhile endeavors that must be properly balanced against one
another. David Silverberg |
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COMPLETE SALT ARCHIVES CAN BE FOUND AT: www.vbm-torah.org/salt-archives.html (c) 2010 Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion.
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