“And he made the basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who congregated.” Rashi explains that the basin was made from the women’s mirrors, etc. There are two reasons why the basin was made from the women’s mirrors. One reason is that the basin was used to provide water to test the suspected adulteresses [sotot], therefore the women assisted in making the basin to demonstrate that they were presumed to be virtuous and wanted the testing of the basin since they knew themselves to be modest. They specifically gave bronze because it is said And you had the forehead of a harlot woman (Jeremiah 3:3), and it is written And your forehead is bronze (Isaiah 48:4). It is known that a prosecutor cannot become a defender, therefore they gave bronze to indicate that their foreheads were not bronze [i.e., they were not brazen]. The second reason is that mirrors are like the waters of the basin that show the face to the face; similarly, mirrors show the face to the face. Just as mirrors tell a woman whether she is beautiful or ugly, so too the waters of the basin declare and publicize whether she committed adultery or if she is virtuous in her deeds.

It seems that he mentioned “the women who assembled [tzav’ot]” because the women established many hosts [tzeva’ot] in Egypt, and they were saying, “We believe that the Egyptians did not rule over them, for their husbands were afflicted with hard labor that decreased fertility and procreation, so surely they became pregnant from the Egyptians.” Therefore, the women wanted to reveal their righteousness, because since they established many hosts, they needed to reveal their purity. They brought those mirrors through which they established those hosts in order to make from them the basin, as if to say, “Look and see, and test us in this matter, whether we established those hosts in purity or not,” because the basin was made to test them like suspected adulteresses [sotot]. And it says, who assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. But the Tent of Meeting had not yet been made, so the commentators explained that this refers to Moses’ tent, as explained by Ibn Ezra and Rabbeinu Bachya. But it seems to me that this all speaks of the modesty of the women, as it says Behold, in the tent (Genesis 18:9). Rashi explains, “She was modest.” Similarly, those hosts that they established assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, meaning in their own tents. And it mentions entrance because it is said of a prostitute, And she sat at the entrance of Einayim (Genesis 38:14). Therefore, it says of modesty, entrance of the tent. And it uses the term meeting [moed] because there they met together with their husbands who were in the fields all day, because the term moed refers to those who come from elsewhere to gather [lehitva’ed] in this place.

These are the accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony. The commentators are divided on whether these refers to the work of the Tabernacle mentioned in the portion of Vayakhel, or whether it refers to what will be mentioned in this portion. They also questioned why Moses gave an accounting of what was made from the silver and copper but did not give an accounting of what was made from the gold. Therefore, it seems to me that these are the accounts refers to the work of the Tabernacle mentioned above, because they had already completed all the work of the Tabernacle in general and in detail, and everything they had to make from silver and copper they had already made completely. Therefore, Moses was happy that the work of silver and copper was completed, and he was eager to give an accounting to remove himself from suspicion. He did not want to wait until after the priestly garments mentioned in this portion were also made and then give an accounting of the silver, gold, and copper all at once, because in everything mentioned in this portion there was no silver and copper, and after the work of silver and copper was already finished, he saw fit to give an accounting immediately. But regarding the gold, he could not yet give an accounting because they had not yet made all the priestly garments mentioned in this portion, which also contained gold, and because they still needed the gold, Moses could not yet give an accounting of the gold.

And if you ask, there is still a difficulty, why did he not make an accounting of the gold after he also completed the priestly garments? The answer to this matter is according to what they said in the Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 51:6), brought by Rabbeinu Bachya in this portion, which says: “When Moses came to give an accounting, he was missing from the weight 1,775 shekels, and he forgot and did not know what he had done with them. A heavenly voice came forth and said, And the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five he made into hooks for the pillars, to fulfill what is said Not so with My servant Moses; in all My house he is faithful (Numbers 12:7).” End quote. It appears that the author of this Midrash noticed the two extra “heys” [definite articles] that were written: And the thousand and the seven hundred… when it should have said “And a thousand and seven hundred…” as it says above a hundred talents and not the hundred talents“ with the definite article. Why did it mention the definite article with the thousand and hundreds mentioned here? Rather, certainly Moses forgot and did not know what was done with them, and the Israelites were murmuring against him, saying that he took them for himself. Then a heavenly voice came forth and said that ”that known thousand which you spoke of and those known seven hundred which you said Moses took, it is not so, but he made them into hooks for the pillars.“ If so, after the Israelites saw that Heaven testified about him, therefore they no longer wanted to receive an accounting from him about the gold, because they said, ”If he had kept something for himself from the gold, Heaven would not have testified for him even regarding the silver, for ultimately he would not have fulfilled his accounting.“ Furthermore, the heavenly voice said, In all My house he is faithful. The gold is also included [in this], therefore he did not give an accounting of the gold.

