Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei
1. Like all matters of Torah, the division of the sidros, too, is not by chance, G‑d forbid, but precise and intentional. That is to say, each sidra has its own particular point. (It is not that because of the Torah's great length it had to be divided into sidros. Likewise, the name of each sidra is not given because the sidra happens to begin with that word; on the contrary — the name alludes to the content of the parsha's point, and that is why that word stands at the head and beginning of the sidra.) This is what is stated in the Zohar1, that there are fifty-three (נ"ג) sidros of the Torah. Clearly, then, the fifty-three sidros of the Torah are a precise number every year, even in the years in which certain sidros are read together. For the division of the sidros stems from their distinct subjects, each sidra having its own particular point; it is only that sometimes each point is read in a separate week, and sometimes, when two sidros are joined, two points are read in one week.
From this it is understood that the parshiyos Vayakhel and Pekudei — even in the years when they are read together — have two distinct points. Although both parshiyos speak about the making of the Mishkan and its vessels (the parshiyos Terumah and Tetzaveh speak about G‑d's command to make the Mishkan and its vessels, and the parshiyos Vayakhel and Pekudei speak about the making of the Mishkan and its vessels as the Jewish people actually made them here below)2, they nevertheless contain two different points. (This is just like the parshiyos Terumah and Tetzaveh: it is obvious that they express two distinct points — since they are read separately every year — even though both speak about the same thing, the command to make the Mishkan, etc.)
2. The difference between the content of Parshas Vayakhel and the content of Parshas Pekudei is as follows. Parshas Vayakhel relates how Moshe gathered the Jewish people and conveyed to them G‑d's instruction to make the Mishkan and its vessels, and how the Jewish people did as G‑d had commanded. Parshas Pekudei relates how Moshe made the accounting of all the donations to the Mishkan — the gold, the silver, etc. — and also what they were used for; how the Mishkan and the vessels were anointed with the anointing oil; how offerings were brought there; and how all this brought about the drawing-down from Above — "וכבוד הוי' מלא את המשכן" ("And the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan")3.
That is to say, the point of Parshas Vayakhel is the service of created beings — how the Jewish people built the Mishkan with their money, with their body and with their soul. With their money: the thirteen (fifteen) items they donated. With their body: the physical exertion of building the Mishkan, etc. With their soul: the "נשאו לבו" ("whose heart uplifted him"), "נדבה רוחו" ("whose spirit moved him") and "חכמת לב" ("wisdom of heart") that were employed in it. Yet for all that, it is no more than the service of created beings. The novelty and the point of Parshas Pekudei is the drawing-down from Above: "And the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan"4.
And although the making and the service described in Parshas Vayakhel also drew down a revelation of G‑dliness from Above — for every service elicits a drawing-down from Above — that drawing-down of Parshas Vayakhel bears no comparison whatsoever to the revelation of G‑dliness of "And the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan," which was drawn down through the service of the anointing oil and the service of the offerings in Parshas Pekudei.
For even in the cases where "הזמנה מילתא היא" ("designation is of significance")5 — the preparation by itself already counts for something — it is nevertheless known6 that the drawing-down of G‑dliness through designating and preparing a physical object for a mitzvah bears no comparison to the drawing-down that is brought about through the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah. All the more is this so regarding the building and preparing of the Mishkan and its vessels in Parshas Vayakhel, which do not become sanctified until they are anointed with the anointing oil (or through the service)7. It is certain, then, that the revelation from Above brought about through the designation and preparation is utterly incomparable to the drawing-down and revelation of G‑dliness of Parshas Pekudei, where the anointing and the service had already taken place.
These, then, are the points of the four sidros concerning the Mishkan and its vessels8: Parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh speak of the command of the Holy One, blessed be He, regarding the Mishkan and its vessels — the arousal from Above that precedes the arousal from below and gives it strength (though within this itself there are two points: the command to make the Mishkan and its vessels — in Parshas Terumah, and the command to make the priestly garments — in Parshas Tetzaveh)9. Parshas Vayakhel speaks of Moshe's command to the Jewish people and their fulfillment of that command — the service of created beings and the arousal from below. And Parshas Pekudei speaks of the higher level of arousal from Above that comes after the arousal from below10.
