T orah P ortion
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Assembly Required!
BY RABBI ERIC MOLLO
Parshat Vayak’heil-P’kudei
PEOPLE DON’T COME fully
assembled; they are built and
broken, polished and sanded,
hardened by experience, and
softened by time. Every single
one of us came into the world
looking like the pieces inside of
a box of Ikea furniture, yet to
be twisted, prodded, hammered,
glued and fashioned into an
individual with increasingly
more identifying characteristics.

No two people are the same
and none of us come with
convenient, or even confusing,
instruction manuals. When we
were born, our parents didn’t
have a clue what the future
held, and only a vague idea of
what we might become. We
are constantly evolving vessels
in need of nurturing parents,
mentors, teachers and text tradi-
tions to guide us through life’s
many twists and turns. Ever
growing, and ever changing, we
merely forecast, and not foresee,
what will become of us.

Soon after the exodus from
Egypt, the Israelites were asked
to donate their most precious
possessions to the cause of
building a sacred dwelling for
the God that rescued them
from the hand of Pharaoh. In
parshat Vayak’heil-P’kudei,
the Israelites finally reckon
with the mountain of donations
mentioned earlier in the book
of Exodus and the subsequent
task of turning the gifts into
something greater.

Such a transformation was
no small task, and we might
liken the idea to Moses asking
the Israelites to open every box
in Ikea, tip out the pieces within
and reassemble the resulting
mass of mismatched bits and
bobs into a place worthy of
God’s presence. Thus, in Exodus
chapter 36 we read, “Moses then
called Bezalel and Oholiab, and
every skilled person whom
Adonai had endowed with
skill, everyone who excelled in
ability, to undertake the task
and carry it out.”
Just as the construction of
the Mishkan required the best
craftsman among the Israelites
to bring the project to fruition,
every single one of us also
needs skilled instructors to
hone and mold us into the best
versions of ourselves.

One chapter later, in
Exodus 37 we read, “Bezalel
made the ark of acacia wood,
two-and-a-half cubits long, a
cubit-and-a-half wide, and
a cubit-and-a-half high. He
overlaid it with pure gold, inside
and out; and he made a gold
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molding for it round about.”
Everything in the Mishkan,
except for planks of wood,
was measured by whole cubits
and yet each side of the ark
is measured in half cubits.

Moreover, the inside of the ark
that practically no one ever
saw had to be covered in gold
as well.

These seemingly impre-
cise measurements and overly
adorned features are further
elucidated upon by Chananel
Ben Chushiel, an 11th-century
sage and student of the last
Gaon who teaches, “This is the
reason why the ark was encased
in gold both from the inside
and the outside. It is a symbol
of the righteous and intelligent
man who is described as such
only if his internal character
qualities reflect the external
image he projects ... Just as the
dimensions of the floor of the
ark were two-and-a-half cubits
in length and one-and-a-half
cubits in width, resulting in a
square area of four cubits, so the
righteous person should remain
constantly aware that the four
elements (earth, fire, wind,
and water) which make up his
physicality should not become
the sum total of his existence,
but should be augmented
liberally by the physical perfor-
mance of good deeds such as
caring for others ... The walls
of the ark total 12 cubits when
measuring the combined total
of the exterior dimensions. The
combined lengths of the walls
totaled 7.5 cubits, whereas the
combined length of the short
walls totaled 4.5 cubits. Thus,
the righteous person is expected
to fulfill all 12 conditions set
out in Psalm 15 as the neces-
sary qualifications to sojourn
in God’s holy tent, or on God’s
holy mountain.”
Psalm 15
“Adonai, who may sojourn
in Your tent,
who may dwell on Your holy
mountain? 1. One who lives without blame
2. One who does what is right
3. One who acknowledges the
truth in his heart
4. One whose tongue is not
given to evil
5. One who has never done
harm to his fellow
6. One who makes oaths to his
neighbor 7. One who does not change
his oaths
8. One for whom a contempt-
ible man is abhorrent
9. One who honors those who
fear Adonai
10. One who stands by his oath
even to his hurt
11. One who has never lent
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money at interest
12. One who never accepted a
bribe against the innocent
The one who acts thus shall
never be shaken.

Like the miscellaneous
parts within an IKEA box or
the many ornamented struc-
tures of the Mishkan, we must
always strive to be worthy
creations by actively seeking
out equally worthy architects of
character. As the Mishkan was
exchanged for a Temple, and
the Second Temple was built
upon the First, and subsequent
Temples were built around the
world in place of the Second,
so, too, are we built to improve
upon the generations that came
before until all that remains is
a vision of the world redeemed
by compassionate hands and
selfless hearts. l
Rabbi Eric Mollo is the rabbi of
Temple B’nai B’rith in Wilkes-Barre.

The Board of Rabbis is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on
Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. The opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own
and do not reflect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

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