Parashat Exodus 35,1-38,20  &  Exodus 38:21 – 40:38

Haftarah 1 Kings 7,40-50 (1 Kings 7,13-26)

The core message of this week’s Torah portion is focused on OUR Main responsibility towards HaShem’s Goal for Mankind – to ensure our participation in the building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan) in which He wishes to dwell amongst His People who will become sanctified as His Temple – to serve as a Light unto the Nations and through whom He will rule over the Universe in His Eternal Kingdom. The rest, all the finer details of when, where and how, remains a concealed Mystery beyond the concept of even the greatest Prophets and Sages of this World.

The actual sequence of events leading up to the Final End Time and the establishment of the Universal Kingdom of G-d in a New World order (Tikkun Olam) is equally hidden.

If you have been following our series of discussions about the Parshiyot (weekly Bible portions) from the Book of Exodus, you would have read much about the Topic of the Building of the Tabernacle – the Temple in which G-d wishes to dwell on earth when He returns His Shechinah  (Presence) to ‘live’ amongst His Nation.  To acquaint yourself with the chain discussion of this Topic, or to review, refresh, in-depth study of the Topic, please refer to the Menu item ‘Blog’ of this Website, These Blogs are indexed in date order. Refer back and from the Blog dated 28 Feb. 2020, “The Perfect Tabernacle with its Ark and the Lamp Stand…”  Additional related studies are list at the foot of each study under “Related Topics’. Being the Main Theme of the concluding Events in the End Times (which most all Bible commentators agree that we have now arrived at), this surely should be a vital reason for acquainting yourself with it.  It is the main theme of this week’s Bible portion and we present it as a solution of our Theme Title this week:  “Change the Fear of Death to the Blessing of Life Eternal.”

Now, for how to achieve this?

Like all success in life, the Creator’s Recipe is for man to achieve it. If His intention was to present it as a Freebie to all mankind, then He would have done so right from Creation. The entire package, certainly, is a ‘free Gift’ from the Creator. So it was right at the start in the Garden of Eden. The catch came when man has to guard it by his conduct in Life – and for this purpose, he was granted with a free will, to conform or to oppose. Right there in Eden, our forefathers already succumbed to their own preferences thereby opposing the Will of the Creator. Everything that followed was in the process of restoring – and we have not succeeded yet, governed by our own preferences which obstruct His Ways; which earn disease and death, failure in life rather than success.

We have now arrived at the Final Junction to prove our sincere intentions. If we succeed this Time, we face His Free Award to gain eternal citizenship in His Universal Empire. Any shortfall that we are left with we stand to gain by His Grace and Mercy according to His evaluation in the Final Judgment. He reads the hart and the intentions of our minds. All we have to do is to Return to His Will and Way as expressed in His Torah and by His entire Purpose for mankind.

Where are we standing in Time with regard to the Final Redemption (Geulah)?

Like Israel of old, we have now arrived at Sinai, newly released from Egyptian slavery and paganism. To complete the Return and achieve the Final Redemption, we have to now enter the Land and build His Temple. We have to re-dedicate ourselves to the ‘Old’ Covenant. Reawakening and Torah restoring Ten Tribers (Ephraim) claim to be redeemed but they resist joining the ‘Moses establishment’ as maintained by Judah. Like 10-Israel of old, they insist on following a licentious, self satisfying ‘Torah’. They reject and oppose the mandated Mechoqeck (Law Arm) of HaShem’s Nation and People.

At the opposite end the Rabbis of Judah resist the re-covenanting of these Returnees whose forefathers stood with them at Sinai. They offer them a diluted Noahide facility of 7 Laws only – from which the Shabbat (Sign Piece of G-d’s People) is excluded.

Both factions of HaShem’s Covenantal Family now have the opportunity to Join hands and hearts in re-uniting the 12-Tribed Israel Elected nation and to build the Eternal Tabernacle  of HaShem. Without this foundational requirement of Family Reconciliation there can be no Final Redemption. No Kingdom of G-d. No Rebuilt Tabernacle (Temple). G-d does not dwell in derelict buildings devoid of His parameters. His Shechinah left at the destruction of the 1^st Temple for these very same reasons.  And He will certainly NOT return to similar conditions, and to a Temple represented by the House of Judah (2 Tribes) only.

This process entails the hitherto much concealed topic of 7 chapters of the Book of Isaiah (ch. 42 – 49) – the formation of the ‘Servant’ of HaShem who will cause the Return and Reconciliation of the exiles of BOTH Houses of Israel and serve as the Light to the Nations. Our recent studies of ‘The Servant’ deal extensively with this topic.  Our studies on The Tabernacle lay down the foundations of this Structure. And our Parashat commentary this week (here below) reveals how YOU can partake and become a co-worker in this End Time vital Project thereby securing your Final Reward.

