VayakhelShemot (exodus)

On 11 Tishrei 2449, Moses assembled the entire community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that GOD has commanded you concerning the Sabbath. Firstly, the things you are to do in order to observe it actively: you must remember it and anticipate it throughout the workweek.

Secondly, what you must do in order to observe it passively: work may be done only for six days, but the seventh day must be holy for you – a complete rest from work – unto GOD. This is so important that whoever does any one of the 39 types of work prohibited on the Sabbath must be put to death.

The exception is kindling fire. Although you must not kindle fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day, the punishment for doing so is not death but only lashes. Furthermore, each one of the 39 categories of work is separately prohibited on the Sabbath; therefore, if you transgress several of them inadvertently, you must atone for each act separately.”

Take contributions for GOD from among yourselves for the construction of the Tabernacle and its accoutrements. Let every generous-hearted person bring the contribution for GOD. The following materials are needed: gold, silver, and copper;

wool dyed turquoise, wool dyed purple, wool dyed scarlet, linen, goat hair;

red-dyed ram skins, tachash skins, and acacia wood;

olive oil for illumination in the Candelabrum, and spices for the anointing oil and for the incense offering;

and onyx stones and inset stones for the Ephod and the Breastplate, respectively.” Moses did not, at this point, ask for flour for the showbread, since the Tabernacle would not be set up for some months yet, and the bread would not stay fresh that long.

Moses continued, “Although you may all be relied upon to have pure enough intentions to prepare and donate the materials, you may not all be relied upon to have the proper intentions necessary for fashioning them into the Tabernacle’s component parts, for your participation in making the Golden Calf has tainted you. Rather, God will endow specific individuals with the requisite wise-heartedness for this task. Every such wise-hearted person must then come forth and make all that GOD has commanded:

The inner tapestries to cover the Tabernacle, with its middle cover and its outer roof; its clasps, its planks, its crossbars, its pillars, and its bases;

the Ark, its poles, the Ark Cover, and the partition Curtain;

the Table, its poles, all its utensils, and the showbread;

the Candelabrum for illumination and all its utensils, including the main utensil – its lamps, and the oil for illumination;

the incense Altar and its poles, the anointing oil, the incense offering, and the entrance Screen for the entrance to the Tabernacle;

the sacrificial Altar, its copper Grate, its poles and all its utensils; the Laver and its base;

the nettings of the Courtyard, its pillars and its bases, and the Screen for the entrance to the Courtyard;

the stakes for the Tabernacle, the stakes for the Courtyard, and their tying ropes;

the netted packing cloths for use in the Tabernacle, the sacred garments for Aaron the high priest, and the garments of his sons in which to minister as priests.”

The entire community of the Israelites then left Moses’ presence. Also on the day following Moses’ descent from Mount Sinai, his father-in-law, Jethro, advised him to set up a system of judges, as recounted earlier.

Among the materials Moses listed as needed for the Tabernacle were precious gems, spices, and oil. Although the people had taken an abundance of these things with them when they left Egypt and from the plunder at the Sea of Reeds, they had used them all up by now. The princes, however, still possessed these items, and they planned on donating them. But they had learned from Moses’ example to attend to their respective tribes’ affairs before their own. Therefore, before they thought of making their own contributions, they encouraged and exhorted the people to contribute whatever they had as quickly as they could, and continued doing this as long as the people kept contributing. Thus, everyone whose heart uplifted him came forward, and everyone of generous spirit brought a contribution for GOD, for the labor of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

Although the women were exempt from the obligation to donate, they did so nonetheless. Since a wife may not donate household property without her husband’s knowledge and consent, the men accompanied the women when they brought their donations so it would be clear to the treasurers that they consented to their wives’ donations. All those women who were generous of heart brought bracelets, nose-rings, finger-rings, and chastity belts, as well as gold objects of all kinds. In addition, all those men who donated a wave-offering of gold to GOD brought their gold at the same time. They did not have enough gold for all that was needed to construct the Tabernacle and its furnishings, but they gave whatever they could, even their personal jewelry. Moses, who was exceptionally wealthy, supplied the lacking gold.

