Exodus, 35:1-38:20, 38:21-40:38

Summary of the Portions

The portion, VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled), begins with the commandment, “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day” (Exodus, 35:2). The portion also deals with the donation by the people of gold, silver, copper, precious fabrics, and so forth. Moses determines that Bezalel and Ahaliav will perform the holy work because they are wisehearted and will collect the donation that came from the entire nation, including the women.

Bezalel and Ahaliav tell Moses that the donations are so voluminous that there is a surplus and no need for more. Moses announces this to the people.

The portion elaborates on the building of the tabernacle by the wisehearted: the garments, boards, bolts, and Bezalel’s work preparing the Ark (of the Covenant), the table, and the Menorah.

The portion, Pekudei (Accounts), mentions the names of the people who took part in building the tabernacle: Itamar, son of Aaron the priest; Bezalel, son of Uri; and Ahaliav, son of Ahisemech.

As the building of the tabernacle concludes, the children of Israel bring it to Moses, who makes sure it was done according to the Creator’s commandment. The Creator tells Moses on which day to establish the tabernacle, and by which order to sanctify each of its elements. He also commands Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons as priests.

The end of the portion tells of the cloud that covers the tent of meeting. Each time the cloud rises above the tabernacle, the children of Israel travel. And each time it descends on the tabernacle, they camp.

Commentary

Both portions present a sequence of one topic. The Torah begins with “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”¹ The evil inclination is our entire nature manifesting in our hatred of one another. First we must discover it; hence, the first revelation of the evil inclination takes place with Abraham in the Tower of Babylon. Subsequently, we discover it in the hard labor in Egypt, then at the foot of Mount Sinai, where hatred prevailed between everyone, as it is written, “Hatred descended to the nations of the world.”² This is the recognition of evil.

It is no simple task to know evil. It is more than discovering that one is lazy or deceitful, thieving, or exploitive. Rather, evil appears only when we want to unite with others. It happens only among those who are drawn to connection, to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”³ When we try, Nature resists, and does not let us bond.

According to the Torah, which is the upper force, if we truly wish to achieve love of others, and through it the love of the Creator (the comprehensive love) and want to discover the common, benevolent force that prevails in the world, all we need is the Torah.

Today, it may appear that the world is terrible because we are examining it through our evil inclination, through our corrupted qualities. But “All who cast fault, cast fault in his own defect.”⁴ As we correct ourselves, we become righteous and justify the Creator and His Creation. Then we begin to see the world as good. Baal HaSulam describes it in his essay, “Concealment and Revelation of the Creator’s Face.”⁵

When we begin to connect with others and love them, when we draw closer to the global and integral world—as we discover it to be each day, hence the current surfacing of the wisdom of Kabbalah—we begin to feel the evil. Then and only then do we need the Torah, the “light that reforms.”⁶

The Torah is not about studying the text. Rather, it is about studying in order to receive the light that corrects, to acquire more and more love for the world. Thus, we become more and more similar to the Creator, returning to the image of man, called “Adam.” The part we attain and correct over our evil inclination, the part that turns the evil inclination into a good inclination, is called a “soul.”

This is why we take from Egypt the primary Kelim (vessels), which are valuable in the eyes of the great evil inclination. It is through these that we emerge from the period known as “Egypt” and recognize the evil inclination, building from it the golden calf. When everything appears clearly and intensely, we truly need the Torah.

For this reason, the first tablets were inappropriate for correction. Only the second tablets that Moses brought down to Israel on the Day of Atonement were suitable for correction, once the people had recognized the evil within them. We know the evil in us, and need the Torah only after we see the golden calf within us. Thus, we resist loving others, instead wanting to exploit the entire world.

The Torah explains the stages of the building of the tabernacle—we need to choose which of all the evil desires we have toward others we can correct from receiving into giving, from hate to love. This is the whole Torah, the instructions as to how to do this. Instead of being immersed in our evil inclination, seeing only the narrow reality of this world, if we correct our desires even slightly we can open ourselves to see the upper world, here and now.

As we develop in this manner, the world around us opens up and appears as the world of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon—the world of Ein Sof (infinity)—at the end of correction. First, we build a small Neshama (soul) common to all. This is the “tent of meeting,” which includes the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, that is, our quality, the Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, the complete HaVaYaH within us. We must take from each desire and connect everything to a single, integral desire that is common to all, that will connect to everyone ready for it, building together a united, common Kli (vessel). This is how everyone will advance.

We must have the qualities of a priest, as Bezalel or Aaron, and certainly the qualities of Moses—the first of the priests, Levites, and Israel. The Torah explains how we can use the light that we draw in order to understand which desires we can correct now, and which we can correct later.

