The Weekly Shtikle Blog: The Weekly Shtikle

Under normal circumstances, if I am compelled to recycle a shtikle, I try to employ a 5-year rule. I'm going to break that this week by repeating my shtikle from last year, but only because I have something new to add to it.

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 Yisrael exited from the presence of Moshe Rabbeinu. R' Elya Lopian, in Lev Eliyahu, comments that it would have been sufficient for the pasuk to say that B'nei Yisrael 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' Elya, you need only take one look at him and you know exactly from which of the two he has just emerged. (As the old joke goes – it's 5 minutes from the house to the bar, but 45 minutes from the bar to the house. The difference is staggering.) Likewise, the pasuk here is telling us that when B'nei Yisrael left Moshe's presence, they were fundamentally changed people. They were not simply B'nei Yisrael. They were a nation who had just left the presence of their great leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, having just received instructions to build a dwelling place for the Divine Presence, no less. Merely being in his midst left its mark on them.

It occurred to me this year, when going over the parsha, that this pasuk seems to mark the end of an episode. The next section deals with the actual donations that the men and women brought. Accordingly, one would have expected a paragraph break – a peh, or at the very least a samach. However, there is no such break in the chumash. Perhaps, this is to convey that the nation was so very moved by this monumental opportunity, as conveyed by Moshe Rabbeinu, that they wasted not a moment in carrying out his instructions. There was no pausing to think about it and contemplate when to actually come forward. They sprang into action immediately.

Have a good Shabbos.

Mishenichnas Adar marbim be'simchah!

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: A Wise Correction

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Dikdukian: Let your Soul Not be Desolate (Parah)

Dikdukian: Oops (Parah)

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