Whoever had turquoise, purple, or scarlet wool, or linen, or goat hair, or red-dyed ram skins, or tachash skins, brought them, despite the extra trouble it took to dye the wool and ram skins.

Whoever set aside a contribution of silver or copper, brought it as a contribution for GOD; and whoever had acacia wood for any of the work, brought it.

The women, however, did not merely bring raw materials. Since they were not involved in making the Golden Calf, they could be relied upon to have the proper intentions even in fashioning these materials into the Tabernacle’s components. Therefore, every wise-hearted woman spun by hand, and they then brought the spun yarn of turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool, and linen. They spun the woolen yarn from wool that had been shorn off the sheep and then dyed.

But the goat yarn did not have to be dyed, and the women understood that by spinning it directly from the living goats – while the goat hair was still soft and pliable – it would be of superior quality. So all the women whose hearts inspired them with skill spun the goat hair directly off the living animals into yarn; this required special skill.

The princes brought the onyx stones and inset stones for the Ephod and the Breastplate,

as well as the spice and the oil for illumination, for the anointing oil, and for the incense offering.

Every man and woman among the Israelites whose heart impelled them to bring something for all the work that GOD had commanded to be done through Moses brought a donation for GOD. The women even donated their mirrors. Moses wanted to reject these mirrors since they had been used to arouse lust. But God told him to accept them, saying that these were more precious to Him than all the other contributions, for their use had led to the exceptional growth of the Jewish population in Egypt. The tallies of some of the raw materials contributed are given further on.

Moses said to the Israelites: “Look: I mentioned previously that God will allow only specially endowed wise-hearted individuals to work on the Tabernacle. For this purpose, GOD has singled out by name Betzalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

He has endowed him with a Divine spirit, with the wisdom that enables him to learn both from others and on his own, deductive insight, Divine inspiration, the talent for all types of craftsmanship –

enabling him to devise woven designs and to work in gold, silver, and copper –

and the art of gem-setting and woodcarving, and all kinds of other skilled crafts.

He has also given him and Oholiav son of Achisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach.

He has endowed them with wise-heartedness to work in all the crafts of the carver, the weaver, and the embroiderer; with turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool, and linen – in the crafts of every kind of artisan and skilled weaver. These two are to be in charge of the work and will oversee the artisans and craftsmen. Even though Betzalel is from the royal tribe of Judah, while Oholiav is from the undistinguished tribe of Dan, what matters is their skill, not their lineage. Thus, the Tabernacle belongs no more to the pedigreed or wealthy than it does to the commoner or poor – even though the rich were able to contribute much more than their less-wealthy compatriots.

Betzalel and Oholiav, together with all the wise-hearted people whom GOD has endowed with the requisite wisdom and Divine understanding to know how to do all the work required for the Tabernacle, must execute everything that GOD has commanded.”

So all the skilled men who were doing all the work for the Tabernacle came to Moses, each of them from the work that he was doing,

and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the work that GOD has commanded to do.”

Moses gave the order to announce throughout the camp as follows: “Let no man or woman do any more work for the contribution to the Tabernacle.” The people were thus prevented from bringing additional contributions on the second day, because

the people’s work of contributing the first day sufficed to provide the artisans with all they needed for all the work that had to be done, and there was no need to have a surplus. Moses instructed Betzalel first about fashioning the furnishings and then about fashioning the Tabernacle itself. Betzalel commented, “Isn’t it better to make the structure first and only then the furnishings that will be placed inside?” Moses answered, “Yes, and this is indeed how God told me to do it. You have intuited God’s intention.”

All the wise-hearted among the craftsmen made the first cover of the Tabernacle out of 10 tapestries of threads each composed of 24 strands: six intertwined strands of linen, six intertwined strands of turquoise wool, six intertwined strands of purple wool, and six intertwined strands of scarlet wool. The craftsman made them with a woven design of cherubim: eagles on one side and lions on the other.

The length of each tapestry was 28 cubits and the width of each tapestry was four cubits, all the tapestries being of the same size.

