Overview
of the Torah Reading
To be read on Shabbat
Vayakhel, 22 Adar 5785/March 22, 2025
Shabbat Para
Torah: Exodus 35:1-38:20;
Num. 19:1-22; Haftorah: Ezekiel 36:16-36
Vayakhel
10th Reading out of 11 in Exodus and 22nd overall,
contains 0 positive mitzvot and 1 prohibitive mitzvot.
It is written on 211 lines in a parchment Torah scroll, 22nd
out of 54 in overall length.
Vayakhel
(Exodus 35:1-38:20): First is the command to keep Shabbat. Next is described
the materials donated to constructing the Tabernacle. The chief architects,
Betzalel and Oholiav, oversaw the contributions and the work. The verses
go on to describe the building of the tapestries, coverings, beams,
ark, table, menorah, incense altar, sacrificial altar, washstand, and
outer enclosure of the Tabernacle.
An
essay from Rabbi
Shaul Yosef Leiter, director of Ascent
(for a
free weekly email subscription, click
here)
("And
Moshe assembled…") and is all about the commandment of making
the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Strangely, instead of the portion starting
with something about the Mishkan, it begins with a verse about
Shabbat - "Six days you should work and the seventh day should
be holy for you" [Shemot/Exodus 35:2]. This is to teach us that
all of the work connected to the Mishkan does not supersede Shabbat
observance. [Mechilta / Rashi]
.Shabbat is higher than the work of building the Mishkan
?How can we understand this in a spiritual way?
King David wrote "With the sweat of your hands you will eat"
[Tehilim/Psalms 128:2]. A person's work life, to support himself and
his family, has to be with his "hands", his strength of action,
but not by investing our heads in our work..
This doesn't mean you are forbidden to think about your work. It does
mean that you should not throw your whole self into it
Now comes the important, life changing point. How successful a person
is in his business is not a result of how hard he works. Rather, G-d
is the one who feeds and supports the whole world [Talmud. Avodah Zarah
3b]. A person's business activities are a medium through which G-d
channels the person's material needs.
When we truly recognize that our livelihood comes from G-d, then we
also realize that extra work and effort will not bring anything more
that G-d wants to give us. Our mental and intellectual faculties should
be used for spiritual endeavors, connecting to G-d. This is the deeper
meaning of the verse, "Six days you should do your work".
The literal translation is, "Your work will be done",
emphasizing that the work itself will be accomplished, relieving us
from exhaustive self-investment.
When work is done in this way, where superficial strengths are employed
with faith in the Divine orchestration, it transforms the whole week
into Shabbat and the person becomes a Shabbosdiker Yid. Just
like on Shabbat I do not work, I do not need to be engulfed by the workweek.
G-d is doing it all.
Sefer HaChinuch teaches that one of the inner purposes of our weekly
Shabbat experience is to fix in our souls that just as G-d made the
world in six days and rested on the seventh so it is now.
When a person remembers that his livelihood comes from G-d every minute
of every day, then his whole week becomes like Shabbat. When his whole
week is like Shabbat, relying on G-d's providence, then, "And the
seventh day will be for you holy, a Shabbat of Shabbatot". Shabbat
is totally uplifted.
[Adapted from LIkrat Shabbat, from the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Collected
Talks. Volume 1. Page 171 and on]
Shabbat Shalom,
Shaul
(for
a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading, see the
archive.
FROM
THE SAGES OF KABBALAH ON KabbalaOnline.org
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Holy Zohar, Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary
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Mystical
Classics
The
Soul of Shabbat
From Shenei Luchot HaBrit by Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz
There is little doubt that a person who prepares himself to receive
the Shabbat benefits from the additional soul which inhabits every Jew
on Shabbat. However -as the Shelah teaches - if it were not for the
heavenly assistance received, his spiritual accomplishment would have
been far more modest
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