Vayakel: Exodus 35:1 to 38:20 Pekudei: Exodus 38:21 to 40:38 Shabbat ha Chodesh: Exodus 12:1-20 (for Shabbat am)

(4) Moses said further to the whole community of Israelites: This is what the Eternal has commanded: (5) Take from among you gifts to the Eternal everyone whose heart so moves him shall bring them—gifts for the Eternal gold, silver, and copper; (6) blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, and goats’ hair; (7) tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; (8) oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; (9) lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and the breastpiece.

(2) Moses then called Bezalel and Oholiab, and every skilled person whom the Eternal had endowed with skill, everyone who excelled in ability, to undertake the task and carry it out. (3) They took over from Moses all the gifts that the Israelites had brought, to carry out the tasks connected with the service of the sanctuary. But when these continued to bring freewill offerings to him morning after morning, (4) all the artisans who were engaged in the tasks of the sanctuary came, each from the task upon which he was engaged, (5) and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the tasks entailed in the work that the Eternal has commanded to be done.” (6) Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: “Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary!” So the people stopped bringing: (7) their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.

(28) Then he put up the screen for the entrance of the Tabernacle. (29) At the entrance of the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting he placed the altar of burnt offering. On it he offered up the burnt offering and the meal offering—as the Eternal had commanded Moses. (30) He placed the laver between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing. (31) From it Moses and Aaron and his sons would wash their hands and feet; (32) they washed when they entered the Tent of Meeting and when they approached the altar—as the Eternal had commanded Moses. (33) And he set up the enclosure around the Tabernacle and the altar, and put up the screen for the gate of the enclosure. When Moses had finished the work, (34) the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Eternal filled the Tabernacle. (35) Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Eternal filled the Tabernacle. (36) When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys; (37) but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift. (38) For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Eternal rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys.

(1) The Eternal said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: (2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. (3) Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household. (4) But if the household is too small for a lamb, let him share one with a neighbor who dwells nearby, in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. (5) Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (6) You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all the assembled congregation of the Israelites shall slaughter it at twilight. (7) They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. (8) They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. (9) Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire. (10) You shall not leave any of it over until morning; if any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it. (11) This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the Eternal. (12) For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the Eternal (13) And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (14) This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Eternal throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time. (15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (16) You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you. (17) You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time. (18) In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. (19) No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a citizen of the country. (20) You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

(26) And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ (27) you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Eternal, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” The people then bowed low in homage.

(7) Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory. (8) And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Eternal did for me when I went free from Egypt.’

(1) Observe the month of Aviv and offer a passover sacrifice to the Eternal your God, for it was in the month of Aviv, at night, that the Eternal your God freed you from Egypt. (2) You shall slaughter the passover sacrifice for the Eternal your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Eternal will choose to establish His name.