Torah of Recovery: Vayakhel

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Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 463, Kindle edition

Here, in chapter 35, [Moses] relays Shabbat before the Mishkan, completing a chiastic structure with the Golden Calf narrative at its heart: Mishkan—Shabbat—Golden Calf—Shabbat—Mishkan. Thus the crisis that separates God’s instructions to Moses from Moses’ transmission to the people is the sin of the Golden Calf.

Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, volume 1, location 4159, Kindle edition

Is Shabbat about affirming that God, and God alone, is God, or is Shabbat a testimony to human dignity and the importance of rest? The biblical answer is that it is both. The Torah sees no contradiction between a day aimed at affirming God as sovereign over the entirety of creation, on the one hand, and a day aimed at insisting that everyone, including slaves male and female, is entitled and obligated to rest (Exod. 20:10), on the other. Observing Shabbat is a dramatic statement about Who the Israelites serve, and also, crucially, about how the One they serve understands and treats them.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 552

There is a tradition that the sin of the Golden Calf and God's forgiving the people happened on Yom Kippur, the great annual day of forgiveness and reconciliation. Based on that tradition, Rashi sees the events of Vayakhel taking place on the day after Yom Kippur.

Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 552

Moses gathers the people together for the enterprise of establishing the sanctuary so that it will rest on a base of Jewish unity. 'Every Jew depends on...fellow Jews for energy, resources, and courage wherewith to be a Jew' [M. Kaplan]

Dr. Avivah Gottleib Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 320, Kindle edition

The atonement function of the Mishkan evokes the idea of a therapeutic project, as, indeed, our midrash clearly implies, in its closing quotation from Jeremiah: “I will bring healing to you and cure you of your wounds.” There is an intimate, repressed sense of the Mishkan’s function that has everything to do with the Golden Calf. Viewed psychoanalytically the Golden Calf is a disaster that was always waiting to happen.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, Vol. 2, p. 668

It was their 'gold earrings' that gilded the calf and again their 'earrings and every kind of gold ornaments' that they contributed to the Tabernacle. What is more: gold alone was given to the calf, but gold and a willing heart was given to the Tabernacle. The giving of the heart was essential.

Rabbi Shefa Gold, Torah Journeys, p. 95

When we can experience the flowing and giving heart, freed from the constraints of fear, we begin to know and trust ourselves as if for the first time. We can relax and let go of worries about not having or being enough, bedcause the experience of flowing generosity feels effortless and infinite. Vayakhel tells us that Moses had to ask the people to stop giving because they had become so intoxicated with their experience of generous flow. We are reminded that together we have more than enough to complete the task of making a place for God to dwell among us, between us and within us.

Shabbat 99

“And all of the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom spun the goats” (Exodus 35:26). The phrase “whose hearts inspired them” suggests a greater degree of wisdom. Apparently, spinning the goat’s hair curtains required greater skill than spinning the various kinds of wool. And on a similar note, it was taught in a baraita in the name of Rabbi Neḥemya: The hair was rinsed on the goats, and it was even spun from the goats, which required a great deal of skill.

Sforno on Exodus 35:26

(1) טוו את העזים, while the wool was still on the goats, as per Shabbat 99. The reason was to lend an additional sheen to the yarn spun from this hair. There are many materials which suffer a reduction in appearance once they are separated from their original habitat. We all are aware of this phenomenon with bees’ honey. [The author cites other examples of a similar nature occurring with products that I am not familiar with. Ed.]

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particuulars of Rapture, p. 475-476, Kindle edition

Against this background, Bezalel’s gratuitous genius emerges with a childlike purity: in a sense, as Ramban himself goes on to suggest, he comes straight from Eden. One can hardly help, however, sensing in this marvelous birth a counterpart for the demonic birth of the Golden Calf, springing whole and vital from the flames. An association of Bezalel with the Golden Calf is strangely confirmed: it is not only that the artist works with fire; he too appears in the world unexplained, unaccountably potent, like the Calf.

Berachot 55b

And a good leader, as it is written: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: See, I have called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah” (Exodus 31:1–2). With regard to Bezalel’s appointment, Rabbi Yitzḥak said: One may only appoint a leader over a community if he consults with the community and they agree to the appointment, as it is stated: “And Moses said unto the children of Israel: See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah” (Exodus 35:30). The Lord said to Moses: Moses, is Bezalel a suitable appointment in your eyes? Moses said to Him: Master of the universe, if he is a suitable appointment in Your eyes, then all the more so in my eyes. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: Nevertheless, go and tell Israel and ask their opinion. Moses went and said to Israel: Is Bezalel suitable in your eyes? They said to him: If he is suitable in the eyes of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and in your eyes, all the more so he is suitable in our eyes. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: Bezalel was called by that name on account of his wisdom. When the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Go say to Bezalel, “Make a tabernacle, an ark, and vessels” (see Exodus 31:7–11), Moses went and reversed the order and told Bezalel: “Make an ark, and vessels, and a tabernacle” (see Exodus 25–26). He said to Moses: Moses, our teacher, the standard practice throughout the world is that a person builds a house and only afterward places the vessels in the house, and you say to me: Make an ark, and vessels, and a tabernacle. If I do so in the order you have commanded, the vessels that I make, where shall I put them? Perhaps God told you the following: “Make a tabernacle, ark, and vessels” (see Exodus 36). Moses said to Bezalel: Perhaps you were in God’s shadow [betzel El], and you knew precisely what He said. You intuited God’s commands just as He stated them, as if you were there. Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Bezalel knew how to join the letters with which heaven and earth were created. From where do we derive this? It is written here in praise of Bezalel: “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:3); and it is written there with regard to creation of heaven and earth: “The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens” (Proverbs 3:19), and it is written: “By His knowledge the depths were broken up and the skies drop down the dew” (Proverbs 3:20). We see that wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, the qualities with which the heavens and earth were created, are all found in Bezalel.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 390, Kindle edition