As Moses said in the previous portion, only half of the desires were corrected using the half shekel, the shekel of the holiness. The other half comes from above. The half is our deficiency, and the other half is the light that corrects and complements. With our efforts we build everything that depends on us, all the qualities of the soul: priests, Levites, and Israel, using silver, gold, and various precious stones.

Through the mind and heart that only the qualities of Bezalel have—as it is a replication of the Creator—we feel that we have an example by which to build our souls in accord with the Creator who appears before us. This is how we build the soul. In it, we experience the new world, the Kli, our corrected desires. Within those desires is the force of bestowal and love called Boreh (the Creator), from the words, Bo Re’eh (come see). This is how we come to see, discover the Creator.

The first steps alternate in appearance between cloud and fire, as the Creator ascending and descending. “Rise up, O Lord, let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You” (Numbers, 10:35). In our current situation, in our world, we cannot talk about these things or about the parts we need to correct because we still have no sense of our souls. We do not find these desires in us or know how to scrutinize them or connect them in this extremely complex system.

The Torah tells us this in the form of a story that is a replica of our earthly world: rocks, trees, people, clothes, time, motion, and place. These forms are described so we may discern which parts of the soul we must correct.

Within the soul are forces that work in order to receive; these must be turned into working in order to bestow. We still cannot express these forces and name them because we do not know them, so the Torah tells us the story in its own way, and Kabbalists convey it in the “language of roots and branches.”

Kabbalists tell us about the forces that operate, about the parts of the soul. The Book of Zohar with the Sulam (Ladder) commentary that Baal HaSulam wrote narrates it in the language of Kabbalah, so we can understand what is meant by the words of the Torah. We can understand that the Torah speaks only of the parts of our soul and the correction of the heart, which are our desires. In this manner, we can unravel the entire Torah, discover it in our hearts as a corrected system, and discover the upper force, the Creator, within all that.

Questions and Answers

What does it mean to gather?

“Gathering” refers to the children of Israel whom Moses assembles in order to declare the Sabbath day, the conclusion of the work. The goal must be clear from the start because “the end of an act is in the preliminary thought.”⁷ If we know why we must achieve adhesion with the Creator, why we must make ourselves similar, discover Him, and be like Him, literally “face to face,” to be in Moses’ degree, we must know this in advance. Even in the smallest action, there must be the same goal, the same clear line drawn out, compelling us to advance only in this direction. Whatever problems arise along the way, ascents, descents, and twists, they will all be dealt with so we can progress.

This is why in the desert that Israel traverses there is constant recognition of evil, and it is actually for the best. Additional desires keep surfacing and we must correct them in order to advance toward the land of Israel—the corrected desire where the Creator resides.

Why do we have to know all the details by which we advance, these ascents and descents?

This is how we achieve the plan of Creation, its purpose, the sensation and understanding of it. There is a difference between the will to receive that the Creator formed existence from absence in the beginning of Creation, and the will to receive at the end of Creation. At the end of Creation, that desire has a mind. It remains the same will to receive, but with a mind, comprehension, recognition, and sensation. Everything comes from the connection of mind and heart.

Will we necessarily experience all the elements described in this portion?

We will not experience them without planning to, without desiring to participate, without raising MAN and requesting to correct. Only those of us who want, feel, and are aware of how much they hate, but want to love, will experience everything. Therefore, we must correct some of the still in us, some of the vegetative, and thus discover the reality we are in, and from it reveal the other reality.

Gradually, we become a structure that contains all the mind and heart, all the wisdom in the world. The whole of Nature is within us and we include all the worlds. There is nothing outside of us. The vast world we depict outside of us does not really exist; it is only depicted in this manner in our external Kelim, which must all be made internal. Hence, there is nothing but man and the Creator, who are as a single system.

From The Zohar: Whoever Is of a Generous Heart, Let Him Bring It

“Take from among you a donation.” When a person places his will for the work of his Master, that will first rises to the heart—the persistence and the basis of the entire body. Afterward, that good will rises over all the organs of the body, the will of all the organs of the body and the will of the heart join together, pulling over them the brightness of Divinity to dwell with them. And that person is the Creator’s portion, as it is written, “Take from among you a donation.” “From among you” is the extension, to take upon yourselves that donation, the Divinity, so that the person will be a portion of the Creator.

Zohar for All, VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled), item 71

Initially, there is an egoistic desire that we correct by donation. The donation is the part of the will to receive with which we can enhance the quality of bestowal. The donation raises the part of bestowal with which we want to dominate and advance.

