AND MOSES ASSEMBLED ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The expression all the congregation of the children of Israel includes the men and women, for all donated to the work of the Tabernacle. Thus Moses, after having commanded Aaron, and the rulers and all the children of Israel — the men — all that the Eternal had spoken with him in Mount Sinai,¹ following the breaking of the Tablets, and after he had put the veil on his face², Verse 33. [as all this is narrated in the preceding section], again commanded that the people be assembled, whereupon the whole congregation gathered to him — men, women, and children. It is possible that this occurred on the day following his descent from the mountain, and he told all of them the subject of the Tabernacle which he had been previously commanded, before³ the breaking of the Tablets. For since the Holy One, blessed be He, became reconciled with them and gave Moses the second Tablets, and also made a new covenant that G-d would go in their midst,⁴ He thereby returned to His previous relationship with them, and to the love of their “wedding,”⁵ and it was obvious that His Presence would be in their midst just as He had commanded him at first, even as He said, And let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell amongst them.⁶ Therefore Moses now commanded them all that he had been told at first.

footnotes: ¹ Above, 34:32. ² Ibid. ³ Ramban follows [here as elsewhere] the natural sequence of Scripture which tells of the command to build the Tabernacle [in Chapters 25-30] before the people’s sin with the calf [in Chapter 32]. The actual building thereof was delayed until after Moses’ intercession and the complete reconciliation of G-d with Israel. Rashi, however, following the principle that there is no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah, clearly writes: “The incident of the golden calf happened a considerable time before the command regarding the building of the Tabernacle was given” (Rashi above, 31-18). See my Hebrew commentary, p. 526, for further elucidation of this point. ⁴ See Ramban above, 34:9. ⁵ See Jeremiah 2:2. ⁶ Above, 25:8.

THESE ARE THE THINGS WHICH THE ETERNAL HATH COMMANDED, THAT YE SHOULD DO THEM. 2. SIX DAYS SHALL WORK BE DONE. The expression, these are the things which the Eternal hath commanded refers to the construction of the Tabernacle,⁷ refers to the law of the Sabbath, it being mentioned in the plural “words” because the Sabbath is as important as all the other commandments. But according to Ramban, the reference is to the building of the Tabernacle, and the plural is used because the allusion is also to all its vessels, etc. all its vessels and all its various works. He preceded [the explanation of the construction of the Tabernacle] with the law of the Sabbath, meaning to say that the work of these things should be done during the six days, but not on the seventh day which is holy to G-d. It is from here that we learn the principle that the work of the Tabernacle does not set aside the Sabbath, and not from the interpretation of the word ach (but — ‘but’ you shall keep My Sabbaths),⁸ as I have explained in the section of Ki Thisa.⁸

footnotes: ⁷ And not as Ibn Ezra explains [in his short commentary on the Book of Exodus], that these are the words ⁸ Above, 31:13. ⁸ Above, 31:13.