More than that, though, Betzalel echoes “b’tzselem Elohim,” the description of the Creation of humanity. This resonance cannot be fortuitous; Betzalel’s work of creation is a Divinely inspired (“I have called Betzalel”) effort at imitatio dei, the imitation of God, a small c counterpart to the Creation itself. The text repeatedly draws parallels both explicit and implicit between the building of the Mishkan and the Creation of the world.

Daat Zkenim on Exodus 35:30,1

G–d explained to [Moses] then already that on the contrary, not as he had thought, he would not build the Tabernacle but a descendant of Chur, who had given his life trying to stop the Jewish people from making a golden calf would be charged with that task. By doing so he would help atone for the murder of his grandfather and for the sin of the golden calf. This is why the Torah traces Betzalel’s ancestry to Chur, i.e. Betzalel son of Uri, son of Chur.

Rabbi Dr. Sue Reinhold, from "Betzalel in The Kitchen," 'drash from March 2016, copy available upon request

Okay – who is [Betzalel] descended from? Betzalel is the son of Uri, son of Hur. Hur! Betzalel’s grandpa is Hur. Hur himself in the midrash is said to be the child of Miriam and Caleb. Miriam, Moses’ sister, a prophet, though sometimes silenced, one of our most powerful women. And Caleb, a leader of the spies who spoke truth to power, who is rewarded greatly by Joshua after the Israelites go into the Promised Land. That’s some powerful geneaology right there. And Hur himself, son of Miriam and Caleb, Betzalel’s grandfather, this is a person who in our Torah stood with Joshua and Moses when the Israelites went into battle. A powerful war leader. Also, our Torah says that Hur was appointed by Moses to be in charge with Aaron when Moses went up the mountain at Sinai to receive revelation…Moses and Joshua say, stay here, we’ll be right back…and what happened after 40 days and 40 nights? Right – the Golden Calf incident. One key midrashic story posits that Hur – unlike Aaron mind you - tried to stop the Golden Calf project – and that as a result, he was torn to shreds by the mob yearning towards apostasy. Hur disappears from the Torah after that. He became a martyr for trying to keep the Israelites in line with their brand new commandments.

So, Betzalel knows the sharp edges of how this kind of collective project can turn out for the bad. Now he’s given the project of building something incredibly important, yes, under Moses and God’s command, but he’s seen his grandpa murdered by the mob on this other building project. And he’s supposed to pull them all together into this one. No pressure.

There’s political backstory too. Betzalel doesn’t appear unaccountably, in that he’s also established as a leader. He is one of the seventy elders that Moses picks to help him administer justice amongst the people as the people in the desert. You might remember, that from the Tribe of Judah, in parashah Mishpatim, Betzalel is picked to help Moses administer legal questions among the Israelites (along with another favorite Nachshon). So Betzalel isn’t a total neophyte. He’s a judge, an elder. And as an elder, he even got to go to the foot of Mt. Sinai and have a picnic with God, also in Mishpatim, right before the Torah was given to the Israelites. The elders all go up with Moses to a certain point and meet with God on Sinai. That was a kind of VIP reception for the big machers, the reception before the main event. That’s a big deal, to sit with God. Shake God’s hand. Have his picture taken maybe on the photo line. So, Betzalel is not a neophyte, he’s more like a younger Kennedy or a Clinton – you know, experienced in politics and power, and from a family that knows power, persuasion, and battle. He’s pretty qualified to lead a big building project.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 556

2. The Hebrew translated as 'skilled' (hakham lev) literally means 'wise-hearted.' A Hasidic master comments, 'Wisdom of the mind alone, without wisdom of the heart, is worthless' (Aaron of Karlin).

Or HaChaim on Exodus 36:1,1

(1) ועשה בצלאל, and Betzalel carried out all the work, etc. How could the Torah report Betzalel as performing the work when it had not yet informed us that Moses had handed over to him all the donations, and (until verse six in this chapter) the people were still in the process of bringing their various gifts? We are forced to conclude that what the Torah tells us in this verse is that Betzalel and his helpers made all the preparations necessary to carry out the work as soon as the materials would be at hand. He prepared the proper tools. The meaning of the words את כל מלאכת is that they made the tools needed for the work. Different tools are required to perform work on metal, wood, stones and fabrics respectively. We are told in Shabbat 49 that all the 39 categories of work which are prohibited on the Sabbath were performed in connection with the construction of the Holy Tabernacle. It appears from the wording of the Torah that all these tools were prepared on the same day.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 556

3. morning after morning. The repetition of the word 'morning' (boker) is interpreted to mean that the people brought their gifts at dawn's first light, when no one could see them, to emphasize that they were contributing out of love for God, with no wish to be recognized for it (David Shoham).