The craftsman attached the first five tapestries to one another by sewing, and he likewise attached the other five tapestries to one another by sewing.

He made loops of turquoise wool along the edge of the tapestry at the end of the first set and then did the same along the edge of the endmost tapestry of the second set.

He made 50 loops on the one tapestry and 50 loops along the edge of the tapestry of the second set, each loop being exactly opposite its counterpart.

He then made 50 gold clasps and joined the two sets of tapestries to each other with the clasps, so that the cover of the Tabernacle became one.

He made sheets of goat hair as a Tent to spread over the tapestries that formed the first cover of the Tabernacle. There were 11 such sheets.

The length of each sheet was 30 cubits and the width of each sheet was four cubits, all 11 sheets being of the same size.

He attached five of the sheets together, as a set by themselves, by sewing; and the other six sheets as a set by themselves by sewing.

He made 50 loops of goat hair along the edge of the endmost sheet of the first set and 50 more loops of goat hair along the edge of the endmost sheet of the second set.

He made a third cover, to act as a roof over the Tent, out of red-dyed ram skins, and a fourth cover, a roof of tachash skins above the roof of ram skins.

He made the planks for the Tabernacle out of acacia wood, standing vertically.

The length of each plank was 10 cubits, the width of each plank was one-and-a-half cubits, and the breadth of each plank was one cubit.

The base of each plank had two tenons, parallel to each other; he did the same for all the planks of the Tabernacle.

He made the following number of planks for the Tabernacle: 20 planks for the southern side.

For the second side of the Tabernacle, to the north, he likewise made 20 planks

with their 40 silver bases: two bases under one plank, and two bases under each following plank.

For the back of the Tabernacle, to the west, he made six planks whose widths would be fully exposed inside the Tabernacle,

and he made another two planks for the back corners of the Tabernacle whose width would be partially covered by the planks forming the north and south walls.

All the planks were flush against each other at the bottom and flush against each other at the top, where every pair of adjoining planks was fitted together into a rectangular band. The two planks on the two corners he also made like this.

Thus, on the west side, there was a total of eight planks with their silver bases. There were thus 16 bases, two bases under each plank.

He made crossbars out of acacia wood: five crossbars for the planks of one long side of the Tabernacle,

and five crossbars for the planks of the other long side of the Tabernacle, and five crossbars for the planks at the back of the Tabernacle, to the west. He made four half-length crossbars and one full-length crossbar for each side. Two of the half-length crossbars traversed the walls at a height of seven-and-a-half cubits and the other two at a height of two-and-a-half cubits.

He made the full-length crossbar of each side in order to traverse the walls at their middle height, and to penetrate holes drilled through the planks within, from one end of the Tabernacle to the other.

He overlaid it with pure gold inside and out by making two golden chests, one slightly larger and one slightly smaller, and inserting the wooden ark in between them. He made a gold rim on the outer golden chest for it all around.

He cast four gold rings for the Ark on its four corners, two rings on one side and two rings on its other side.

He made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

He then inserted the poles through the rings on the sides of the Ark, so that the Ark could be carried with them.

He made for the Ark a Cover of pure gold, two-and-a-half cubits long and one-and-a-half cubits wide.

He made two golden cherubim; he hammered them out of the two ends of the Cover.

He made one cherub from one end and one cherub from the other end; he thus made the cherubim from the Cover itself, from its two ends.

The cherubim had their wings spread aloft to the level of their heads, so that their wings shielded the Cover. They faced one another, the faces of the cherubim being inclined downward toward the Cover.

He made the Table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and one and a half cubits high.

He overlaid it with pure gold, and made a gold rim for it all around.

He made a frame for it all around, one handbreadth wide, and made a gold rim for its frame all around.

He cast four gold rings for the Table, and placed the rings on the four corners of its four legs.

The rings were close to the frame, as holders for the poles used for carrying the Table.

He made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, for carrying the Table.

He made its seven lamps, its wick-tongs, and its ash pans of pure gold.

He cast four rings for the four corners of the copper Grate, as holders for the poles.