Readings for Saturday, March 9, 2022
Shabbat Shekalim
Today is Shabbat Shekalim which means we read from two scrolls. The first scroll is for the regular Shabbat portion. The second scroll is the special reading for Shabbat Shekalim (see notes below for further explanation).
First Scroll
Vayakhel
(Assembled)
35:1-38:20 Shemot (Exodus)
Vayakhel is the tenth sedrah in the Book of Shemot. It takes its name from the first Hebrew word
in the first sentence of the reading.
“Vayakhel Moshe” or “Moses assembled (Vayakhel) all the congregation of the children of Israel and said
unto them....” This comparatively brief
sedrah describes the actual building of the Tabernacle and all of its
furnishings. It appears to be a
recapitulation of the information presented in Terumah. According to the sages, Terumah described the
plan. Vayakhel describes the actual
construction of the holy dwelling places and its vessels. As the commentators in Etz Hayim point
out, Terumah began with a description of the items in the Mishkan and ended
with a description of the Mishkan. In
Vayakhel, the order is reversed which would be logical. First you build the edifice and then you make
the things that will go inside. (First
you build the house, then you buy the furniture.) The basic explication of the text will follow
the divisions in Etz Hayim combined with sub-headings from the Stone
Chumash as well as a couple from the author.
Together, they provide definition for the reading while avoiding the
numbing detail found in some other texts.
The parenthesized notations indicate earlier mention of these items in
Shemot.
The Convening of the People - 35:1-19
The People’s
Response - 35:20-29;
The Master
Craftsmen - 35:30-36:1;
· The
Sabbath;
· The
Contributions for the Tabernacle;
· The
Construction of the Tabernacle.
The sedrah
begins with Moshe assembling “Kol Adat B’nai Yisrael,” literally “all the
congregation of the children of Israel.”
He has returned from his second trip to the top of Mount Sinai. He has returned with the new set of
Tablets. So now it is time to reassemble
the whole nation; to re-kindle the original spirit that had existed when the
whole nation had stood at Sinai before the Golden Calf episode. Moshe has called them together to begin the
building of the Mishkan. But he starts
with a repetition of the commands concerning the observance of Shabbat. From this we learn that the observance of
Shabbat is of critical importance; it is even more important than building the
Tabernacle, the Ark and the holy vessels.
The Overabundance of Donations - 36:2-7
The generosity
of the people was overwhelming. Moshe
finally had to call a halt. He had what
was needed. To go beyond that would be
the kind of greed or self-aggrandizement associated with potentates, not Moshe
or the Lord he served. This generation
stands in stark contrast to the behavior of the leaders described earlier
(35:27-28). They made their donations of
precious stones for the breastplate only after the rest of the people had
brought their donations. According to
some commentators they waited until last for what they thought was a good
reason. They assumed that there would be
a shortfall in the offerings and they planned to make up for whatever had not
been given. If this was their fear, then
they should have lead by example - if they had made generous contributions at
the outset they would have encouraged the rest of the nation to do
likewise. In the game of life, leaders
ante up first.
The Work of Construction - 36:8-36:37
· Making
the Curtains;
· Making
the Cover;
· Making
the Planks and Their Components;
· Making
the Partitions;
· Making
the Screen;
The Manufacture of the Furniture and
Accessories - 37:1-38:20
· Making
the Ark - 25:10-21;
· Making
the Cover;
· Making
the Table - 25:23-30;
· Making
the Menorah - 25:31-40;
· Making
the Incense Altar - 30:1-10;
· Making
the Oil and Incense - 30:22-37;
· Making
the Elevation-Offering Altar - 27:1-8;
· Making
the Laver;
· Making
the Courtyard - 27:9-19;
· Making
the Screen.
Themes
Commandments
114. The
prohibition against making a fire on Shabbat (35:13): “You shall kindle no fire throughout your
settlements on Shabbat.”
Biblical
Literacy by Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin
Shabbat
In reading
Shemot, we have seen laws pertaining to Shabbat given over and over again. Considering the obvious importance of
Shabbat, it is quite fitting that the last commandment in Shemot should be one
concerning the observance of our most frequent holiday. The placement of the commandment just before
the description of the building of the Mishkan and its furnishings provides the
source for the Rabbis to deduce the 39 types of activities that constitute work
and are thus prohibited on Shabbat.