3. Yet notwithstanding that the drawing-down of Parshas Vayakhel does not at all approach the drawing-down of Parshas Pekudei, in most years both sidros are nevertheless read together. For when there is no time, one must hurry; one must squeeze into one week what would need two weeks.
This does not mean that one should step outside of time, for the whole purpose of the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash is "a dwelling in the lower realms," within time and space. Rather, it means that within time itself one should not remain within limitation — within time itself there should be felt an effect of that which is above time11.
4. This effect of that which is above time within time — a joining of the higher with the lower — is expressed also in the joining of the sidros together: Vayakhel with Pekudei. The point of Vayakhel is the service of created beings, and the point of Pekudei is the drawing-down from Above, and what is achieved is that one must join the two together. This is a preface and preparation for the revelation of the Future, when there will be "ושמתי כדכד" ("I will make [your windows] of kadkod") — "כדין וכדין" ("like this and like this")12.
5. A further proof of the joining of Parshas Vayakhel with Parshas Pekudei: between G‑d's command to Moshe about making the Mishkan and its vessels (in Parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh) and Moshe's command to the Jewish people about making the Mishkan and its vessels and their actually doing so (in Vayakhel and Pekudei), there can sometimes be something that interrupts and hinders it — the matters related in Parshas Tisa13. But once the command has already come down below through Moshe Rabbeinu (in Parshas Vayakhel), the making of the Mishkan and the completion of the work are carried out immediately (the joining of Vayakhel-Pekudei).
In the majority of years the two parshiyos go together — "ואזלינן בתר רובא" ("and we follow the majority"). Even when the evil inclination interferes and it may take several more days, there is nevertheless no other matter in between — for "לא ידח ממנו נדח" ("no one banished will remain banished from Him"). Since the matter is revealed through Moshe Rabbeinu — "ואתפשטותא דמשה בכל דרא ודרא" ("and the extension of Moshe in every generation")14 — the matter will certainly be accomplished. With a command from Moshe to the Jewish people, the command itself is already also an assurance15 that the matter will certainly be accomplished; that is, there will certainly be the service of the Jewish people, and it will certainly bring about "And the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan"16.
(From the sichos of Shabbos Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei, 5722)
Notes
1) Zohar I, 104b. Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 13 (29b, at the end).
2) As explained at length in Likkutei Sichos, vol. [OCR unclear], Parshas Pekudei.
3) Shemos 40:35.
4) Although Parshas Pekudei relates the making of the priestly garments, that is the continuation and conclusion of the subject of Parshas Vayakhel, and not the novelty of Parshas Pekudei. It may further be said: since there is no mitzvah in the making of the priestly garments (in the view of the Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvos, mitzvah 33), and some hold (the Behag; see the Ramban's glosses there) that there is no mitzvah even in wearing them, and they are only a prerequisite (hechsher mitzvah) for the service of the kohanim, whose service is invalid when they lack the garments — and since the priestly garments have no existence as a Torah mitzvah until the kohanim wear them (during the service) — therefore the Torah's account of them is in Parshas Pekudei, whose point is the drawing-down from Above that comes through the service of the kohanim, etc., for that is when their existence comes about. The Mishkan and its vessels (the Menorah, the Table and the Altar), by contrast, whose making is a mitzvah (Sefer HaMitzvos, mitzvah 20), have a Torah existence from the time they are made, and therefore their making is related in Parshas Vayakhel. (Even without this one is compelled to say so, so that the order of the verses not be difficult, for the Torah interrupts with "אלה פקודי וגו'" ("These are the accounts, etc.") between the account of the making of the Mishkan and its vessels and the account of the making of the priestly garments.)
This also resolves why, regarding the making of the Mishkan and its vessels in Parshas Vayakhel, it does not say "כאשר צוה ה' את משה" ("as G‑d commanded Moshe") — as it does with the priestly garments, where of the making of each and every garment it says "as [G‑d] commanded, etc." — and only at the conclusion of the entire matter, in Parshas Pekudei, is it written "את כל אשר צוה ה' את משה" ("all that G‑d commanded Moshe").