And some say that even initially they did not ask Moses for an accounting, but Moses himself wanted to clear himself, therefore it says which was counted at the command of Moses. And regarding what it says the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, some say that it is the nature of silver and gold to diminish when it is melted, therefore it says here that everything that was counted at the command of Moses was found in the hand of Ithamar in its exact weight, and this was miraculous. And because of this they called it the Tabernacle of Testimony, for this is a testimony for Israel that the Divine Presence dwells among them.

“These are the accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony,” Our Rabbis said (Tanchuma, Pekudei 1) that the reason Tabernacle [mishkan] is mentioned twice is because the lower Temple [on earth] is aligned with the upper Temple [in heaven], as it is said, The place You made to dwell in, O Lord (Exodus 15:17). The word place [machon] implies an alignment [mekuvan] of one opposite the other. And in another Midrash they said (Tanchuma, Pekudei 2) mishkan mishkan appears twice because it was taken as collateral [nimashken] twice for the sins of Israel. According to all these Midrashim, we need to provide a reason for their relevance here, since without doubt the main focus of this section is about the accounting that Moses gave, so what relevance do these Midrashim have to this context?

Therefore, I say that they all sensed this difficulty: Why did it insert the accounting in the middle of the work? For in the Vayakhel portion, the work of the Tabernacle and all its vessels is mentioned, and in this portion only the making of the priestly garments is mentioned. Why did it interrupt between them with this accounting? Therefore, the author of this Midrash says, because the Temple below is aligned with the House of God above, and it is written: According to all that I show you, the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its vessels (Exodus 25:9). Here is proof that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moses on the mountain only the Tabernacle itself and its vessels, but did not show him the pattern of the priestly garments. For this reason, it is stated several times in the Terumah portion as you were shown on the mountain regarding the making of the Tabernacle itself and its vessels, but in the Tetzaveh portion which mentions the priestly garments, the vision on the mountain is not mentioned at all. And it is not without reason that they were divided into two separate portions twice: in the Terumah portion, the Tabernacle and its vessels are mentioned, and in the Tetzaveh portion, only the priestly garments are mentioned. And similarly here, the Vayakhel portion speaks of the Tabernacle and its vessels, and the Pekudei portion speaks of the priestly garments, because the Tabernacle and its vessels were all made according to the vision that God showed Moses on the mountain. And that vision was that He showed him the sanctuary above, for it too was made in the form of this Tabernacle, and He commanded him to make a Tabernacle below resembling in all its features the sanctuary above. This is what is meant by established for Your dwelling [Machon] — aligned [mekuvan] one against the other. The interpretation is not that they are aligned in actual physical location, for the Tabernacle was portable and did not stand in one place. According to this, we would need to say that even the sanctuary above was moved from place to place, which is far from logical. Furthermore, the language of the verse does not suggest this, because when it says established for Your dwelling, it implies that the House of God below is aligned with the House of God above, and it should have said the opposite — that the House of God above is aligned with the House of God below, since it [supposedly] moves from place to place with the movement of the sanctuary below. Rather, established for Your dwelling means that the Temple below was made to align with the pattern of the sanctuary above, which also has the form of these chambers and vessels, and these are divine secrets hidden from us. This is what is meant by “aligned one against the other.” But the priestly garments below were made only for Aaron, for honor and glory, and are not included among the vessels of the Tabernacle. And when it says the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its vessels, the priestly garments are not included, because they are not called vessels of the Tabernacle but rather Aaron’s garments, and they have no counterpart above.

And with this, what the commentators have questioned is resolved, why it was stated in this section regarding the priestly garments in all the work as the Lord commanded but why was this not mentioned at all throughout the entire Vayakhel section? Rather, it is because the Tabernacle itself, whose design Moses saw on the mountain, obviously he did not change, for something that a person sees with their senses is easy to replicate. But regarding the priestly garments, whose design he did not see, one might have thought that he forgot something about them. Therefore, it says about all of them as the Lord commanded, even though he did not see their model, nonetheless with all of them he intended to make them as God commanded him, because there was only the commandment regarding them and no visual model. But in the Terumah section, it mentioned in many places as you were shown on the mountain, for the reason we mentioned. And for this reason, Moses was extra careful with the Tabernacle and its vessels, and wanted to give an accounting of them immediately after they were completed, and did not want to combine them with the making of the garments, due to the greater sanctity he saw in the Tabernacle and its vessels, because it was designed to correspond to the heavenly Temple. And this would be its explanation: These are the accountings of the Tabernacle. The definite article ‘heh’ indicates that it is speaking of the heavenly Tabernacle. Then it clarifies which one this is: the Tabernacle of Testimony that was accounted at Moses’ command, meaning that Tabernacle of Testimony which testifies that the Divine Presence dwells among Israel, which was accounted at Moses’ command — this itself is the accountings of the known Tabernacle above.