According to the Oral Law, the prohibition against “kindling any fire”
means you cannot create a fire on Shabbat but you can enjoy the heat and light
from a fire started before Shabbat. The
Karaites, an eighth century sect founded in Babylonia, rejected the Oral
Law. Amongst other things, this meant
they had no fires burning in their homes at all on Shabbat. In modern times, the question has arisen if
turning on an electric light violates this prohibition. For the Orthodox it does. For Reform it is a meaningless question. And as usual, the Conservative Movement is
split.
Women
Once again the
Torah provides examples of the importance of women. They contribute along with the men when Moshe
makes his request. There are those who
say that it was really the women who gave the jewelry because the men had
wasted theirs on the Golden Calf. Also,
it was their mirrors that provided the copper for the holy vessels. Finally, there is the explicit mention of the
“skilled women” who did the spinning and weaving.
The
Sukkah and the Mishkan
According to the
commentators, Moshe told the people about building the Mishkan on the day after
Yom Kippur. In English we call the
Mishkan the Tabernacle. It is customary
to start building a Sukkah after one comes home from the synagogue at the end
of Yom Kippur (which is technically the day after Yom Kippur). In English we call the holiday of Sukkoth The
Feast of Tabernacles. Is there a
connection between these two building activities? Supposedly we build these booths to remind
ourselves of the time our ancestors spent in the Wilderness. Is a Sukkah a “poor man’s” Mishkan? This is a question you can discuss at Sukkoth
when you sit in your Sukkah.
Assembled
The same Hebrew
word that begins this sedrah is also found in Shemot 32:1. In the earlier reading which describes the
making of the Golden Calf, the text states, “the people assembled against Aaron”
and demanded that he “make us a god.…”
Here, Moshe assembled the community to tell them about building the
Tabernacle and to prove that God had forgiven them for the Sin of the Golden
Calf. Once again, it is not just what
you do, but why you do it that matters.
More
on the Mishkan
The Torah spends
quite a bit of time describing the Mishkan or Sanctuary. The question one must ask is why the Torah
devotes so much space to describing a temporary edifice that will only be used
until the building of the Temple. Why is
so much time and attention devoted to what is a “one shot deal?” When the Temple was destroyed and the Jews
were exiled to Babylonia, why didn’t they build a Mishkan? Again, when the Second Temple was destroyed,
why didn’t anybody build a Mishkan since they had the complete blueprint? (In fact, they used an edifice that is not
mentioned in the Torah - the Synagogue or Shul.) This is your chance to supply the answer
because I do not have one.
The Shabbos Goy
“Reb Nachum of
Chernobyl once spent Shabbat at the home of Reb Shimon of Shlomo… In accordance with the custom of the
household a long candle was lit before sunset which was to last until morning,
in order to give light to anyone wanting to rise and study Torah before
daybreak. A little after midnight, the
host and his family saw Reb Nachum groping his way about the house like one
moving in absolute darkness, and were afraid lest he bump into something and
hurt himself. Hearing that they were
also awake, Reb Nachum asked them: ‘Why
did you not light a candle to last through the night?’ This they could not fathom; that very room
was in fact illuminated by the candle they had lit. They investigated and found that it had
earlier blown out, and the gentile maid had relit it. But because it had been lit on Shabbat, the
tzaddik was able to see nothing by its light.”
This Chassidic
tale is included in a compilation by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin of blessed
memory. The story is intended to
reinforce the commandment found in this week’s Torah portion: “You shall kindle no fire…on the day of
Shabbat” (35:3). But Reb Nachum may have
been trying to teach us a deeper lesson.
Reb Nachum was no slouch since he was a disciple of the Maggid of
Mezritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov.
It was a common practice among many observant Jews to retain a “Shabbos
Goy,” a gentile who would perform functions on Shabbat that Jews were forbidden
to perform. In the story we just read,
it would make sense for Reb Nachum not to have seen the light if the candle had
been lit by a Jew. But the gentile maid
was not violating a commandment by lighting the candle on Shabbat, since only
the Jews are commanded to “observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.” So if Reb Nachum could not see the light from
a candle kindled by a “Shabbos Goy” lit in violation of the commandments we can
assume that we are not supposed to hire people to perform activities forbidden
to Jews. For Reb Nachum, hiring the
“Shabbos Goy” was not a way around the law, it was just another way for Jews to
violate the law.