By donations that we set aside from the ego, namely parts we can sanctify and invert into bestowal and love, we advance toward the end of correction. At that time, we are not building a tabernacle or advancing in the tabernacle in time, place, and motion. Rather, we are reaching Mount Moriah and building the Temple.

Kabbalists attain the complete structure, the complete soul, called Beit HaMikdash (House of Holiness, Temple). In it are all the parts: priest, Levite, Israel, and the nations of the world. The great Kabbalist, Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lozzato), wrote a special essay known as “The Dwelling Place of the Most High,” in which he drew in great detail what the third Temple should look like. He did not refer to the rocks in Jerusalem, but to the structure of the corrected soul, which must eventually be on the Sabbath, as was said at the beginning of the portion. We arrive at the Sabbath upon the conclusion of the six days, or six thousand years, when all the Kelim are corrected, and there is nothing more to do or to work with but to enjoy, in happiness and peace.

When the children of Israel bring donations, Moses says, “That’s enough, you’ve gone too far.” It sounds odd because we say that there are no limits on bestowal.

True, but each degree has its own scrutiny. The soul consists of three parts: NHY, HGT, HBD, or Ibur (conception), Yenika (nursing), and Mochin (mindfulness/adulthood), or Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama. Neshama is named after the great light that can be in it.

Hence, on the degree of Israel they give a lot, on the degree of Levites they do not give as much, and on the degree of priests they give even less. It depends on a person’s degree and on who is performing the scrutiny.

It also depends on the degree to which we raise our desires. If we stay in desires of the Israel degree, whatever we bring is fine. But when the desires are at the level of Levites or priests, we haven’t enough forces to be at such a high degree with all of our desires, so they are restricted. This is the meaning of the “degrees in the soul.”

If the Creator gives to us and then says, “Give it back,” why did He give it in the first place?

The Creator created an entire world, the world of Ein Sof, then broke it and gave us a broken world and a broken Adam (soul) so we might fix it. It is similar to a puzzle or LEGO bricks that we put together and learn as we advance. If we gave this game to a child without putting it together, the child would break it because children are driven by the urge to take things apart to understand them. By nature, we cannot approach a complete thing. To understand it, study it, we must break it or have it broken.

How does all that connect to donations?

We take our broken desires and raise them as high as we can toward correction, and the correction comes from above. The Creator has given us everything broken; we need only raise that corruption (recognize it), and ask Him to partake in the correction. The correction itself always comes from above through the light that reforms, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice ... because the light in it reforms.”⁸

We are in the middle. We do not belong to the evil inclination; it is not our own because in truth, the Creator has made it and given it to us. We also do not belong to the light that reforms. Our job is only to connect the two: the corrupt desire below with the light from above. All we need do is ask, demand, and pray for correction.

How do we do it properly? How should we prepare this work so that we bring it to the Creator in the right way?

Our work is to sort each desire whose time has come. First, we scrutinize it through the light, then set it up for correction through the light and ask for correction. These things can happen only by the light that shines, so without studying the wisdom of Kabbalah it is impossible to do anything, as this is what brings us the light.

Do we receive the light when we study Kabbalah?

Yes. During the study, we begin to see how everything falls into place. If we study properly, it takes some time for us to actually achieve it, but then we can study the Bible, the Pentateuch, Gemarah, and Mishnah, and they will all be a source of light to us.

From The Zohar: These Are the Accounts of the Tabernacle

And as the desire of all of Israel was in what they volunteered, so was their desire in that calculation. By their desire, they extended the Mochin of calculation, and then the whole work was done by desire. Hence, calculation is needed here in the tabernacle, since by calculation is the work done. This is why it is written, “These are the accounts of the tabernacle.”

It is a calculation that faults all the calculations in the world—extension of GAR de Hochma—which are not of Kedusha (holiness), for they do not persist, but destroy the place to which they are drawn. Yet, this calculation in the tabernacle, which is VAK de Hochma, persists more than all the others, and by that the tabernacle persists, and not by another.

Zohar for All, Pekudei (Accounts), item 49

There is a big difference between VAK and GAR. GAR means we are drawing by ourselves; VAK means that we are rejecting, that everything is done in bestowal. The lights are all passing through us; we are receiving the full Ein Sof in order to convey it to everyone. But we are not harmed when we work only to bestow, thus making ourselves similar to the source, the Creator. He passes through Him to everyone, and likewise, when we all connect, passing from everyone to everyone, the great sphere called “the common soul of Ein Sof” is made.