According to the Midrash that says “mishkan mishkan” [tabernacle tabernacle], because it was taken as collateral [nimashken] twice for the sins of Israel, therefore it says this immediately after the work of the Tabernacle is mentioned. As it is said The Lord has spent His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Zion (Lamentations 4:11). Our Sages said (Lamentations Rabbah 4:14), “He spent His fury on wood and stones.” They specifically mentioned wood and stones to indicate that only the Tabernacle itself, which was made of wood and stones, was taken as collateral, but the priestly garments were not included. Therefore, it mentions These are the accountings of the Tabernacle immediately after the Tabernacle, hinting that the Holy One, blessed be He, forgave them for the sin of the Golden Calf. For it is the way of the world that when someone is indebted to another and gives him collateral for his debt, the creditor no longer demands payment from the person’s body but only from the collateral. In the sin of the Golden Calf, Israel deserved to be completely destroyed in their bodies, but the Holy One, blessed be He, in His mercy, promised to accept from them a collateral for their debt. For although the sin of the Golden Calf was forgiven, it was only forgiven conditionally — if they would not return to their wrongdoing by making [another] calf. And when they returned to their wrongdoing with the calves that Jeroboam son of Nebat made, the sin of the first calf was also remembered against them. This is what is meant by On the day of My visiting, I will visit upon them their sin (Exodus 32:34). That is to say, on the day they make some other calf, which will be the reason to remember the deed of the first calf, then I will visit upon them their sin — to account for the sin of all the calves together. Nevertheless, I will not punish them in their bodies to destroy them from the face of the earth, but I will take from them a collateral for their debt. This is what is meant by These are the accountings of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle [repeated]. For what I said, On the day of My visiting, I will visit — These are the accountings, meaning, that visitation will be upon the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle, corresponding to the two Temples that were destroyed because of their sins. And it mentions [the letter] ‘heh’ [the numerical value of which is five] in the first instance but not in the second, because in the Second Temple, five essential things were missing, as is known. And the reason for this collateral is because the gold of the Tabernacle came to atone for the gold of the calf, and if so, it is as if the Tabernacle became a guarantor for them that they would not return to their wrongdoing. And if they transgress, then I will take the Tabernacle from them, for it is not proper that the Tabernacle that atones should be among them while their impurity is within them and they return to their wrongdoing. Thus, as long as the Tabernacle exists, it is a testimony for Israel that the sin of the calf is released and forgiven. Therefore, it is called the Tabernacle of Testimony.

“And Bezalel son of Uri, etc. made all that the Lord commanded Moses.” Rashi explains that it does not say “that Moses commanded him,” etc. It seems that Rashi unnecessarily forced this interpretation, because in my opinion, the verse means as follows: Since we do not find anywhere in the work of the Tabernacle that Moses commanded Bezalel, “Do this and that,” for in the portion of Ki Tisa it is written, See, I have called by name Bezalel. And it is not written there that Moses told anything to Bezalel. Similarly, in the portion of Vayakhel, Moses said to the entire congregation of Israel, And every wise-hearted person among you shall come and make, etc. the Tabernacle, its tent, etc. And he did not specify there any details about how the Tabernacle should be built and in what manner it should be constructed. And what is said there, And Moses called Bezalel, etc. to approach the work, etc. — even there, the method of construction and how to arrange them is not explained. Therefore, Moses certainly did not command Bezalel at all how to make the Tabernacle and its vessels, and nevertheless, Bezalel knew everything through the divine spirit that was upon him — what the Lord had commanded Moses. Therefore, it was necessary to say here that he “made all that the Lord commanded Moses,” because it could not say that he made all that Moses commanded him, since Moses did not command him regarding the method of their construction.

And as for Rashi’s explanation that Moses commanded him to make the vessels first, I do not know from where Rashi learned this, because on the contrary, in the Vayakhel portion Moses mentioned the Tabernacle first, and so in every place the Tabernacle is mentioned first, except for what is stated in the Terumah portion: And they shall make an ark of acacia wood before the Tabernacle, and this is because it follows the order of their importance. And if he learned this from the question of “which Moses commanded him” but it does not say, etc., we have already said that this is not a question.