במראות הצובאות, “with the mirrors of the serving women.” The word מראות is based on ראיה, “eyesight.” The laver was placed between the entrance to the Tabernacle and the copper altar (the altar on which most sacrifices were offered) slightly north of center. It was placed there so that the women who had contributed their mirrors could see it from the section in the courtyard reserved for women. It would also serve as a reminder that women whose husbands suspected them of infidelity without having proof that could be presented at court, and who had denied the accusation, would have to drink “bitter” waters drawn from the water in the laver, and would risk their lives by doing so if they had lied. [Compare Numbers 5,11-31.] According to Rashi, the prefix ב in the word במראות is to be understood as if it had been the letter מ, so that the word means: ”from the (material) of which their mirrors was made of,” i.e. polished copper. Exchanging the letter מ for the letter ב, is not unique. One example is found in Leviticus 8,32: והנותר בבשר ובלחם, “and whatever remains from the meat and from the bread.

אשר צבאו פתח אהל מועד, “who assembled at the entrance of the Tent of meeting.” They did so in order to pray and recite the praises of the Almighty as near to the sacred compound as was allowable for ordinary Israelites who were ritually pure. They also wished to receive the blessings by the priests and Levites.

מזה ומזה, “on this side and on that side.” These words apply to the two verses 14 and 15, each set of hanging curtains being on either side of the entrance gate to the courtyard.

אלה פקודי המשכן, “these are the accounts of the Tabernacle;” which “Tabernacle” does the Torah refer to? “The Tabernacle that is testimony to the covenant between G-d and Israel, משכן העדות.” Seeing that this is not the only time the Torah used the expression: משכן, as it also occurs in Numbers 16,27, when it referred to the mishkan of Korach, as well as several times in the Book of prophets, the Torah wished to be precise beyond doubt. There was never another Tabernacle in which the Holy Ark containing the Tablets was housed.

ובצלאל בן אורי בן חור וגו, “and Betzalel, son of Uri, son of Chur, etc.;” he also constructed items that his teacher Moses had not specifically instructed him to construct such as the tops of the pillars, as he was on the same spiritual wavelength as his teacher. [Our author had already made this point on Exodus 36,38. Ed.]

ויהי זהב התנופה, “all the gold used for the waveoffering amounted to, etc.;” the reason why the Torah used the expression תנופה, here, an expression usually used only with specific offerings for specific purposes by an individual donor, is that when presenting his gift, the owner had had to lift it.

תשע ועשרים ככר וגו, twenty nine talents, plus. seven hundred and thirty shekels; for anyone interested, the total amount of gold used in the construction of the Tabernacle amounted to 1460 liters” [we are not familiar with the units used by our author that his readers in France were obviously familiar with Ed.]

וכסף פקודי העדה, “and the silver that was counted which had been contributed by the congregation, etc.: the Torah spells out in detail what exactly all the silver and copper donated was used for. The reason for this is that the silver was used as ransom for the people who had somehow become guilty during the episode of the golden calf. The reason why the Torah does not enumerate in detail what the gold was used for is that no item was wholly made of gold except for the candlestick and the cover for the Holy Ark. All the other furnishings were only overlaid with gold.

מאת ככר ואלף ושבע מאות וחמשה שקלים, one hundred talents and seventeen hundred and fifty shekels.” [One kikar used for sacred purposes was equivalent to 3000 “holy” shekels, or 6000 ordinary shekels of silver. Ed.]

בקע לגלגלת, beka, per head (half a holy shekel). The people relied on G-d being aware that this amount would suffice for the silver needed in connection with the Tabernacle.

את אדני הקודש ואת אדני הפרוכת, “for the sockets of the Sanctuary (planks), and the sockets of the dividing curtain(s).” There were a total of 100 such sockets, 48 for the planks, requiring 96 sockets and 4 for the pillars supporting the dividing curtain, making a total of 100.

ונחושת התנופה שבעים ככר ואלפים וארבע מאות שקל .“and the copper used for the wave offering was seventy talents plus 2400 shekels. Our author translates this into denominations of coins used in France in his time. Ed.]

ויעש בה, “he made of it, etc;” the word בה is used here instead of the word ממנה, which we might have expected.

את אדני פתח אהל מועד, “the sockets of the pillars supporting the curtain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Sixty five talents of copper were used for constructing sockets. They were needed for each side of the courtyard around the Tabernacle, one talent for each socket. From the five talents plus remaining, they made the cover for the copper altar, as well as its appurtenances and the clasps needed to hold together the curtains used for the roof which had loops accommodating these clasps. They also made copper hammers to drive into the ground the pegs needed to hold down the edges of the curtains above the Tabernacle which straddled the ground, as Rashi has explained at the end of Parshat T’rumah. We do not have to wonder how they had copper left over for the construction of the laver and its stand. Seeing that the materials for those items had been donated by the women, i.e. their mirrors, they are not counted separately as donations of copper. No one should think that only the amounts mentioned here were donated by the people. Much more was donated. The Torah only accounts for the amounts which were used directly in the construction of the Tabernacle. The excess of the donations became part of the Temple treasury, and was used for all manner of communal needs. Just as the number 600000, that the Torah included in the census did not include the people who had not yet reached the age of twenty or the ones who were past the age of sixty, and all the women, so that most likely the total number of Israelites at the time exceeded 2-3 million, so it would be foolish to assume that only the amounts recorded in our portion were donated. From chapter 35,24, it is clear that anyone who felt inclined to make a donation could do so, and no doubt that included people under the age of twenty and over the age of sixty, and the women. Even the males between twenty and sixty who had to contribute a half shekel, most likely donated in excess of this and not only silver coins. The Torah wrote that there was oversubscription, compare 36,7.