Design for Living

By Rabbi Joshua (architecturally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In honor of the bris milah of Ya'akov Yehudah Hefter, son of my nephew Yisroel Meir Hefter and his wife Tova (Ehrenberg), which took place in Yerusholayim this Wednesday, and in honor of the wedding of my niece, Sarah Hefter, to Avishai Shaked, which took place in Bnei Brak this Thursday night.

In the beginning of parshas Pekudei, the Torah tells us that Betzalel, who was the overseer of the construction of the mishkan, "did all that the Lord comanded Moshe" (Shemos 38:22). Rashi notes that the Torah did not say that Betzalel did all that Moshe commanded him, to indicate that even in the case of things that God commanded to Moshe which Moshe did not transmit to Betzalel, Betzalel nevertheless aligned his thoughts with those of God, and did what God commanded Moshe. The example Rashi brings, from the Yerushalmi in Peah, is that while Moshe first told Betzalel to build the utensils of the mishkan, and then told him to build the mishkan itself, Betzalel argued that it is not the usual manner for someone to build utensils for a house without first having a house in which to place them. Therefore, he said, the mishkan should be built first. Moshe responded that, in fact, God had commanded him to build the mishkan first, and then to build the utensils to place in it.

This midrash which Rashi brings is quite strange. How is it even conceivable that Moshe would tell Betzalel something that contradicted what God Himself had told him? Interestingly, both the Satmar Rebbe, R. Yoel Teitelbaum zt'l, as cited by Rav Moshe Shternbuch in his Ta'am VaDa'as, and Rav Amnon Bazak, of Gush Etzion, in his Nekudas Pesicha, offer an explanation based on the question of when the command to build the mishkan was given, and each draws different, but, as we will see, related conclusions about the character of Moshe Rabbeinu from this explanation.

We noted in last week's message on parshas Ki sisa that there is a dispute regarding whether God's command to build the mishkan was given before the incident of the golden calf or after it. Following the opinion that the command was originally given before that event, and reiterated after it, Rav Shternbuch and Rav Bazak say that the order of construction changed in the interim. Before the sin, the Jewish people were on a sufficient spiritual level to have the aron, the holy ark, upon which the divine presence was to rest, among them, without yet being encased by the mishkan. However, once they sinned, and were on a lower spiritual level, this was no longer so, and the mishkan was needed to prevent them from approaching the aron incorrectly. Rav Shternbuch says that after Moshe's prayers on behalf of the nation, and their attainment of forgiveness, he felt that they were now back on the level in which they would be able to have the aron in their midst even before the mishkan was built, and he therefore told Betzalel to build the utensils first, and then to build the mishkan. Betzalel, however, being closer to the people, did not think that they were on this level, and, therefore, he felt that the mishkan had to be built first, despite the fact that they had been foregiven.

Rav Bazak writes, somewhat more specifically, that after the sin of the eigel, boundaries needed to be set up to prevent the people from approaching the aron improperly. Although he does not say this explicitly, this is reminiscent of the boundaries that God told Moshe to set up around Mt. Sinai before giving the Torah to the nation, defining how far each segment of the nation was able to go. After the sin of the eigel, it was necessary to set up similar boundaries around the aron, which would encase the Torah that they received at Mt. Sinai. As we have noted in the past, the Ramban, in fact, says that the function of the mishkan was the perpetuation of the experience of Mt. Sinai on a continuous, though discreet, basis. According to Rav Bazak, then, after the sin of the eigel, there was a need for boundaries around the aron, just as there was a need to set boundaries around Mt. Sinai. Rav Bazak does not, however, explain why Moshe told Betzalel the original plan, to build the aron first, and then the mishkan. I would like to suggest an explanation, based on the Torah's account of the setting of boundaries at Mt. Sinai, as found in parshas Yisro.

At Mt. Sinai, God actually told Moshe to set up boundaries for the people twice. After the first command, Moshe related this requirement to the people. And again, ascended the mountain. When God told him to set boundaries a second time, Moshe replied that he already told the people of this requirement. Still, God told Moshe to descend and again tell them to keep the boundaries. R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explained that God was telling Moshe that, on his level, being commanded to do something once was sufficient, but for the people it wasn't, and he needed to go down to their level and understand their limits. Perhaps, in a different way, we can suggest that Moshe's love for his people, and his confidence in their renewed spiritual level, was so great that he believed that they did not rerquire boundaries around the aron, while Betzalel had a keener sense of their level. According to both Rav Shternbuch and Rav Bazak, although in somewhat different ways, Moshe's great love for and dedication to his people was reflected in the hopes he had for them to regain the original degree of closeness to God that they had reached previous to their sin.