Saving
the Sedrah
For as long as I
can remember, I have found this week’s portion to be boring, repetitive and
rather pointless; something for Popular Mechanics rather than the TaNaCh. Since nothing in the Torah is without
meaning, the challenge has been to keep at it until I found it. Thanks to Rabbi Sacks, this seemingly
interminable building project finally provides one of those timeless messages
for which we are always searching. Sacks
encourages us to step back and view this week’s portion as part of a series of
events that began with the Golden Calf.
When Moses came down from the mountain “the people were peruah, meaning ‘wild disorderly,
chaotic, unruly, tumultuous.’” Initially, the only way Moses could establish
some sort of control was to impose martial law (the Levites slaughtering three
thousand men). But this was no way to
create a community, to make the term the House of Israel a reality as opposed
to just a literary expression. Drawing
on his managerial skills, Moses knew that giving the people a common activity
would draw them together. As Colonel
Nicholson saw in the Bridge on the River Kwai, there is no better way to draw
people together than to have them building something and the Mishkan was big,
really big. The building project forced
the people to come together and cooperate in reaching a common goal. More importantly, in building the Mishkan, the
people were building a connection to God.
Abstract ideas, and there is no more abstract idea than an omniscient,
omnipresent, non-corporeal deity, can be difficult for people to connect to on
an ongoing basis. So the trick is to
build a bridge where the actions of the person can connect the person to
God. This is the function of
ritual. Ritual - whether it is prayers,
observance of Kashrut, lighting Shabbat candles or baking Hamantaschen -
provides that physical connection. Judaism
is a religion of action, of deeds. These
deeds, like the building of the Mishkan, bring us closer to one another and
closer to God.
Second Scroll - Shabbat Shekalim
Shemot (Exodus) 30:11-16
Shabbat Shekalim
or the Sabbath of the Shekel is the first of four Shabbatot that comes before
the holiday of Pesach. The other three
are Shabbat Zachor, Shabbat Parah, and Shabbat Ha-Chodesh. The actual timing of Shabbat Shekalim may vary
from year to year. You can find all of
the variations for the timing of these special Shabbatot in the Mishnah. Usually Shabbat Shekalim comes on the last
Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh for the month of Adar or Adar II in the case of
leap year. Shabbat Shekalim may also be
observed when Rosh Chodesh Adar actually falls on Rosh Chodesh Adar. On Shabbat Shekalim we read from two scrolls
because there is a special portion read on that day in addition to the regular
weekly portion. This Maftir portion
comes from Shemot 30:11-16. In this
reading God commands Moshe to take a census of all males twenty above by having
them each pay a half-shekel. By counting
the money, Moshe will know how many men are available for military
service. The half-shekel was to be used
for building the Tabernacle. Later, the
half-shekel will become a tax used to maintain the Temple.
Why did God
command that each man should give a half-shekel instead of a whole shekel? According to some, it is to remind us that a
Jew by himself is only half a person. We
only become complete when we unite with other Jews to serve God’s will. (For more on this subject, read the weekly
portion Ki Tissa where this material is found during the annual cycle of the
weekly Torah portions.) Sometimes, in
the days of the Temple, the half-shekel was used to pay for the animals brought
for sacrifices. Therefore, this reading
came approximately a month before the month of Nissan to ensure that the
populace knew it was time to provide the half-shekel thus ensuring that they
would have new animals to sacrifice for Pesach.
Themes
II
Shekel
“Seven weights
related to metal (thus creating "coins") are mentioned in the
Bible: talent, mina, shekel, beka,
gerah, pim, and kesitah. A scale of the
relationships between the first five weights mentioned can be established on
the basis of the Bible and other sources; the absolute and relative value of
the pim can be determined from archaeological finds. The seventh weight, the kesitah seems to be
an archaic weight and the origin of its name and its metrological value are not
known. The major weight of metal
mentioned in the Bible is the shekel, as its name, which means simply
"weight," testifies. Since the
shekel was the definite weight, an expression such as "1,000 silver"
(Genesis 20:16) can be explained as 1,000 shekels of silver, and the name of
the weight is omitted since it is self-explanatory. Abbreviations like these are also found in
other Semitic languages. The fundamental
nature of the shekel can also be seen in the fact that all weights which the
Bible explains are explained only in terms of the shekel.
The shekel was
used as a bartering material, not a minted coin. Jeremiah bought a plot of land and weighed
his payment (silver) on scales (Jeremiah 32:9).
