Vayekhel “and assembled”
Exodus 35:21-38:20
1 Kings 7:40-7:50
Psalm 61
Revelation 21:22-27
Pekudei “Accountings of”
Exodus 38:21-40:38
1 Kings 7:51-8:21
Psalm 45
Matthew 17:1-7
This week is a double portion of Torah. The last few portions of Exodus demonstrate how the titles of the Torah portion hint to the resurrection. In Ki Tisa was the lifting of the head, "when you elevate." Vayekhel describes the assembling of the righteous into the moving Cloud, and Pekudei explains there will be a reckoning or accounting of the assembly. Yeshua and the apostolic writings describe these events and many more which are prophesied even by the names of the Torah portions.
When we reach the latter books of Exodus, there is little in the way of direct commandments. In Pekudei, there is no commandment. In Vayekhel, there is only one:
“You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath Day.” (Ex 35:3 §114)
Vayekhel, which describes the assembly of Israel assembling the components of the Mishkan, juxtaposes the two ideas:
1. Don’t kindle a fire on Shabbat throughout YOUR habitations
2. Assemble for building/creative work on the Mishkan on weekdays
Thus some distinctions are taught through smikhut, or placement. Smikhut is how texts are placed in relationship to one another. It allows the text to speak without adding extra words on the page, but it certainly does evoke debate! This is why 2 Peter 1:20 warns believers that no prophecy of Scripture is open to private interpretation. We advance with caution and in the company of good Hebrew scholars of good reputation. Considering the Torah is the purest of prophecy, not dreams, visions, or dark sayings, but face-to-face from Adonai to Moses, it is even more important not to independently advance personal interpretations.
What ancient judges and scholars noticed in this lone commandment of Vayekhel is how it is pressed up against the contributions of material and work for the Mishkan (Tabernacle):
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Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do: “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day.” Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded, saying, ‘Take from among you a contribution to the LORD...” (Ex 35:1-5)
Put to death? That sounds harsh, yet there is more to it.
It reads as if it is something l’asot, to do, to make, measurable work or action. The building and creative work IS something to do, but the assembly work is preceded with the commandment not to kindle a fire on Shabbat. The crafting and building actions are countermanded on Shabbat in the Mishkan. In other words, every creative thing to do in reference to assembly should be done on other days, but not Shabbat. Before you do this, don’t do that.
The priests serve in a different realm in the Mishkan. Where they serve, it is not sinful to maintain the fires of the menorah or the altars. In fact, tradition tells us that those fires stayed Divinely lit, the Western lamp of the menorah and the altar. They merely needed to be serviced on Shabbat. They do, however, offer the tamid lambs, so the work of slaughter does take place. This is a case where the heavier commandment is obeyed, yet the lighter commandment is still in force. Just as you would not kindle a fire in your home on Shabbat, neither would you slaughter a sacrificial animal anywhere but the Mishkan/Temple.
Here’s a bit of practical advice for those just starting out in Torah. It is a custom to light candles for Shabbat. It is important, however, if you do light the candles to do so BEFORE Shabbat sets in. There is no problem in observing the custom. It lends a beautiful atmosphere to the arriving Shabbat, and for women and their daughters and granddaughters, it may be a special time for bonding and blessing. What is important is not to set aside the “heavy” commandment not to kindle a fire on Shabbat, so just be sure those candles are lit before sundown. There is a reason and a lesson behind this.
One idea comes from tradition, that after Adam and Eve sinned, they were permitted to remain in the Garden for a final Shabbat, then driven out into the darkness. To assuage their fear of the mortal darkness outside the Garden, they were given earthly fire to light the way. Shabbat is a day in the Garden, where the primeval light of Creation’s first day, the Lamp of the Lamb, is to be enjoyed, not a humanly-kindled fire.
It makes one wonder about the rationale of the Havdalah ceremony, where the candle is extinguished in the wine. One of the rivers of Eden is said to flow with wine. It is like saying goodbye to the rivers of Eden as Shabbat goes out. It causes us to look forward to Yom Shekulo Shabbat, the Day that is All Shabbat in the Kingdom. We will not need humanly kindled fires or lights from a realm of death, only the life-giving Lamp of the Lamb.