(As for the answer of the Ramban (Shemos 35:22), that it is because Betzalel changed their order from what Moshe had told him — I have not merited to understand it. For a) Betzalel's change was from what Moshe told him, but not from G‑d's command to Moshe, as our Sages say that Moshe conceded to him and said, "You were in the shadow of G‑d (בצל אל)," etc. (Berachos 55a). If so, then regarding the Mishkan and its vessels too it could have been written "as G‑d commanded Moshe"? (See Rashi there: "It is not written here 'that Moshe commanded him,' but 'all that G‑d commanded Moshe.'") b) The change was not in the making of each detail by itself, but in the order of the Mishkan and its vessels as a whole. If so, on the contrary, it should have omitted "as [G‑d] commanded, etc." at the conclusion of the overall making, and not in the making of each detail? Seemingly one could answer that the reason it does not say "as [G‑d] commanded, etc." for each detail is that there is no novelty in it, since it is obvious that he did not change anything; and only at the conclusion of the matter as a whole, where he did change the order that Moshe had told him, does it inform us that this too was "as G‑d commanded Moshe," as above. But this is not a sufficient answer, for with the priestly garments too there is no novelty, and nevertheless of the making of each garment it says "as [G‑d] commanded, etc."?)
In light of the above it may be said: the Mishkan and its vessels of Parshas Vayakhel, although they are an entity of Torah, nevertheless lack the drawing-down and the connection ("as [He] commanded" — tzivah, related to tzavta, connection) with the Holy One, blessed be He, until they are anointed with the anointing oil — the point of Parshas Pekudei. Therefore, regarding all the matters of this parsha, one may say "as [G‑d] commanded, etc."
5) See Mal'a HaRo'im, entry "Hazmanah"; Encyclopedia Talmudis, the same entry.
6) Sha'arei Orah, maamar beginning "Yavi'u Levush Malchus," ch. 7.
7) Shevuos 15a, and sources cited there.
8) Compare the Ramban, Vayakhel 36:8.
9) For the law of the priestly garments differs from the law of the Mishkan and its vessels, as above in note 4.
10) Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 24a.
11) This also explains the connection of these parshiyos to the month of Adar (see Shelah, Torah Shebiksav section, beginning of Parshas Vayeshev, in these words: "The festivals of the whole year … all of them have a connection to the parshiyos during which they fall"), whose central point is Purim: although it falls specifically on a weekday and work is permitted on it (and also the Purim of walled cities — in most years this is so), nevertheless its obligation is "until one does not know" — beyond limitation.
12) Yeshayahu 54:12. Bava Basra 75a. Explained at length in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Re'eh, in the maamar beginning with this verse.
13) This also resolves why the Torah interrupted with Parshas Tisa between Parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh and Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei — to inform us (Zohar, Parshas Pekudei 224a) that the episode of the Golden Calf took place after the donation for the Mishkan — to hint that between G‑d's command to Moshe and Moshe's command to the Jewish people there can be an interruption and a hindrance, etc.
And although according to this view the episode of the Calf took place between Moshe's command to the Jewish people (and likewise the donation for the Mishkan) and the making of the Mishkan, nevertheless even the sin itself — the main one, the episode of the Calf — did not prevent the actual "ושכנתי בתוכם" ("and I will dwell among them"), as stated (Pekudei 40:34): "And the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan."
14) Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 69 (114a). See also Bereishis Rabbah 56:7.
15) The general principle that the commandments of the Torah are stated both in the language of a command and in the language of an assurance.
16) And although seemingly all this could be said of G‑d's command to Moshe as well ([OCR unclear] assurance), it is not at all comparable, for the Jewish people were commanded about this (together with the granting of strength and the assurance) only when Moshe told it to them. It may be said that this is similar to the practical difference between the verdict on Rosh HaShanah and the judgment of every day (see Kuntres U'Mayan, maamar 19 and on). And Moshe and the extension of Moshe are in the category of head and brain relative to their generation (Tanya, ch. 2).
Key Lesson
Our own service and the revelation from Above are two distinct stages, yet this Sicha teaches that they must be joined, just as Vayakhel and Pekudei are usually read together. Even within the limits of time, a Jew can bring about an effect that is above time. Once Moshe's instruction reaches the Jewish people, it carries the assurance that their work will succeed and that G‑d's glory will fill the Mishkan.