The Weekly Shtikle - Vayakheil

This week's shtikle comes with very special Mazal Tov wishes to my sister Yocheved, her husband Moshe and the entire Shonek and Bulka clans on the birth of a little baby girl this past Sunday.

The baby was named .... drumroll .... Tzirel Nechama after my mother, ע"ה.

 

    In the beginning of parshas Vayakheil Moshe begins to instruct the nation on how they are to proceed with the building of the Mishkan. At the conclusion of Moshe's assembly, the pasuk recounts (35:20) that the congregation of B'nei Yisroel exited from the presence of Moshe Rabbeinu. R' Lopian, in Lev Eliyahu, comments that it would have been sufficient for the pasuk to say that B'nei Yisroel exited. We knew where they were. Why is it necessary for the pasuk to say that they exited from Moshe's presence?

 

    Imagine a street in a city that contained both a bar and a library. If you were to see a man walking crooked down the street, barely able to stand on his own two feet, explains R' Lopian, you need only take one look at him and you know exactly from which of the two he has just emerged. Likewise, the pasuk here is telling us that when B'nei Yisroel left Moshe's presence, they were fundamentally changed people. They were not simply B'nei Yisroel. They were a nation who had just left the presence of their great leader, Moshe Rabbeinu. Merely being in his midst left its mark on them.

 

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

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