Communities and Crowds

By Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks

(rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-homepage/)

DISCLAIMER – the authors and promoters of the articles and videos that we place here are mostly not connected in any way to KOL HATOR and may well not share our views and interpretations. We do however thank them for their insight and pointers that confirm our understanding and often broaden our insight.

Parashat Vayakhel  (“he gathered/assembled”)  Exodus 35,1-38,20
Haftarah Vayakhel 1 Kings 7,40-50 (1 Kings 7,13-26)

This week’s Parshah and its name: Vayakhel is the Torah’s primer on how to build community.

It does so in a subtle way. It uses a single verb, k-h-l, to describe two very different activities. The first appears in last week’s parsha at the beginning of the story of the Golden Calf. “When the people saw that Moshe was long delayed in coming down the mountain, they gathered (vayikahel) around Aharon and said to him: get up, make us gods to go before us. This man Moshe who brought us out of Egypt – we have no idea what has become of him” (Ex. 32:1). The second is the opening verse of this week’s parsha: “Moshe assembled (vayakhel) all the community of Israel and said to them: these are the things the Lord has commanded you to do” (Ex. 35:1).

These sound similar. Both verbs could be translated as “gathered” or “assembled.” But there is a fundamental difference between them. The first gathering was leaderless; the second had a leader, Moshe. The first was a crowd, the second a community.

In a crowd, individuals lose their individuality. A kind of collective mentality takes over, and people find themselves doing what they would never consider doing on their own. Crowds lack the inhibitions and restraints that form our inner controls as individuals.

The crowd that gathered around Aharon was in the grip of panic. Moshe was their one contact with God, and thus with instruction, guidance, miracle and power. Now he was no longer there and they did not know what had happened to him. Their request for “gods to go before us” was ill-considered and regressive. Their behaviour once the Calf was made – “the people sat down to eat and drink and then stood up to engage in revelry” – was undisciplined and dissolute. When Moshe came down the mountain at God’s command, he “saw that the people were running wild for Aharon had let them run beyond control and become a laughing stock to their enemies.” What Moshe saw exemplified Carl Jung’s description: “The psychology of a large crowd inevitably sinks to the level of mob psychology.” Moshe saw a crowd.

The Vayakhel of this week’s parsha was quite different. Moshe sought to create community by getting the people to make personal contributions to a collective project, the Mishkan, the Sanctuary. In a community, individuals remain individuals. Their participation is essentially voluntary: “Let everyone whose heart moves them bring an offering.” Their differences are valued because they mean that each has something distinctive to contribute. Some gave gold, other silver, others bronze. Some brought wool or animal skins. Others gave precious stones. Yet others gave their labour and skills.

What united them was not the dynamic of the crowd in which we are caught up in a collective frenzy but rather a sense of common purpose, of helping to bring something into being that was greater than anyone could achieve alone.  Communities build; they do not destroy. They bring out the best in us, not the worst. They speak not to our baser emotions such as fear but to higher aspirations like building a symbolic home for the Divine Presence in their midst.

By its subtle use of the verb k-h-l, the Torah focuses our attention not only on the product but also the process; not only on what the people made but on what they became through making it. This is how I put it in The Home We Build Together: “A nation – at least, the kind of nation the Israelites were called on to become – is created through the act of creation itself. Not all the miracles of Exodus combined, not the plagues, the division of the sea, manna from heaven or water from a rock, not even the revelation at Sinai itself, turned the Israelites into a nation. In commanding Moshe to get the people to make the Tabernacle, God was in effect saying: To turn a group of individuals into a covenantal nation, they must build something together.

“Freedom cannot be conferred by an outside force, not even by God Himself. It can be achieved only by collective, collaborative effort on the part of the people themselves. Hence the construction of the Tabernacle. A people is made by making. A nation is built by building.”

The downsides of crowds are still with us. So too are the upsides of community, as Melanie Reid’s Scottish pub demonstrates. I believe that creating community takes hard work, and that few things in life are more worthwhile. Building something with others, I discover the joy of becoming part of something greater than I could ever achieve alone.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks

Kol Hator Commentary – This Message comes crowning the entire series of studies that we have presented on the Tabernacle and its relation to the Final Redemption.  We have emphasized in bolds those sections in the commentary above which accentuates the exalted benefit for the soul who cares to participate in this vital Final Redemption Process.  Supporting the Vision and Promotions of Kol Hator presents an ideal opportunity for such participation and potential of achievement.  Please write us at kolhatorkht@gmail.com for details of how you can participate – or phone directly +972 52 747 4834