Subdivisions of the shekel were the beka or half-shekel (Genesis 24:22;
Exodus 38:26) and the gerah, a 20th of the shekel (Exodus 30:13). The gerah is known in Akkadian as gir–. The basic meaning of the Akkadian word is a
grain of carob seed. The shekel, in
turn, was a 50th part of the maneh, and the maneh was a 60th part of the
talent. The talent was, of course, equal
to 3,000 shekels. The maneh and the
talent, however, were only units of account and remained so during the Second
Temple period when the shekel became a coin denomination. Scales and weights of the shekel unit have
been found in excavations as have gold, silver, and bronze ingots.
A Simple Table:
1 talent = 60
maneh = 3,000 shekels
1 maneh = 50
shekels = 100 beka =1,000 gerahs
1 Shekel = 9,
11, 14 or 17 grams*
1 Ounce = 30
grams*
* The value of
the shekel vairies depending on the time place and region in which it was
used. Varous weights of the shekel
include 9, 11, 14 and 17 grams. It also
refers to a gold or silver coin of equivalent weight. Since the term gram can refer to different
units of measure, use a conversion factor of 30 grams = one ounce when trying
to comprehend the Biblical based measurement tables.
Shekalim
This is the name
of a Tractate of the Order “Moed” in the Mishnah. The tractate is eight chapters long and all
eight chapters deal with ”the subject of the half-shekel that every male over
20 years of age was obligated to give yearly for the maintenance of the Temple.” The fact that such a large portion of the
Talmud is devoted to this topic should give us an idea of how important this
topic was to forefathers.
Shekel
in Modern Times
In the early
days of the modern Zionist movement, those who paid their dues to join the
Zionist Congress received a membership document referred to as a Zionist
Shekel. The Shekel is a basic unit of Israeli currency. The term shekel or shekels is also an English
slang term for money in all forms.
Counting Every Jew/Every Jew Counts
The reading
describes the method of taking a census; of counting Jews. It should serve as a reminder that every Jew
counts. It should remind us that each of
our co-religionists is an important member of the community no matter what
their socio-economic standing, “yichus,” etc. We cannot afford to “lose” any Jew. We can all work at making sure that the House
of Israel is a Home for all Jews.
Haftarah
II
Kings 12:1-17 (Ashkenazim)
II
Kings 11:17-12:17 (Sephardim and Chabad Chassidim)
The Book: (Briefly) I Kings and II Kings or
the Book of Kings covers the period from the Death of David through the
Destruction of the First Temple. The
emphasis is on the behavior of the monarchs in terms of their relationship to
obeying Jewish law and observing the commandments of the Lord.
The Message: The
events described in the Haftarah take place in the Southern Kingdom of
Judah. The opening verses deal with the
final days of Queen Athaliah (842-836 B.C.E.) and events that occurred during
the reign of her successor, her grandson Jehoash (836-798 B.C.E.). Athaliah is the daughter of Ahab and
Jezebel. She married Jeroham, King of
Judah. He died and was followed to
throne by his son Ahaziah. But when
Ahaziah was murdered, Athaliah assumed the throne and killed off the royal
family except for her grandson Jehoash.
Like her mother Jezebel, Athaliah was a follower of Ba’al and had
instituted her pagan religious practices in Jerusalem. The haftarah begins by describing the revolt
against the followers of Ba’al, the killing of Athaliah and Jehoash’s ascension
to the throne. During his reign, Jehoash
finds out that the Priests have not been using the money given them to maintain
the Temple. He institutes a system to
see to it that the money is collected in a proper manner and is used to maintain
the Sanctuary. Both the Torah and
Haftarah remind us of the need for all of us to support the House of the
Lord. By the same token, we are reminded
by the misuse of the funds by the Priests that leaders have a responsibility to
make sure that the House is in fact a House worthy of the Lord and the support
of the Jewish people.
Theme-Link: The
special Torah reading for Shabbat Shekalim deals with a tax imposed while in
the Wilderness that would eventually be used to support the Temple. The haftarah describes how that tax was
actually used during the days of the First Temple. On this particular Shabbat there were two
potential choices for a reading from the Prophets. First was the one for the portion of the
week. Second was the special reading for
Shabbat Shekalim. In such cases, the
Prophetic portion chosen is based on uniqueness. Since Shabbat Shekalim only comes once a
year, it is the reading that is chanted.
Copyright March
2024 Mitchell A. Levin
2/28/19
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