by
Rabbi Michael Laitner

Parshat Pekudei

A new building…

‘And Moses saw the entirety of the work, and behold, they had performed it as G-d had commanded - so had they done - and Moses blessed them’ (Shemot 39.43)

The Mishkan (Tabernacle), is now completed. Two questions immediately emerge from the text. Why is description of performance repeated, and what was the blessing that Moses gave. We will look at the second question initially.

Rashi, (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki), the premier Torah commentator, explains that Moses blessed them that the Divine Presence should rest over their work, invoking a verse found at the end of Psalm 90, and said in Shabbat morning prayers (p299 Singers, p380 ArtScroll). This is one of the 11 Psalms in the Book of Psalms attributed to Moses.

Rabbi Shlomo Efraim in his 16^th century work, Keli Yakar, sees the building and blessing of the Mishkan as repairing the damage caused by the building of the golden calf. Perhaps the golden calf was a catalyst for the construction of such a building, as people needed a designated place where they could ray communally.

This should also provide encouragement to anybody seeking to do any form of teshuva, repentance and future improvement.

Rabbi Efraim continues that the apparent superfluity in the verse could also hint that the Jews performed similar activities in both the construction of the Mishkan and the building of the golden calf. Moses prayed that this time, their motivations would be correct, and would receive G-d’s blessing. We pray that G-d’s blessing rest on our new building project, and that we always aim to make such a building worthy of its status. We also thank all those who are putting so much time and effort into this project.