Another rationale for not kindling fire on Shabbat is that it is symbolic of a death judgment. Just as Adam and Eve were driven into the natural world and began to die at the conclusion of their last Shabbat in the Garden, and as they were given fire to take with them, so fire symbolizes a judgment to die by fire. The burning rivers of Eden became un-crossable to mortals. A river in Hebrew means “something burning and shining.”
Because of the position of this commandment, the Beit Din would never execute a condemned criminal on Shabbat, whether the judgment was hanging, sword, or burning. All death is burning. Now the punishment for kindling a fire on Shabbat is plainer. It is the self-kindled fire of death and judgment.
Once the realm of Shabbat is established as the dwelling of an unkindled, only Divine, fire, then the work of the Mishkan is delineated. The construction of the Mishkan involved an assurance to Israel that they could once again dwell with the abiding Presence (sometimes called the Shechina). On the Eighth Day of the assembly, the 1st of Nissan, finally the Cloud descended upon the Mishkan, an expression of Adonai’s pleasure with His dwelling place, Israel.
Commentaries note that Moses could not enter the Cloud of the until he was invited in:
- Thus Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel. (Ex 40:33-38)
When the work of Moses, Elijah, and Yeshua is finished, then all contributors to the work are assembled, and “reckoned” Israel will be able to see the fire and cloud both day and night. They will elevate and move with that cloud, never deviating from its leadership, for they have been counted in the remnant of survivors of the Golden Calf.
- “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Th 4:17)
Which brings us back to the concluding parshiot of Shemot. Ki Tisa was the lifting of the heads of Israel to count them after the judgments of the Golden Calf. When the work is done, their heads will be lifted, and the Cloud of the Presence will return to them. “…But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Lk 21:20-28)
The Israelites “unburdened themselves” of the commandments by taking off their ornaments for the gold to make an idol, and instead they took hot, deathly coals of the Calf into their bosom. They forfeited the immortality of the “mountain burning with fire up to the heart of Heaven.” (Dt 4:11)
The 24 ornaments of the TANAKH (Old Testament), which are its 24 books, are likened to how Torah scholars [or the 24 elders] string together various passages from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, as the Sefer HaChinnukh says:
- ...while a fire was blazing all around them. And the words of the Torah were as joyous as they had been when they were presented from Mount Sinai. For regarding the actual presentation of the words of Torah from Mount Sinai, were they not presented amid fire? As it is stated, ‘And the mountain was burning with fire up to the heart of heaven.' (Dt 4:11)” 1§52
- This means that they expound verses by associating them with one another and finding parallels for them. By stringing together various verses in the Torah with passages from the Prophets and Writings, the Sages were demonstrating that all the ideas contained in the Prophets and the Writing are actually already alluded to in the Torah.” (ibid)
The ornaments that were given to the Israelites from the Cloud of the Presence at Sinai were the Ten Words that were the basis for the entire Torah, which is the basis for the 24 books of the TANAKH. These are ornaments sent down from Eden to prepare the Bride for crossing back over the burning rivers to the Garden on that great Shavuot at Sinai.
And didn’t Peter do just that "jewel-stringing" when he explained the following?
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When the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (Act 2:1-4)
Peter follows up on the fire that burned “up to the heart of Heaven” by stringing the salvation story from the jewels of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings of the TANAKH in such a way that the 3,000 souls lost at Sinai because of the calf are restored through the salvation of 3,000 souls at Shavuot in Jerusalem.
There is a clue from Sinai: “When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” (Ex 31:18) ”When He had finished” is spelled defectively, without the vav between the lamed and the tav, vowelizing it “like his bride.” It would read: “And gave to Moses like His Bride to speak with him on Mt. Sinai two tablets...” וַיִּתֵּן אֶל־מֹשֶׁה כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לְדַבֵּר אִתּוֹ
Pekudei begins with, “And these are the accountings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of Testimony that was accounted according to Moses…” The Hebrew text holds a doubled “Mishkan,” translated, “the Mishkan, the Mishkan of Testimony.” There was a Mishkan, and there is being a Mishkan formed of those who have the testimony of Yeshua and the commandments of Adonai through Moses. These are those who will resurrect and dwell in Divine fire.
These are the assembly and accountings of Moses. And Yeshua. And these are the fires of Heaven preparing the Bride to cross over to immortality, not the dark, self-kindled fires of death.
We will do the Shabbat afternoon live stream at approximately 4:00 pm Eastern on Saturday b'azrat HaShem with a special guest.