YE SHALL KINDLE NO FIRE THROUGHOUT YOUR HABITATIONS UPON THE SABBATH DAY. The meaning of this verse is clearly to prohibit also on the Sabbath doing any work necessary for the preparation of food, since He said, whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death,⁹ and He further explained that they should also not kindle fire, in order to bake bread and boil meat, for fire is needed in the preparation of all food. This had to be stated because He did not say here: “whosoever doeth ‘any manner’ of work,” just as He said in the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not do any manner of work,¹⁰ but instead He merely said “work” without specifying any type. Therefore we might have excluded from the general statement [whosoever doeth work …] all activity necessary for the preparation of food, for we find it said about the feast of unleavened bread, thou shalt not do work therein,¹¹ and yet the preparation of food is not included [in the scope of its prohibition]. It is for this reason that here He mentioned expressly that the preparation of food is also forbidden on the Sabbath. I have found a similar text in the Midrash:¹² “Rabbi Nathan says: Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath-day. Why is this said? Because it is stated, And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel.¹³…, and as Ramban explained above. The insertion of the word “etc.” at the end of the verse mentioned in the text of Ramban, would clarify the matter completely. It is present in texts of the Mechilta. I might think that one should be allowed to light a candle, to put away food to be kept warm, and to make a fire on the Sabbath. Therefore Scripture says, Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath-day.” This corresponds closely to that which we have said, that these works [mentioned in the Mechilta], since they are of direct benefit to the body, were not included in the first prohibition. Thus Rabbi Nathan wanted to say that the purpose of the verse here is not to prohibit baking, cooking, and the rest of the activities involved in the preparation of food, for these have already been prohibited to them by the verse, Bake that [on the sixth day of the week] which ye will bake [i.e., which ye intend to bake on the Sabbath], and seethe that which ye will seethe.¹⁴ But yet I might think that all activities which benefit man in such a way that the benefit is only to the body — such as lighting a candle, making fire, or washing one’s whole body in hot water — should be allowed, for these are part of the delight of the Sabbath.¹⁵ Therefore it says, Ye shall kindle no fire — to prohibit all [mentioned activities even if done for these purposes]. Our Rabbis in the Talmud¹⁶ have yet another Midrash on this verse, because it does not say: “whosoever doeth any manner of work therein shall be put to death,” or: “whosoever kindles fire throughout your habitations shall be put to death.” Therefore they said that the kindling of fire was singled out in order to make it punishable in a less stringent manner, [namely by stripe], since it is a mere negative command, [whereas violation of the Sabbath by doing any of the other kinds of work is punishable by death]. But another Sage¹⁷ holds that it was singled out in order to separate it, since it was included in the prohibition, thou shalt not do any manner of work.¹⁸, one becomes liable to punishment for transgressing it alone, so also in the case of all the other thirty-nine categories of forbidden work on the Sabbath, one becomes liable upon transgressing each one of them by itself. For otherwise we might have thought that only if one has done all thirty-nine main classes of “work” he is liable to punishment; therefore kindling of fire was singled out in order to teach that the punishment applies even if he has done but one kind of “work” (Rashi, Yebamoth 6 b). For it is one of the thirteen rules of interpretation of the Torah: “If anything is included in a general proposition and is then made the subject of a special statement, that which is predicated of it is not to be understood as limited to itself alone, but is to be applied to the whole of the general proposition.” Similarly we might have thought that if one has done all thirty-nine main classes of “work” on the Sabbath through error he is liable to bring but one sin-offering, therefore kindling of fire was singled out to teach that he is liable to bring such an offering for each of the main classes of “work” he has done.

footnotes: ⁹ Verse 2. ¹⁰ Above, 20:10. ¹¹ Deuteronomy 16:8. ¹² Mechilta here. ¹³ Verse 1. — Reference here in the Mechilta is of course to Verse 2: whosoever doeth work therein ¹⁴ Above, 16:23. ¹⁵ See Isaiah 58:13. ¹⁶ Shabbath 70a. ¹⁷ This is Rabbi Nathan. ¹⁸ Above, 20:10. It was thus singled out to indicate a general principle: just as in the case of kindling, which is specifically mentioned although it is included in the prohibition, thou shalt not do any manner of work in it

Y’VI’EHA’ (LET HIM BRING IT), THE ETERNAL’S OFFERING. This is like “yavi (let him bring) the Eternal’s offering.” But Scripture mentions a pronoun and then returns to explain it. Similarly: *And she opened and saw him, the child;*¹⁹ *when he went in, the man;*²⁰ — when the man went in. *the nation and the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar;*²¹ which I do give to them, the children of Israel.²² There are many similar instances. By way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], the phrase here is like “let him bring it ‘with’ the Eternal’s offering,” meaning that he is to bring the higher offering as alluded to in the secret of and they take for Me an offering.²³ I have already explained it.²⁴, Verse 3. Our Rabbis have a Midrash²⁵ on the verse, and she opened and saw him, the child,¹⁹ that she saw with him the Divine Glory. Now it was necessary for Moses to tell the whole congregation all the work which G-d had commanded him, in order to let them know that they had to bring large donations, for the work is great.²⁶ That is why he told them, The Tabernacle, its tent, and its covering etc.,²⁷ mentioning all in a general way. The reason for the definite article in ‘eth hamishkan’ (the Tabernacle),²⁷ ‘eth ha’aron’ (the ark),²⁸ ‘eth hashulchan’ (the table),²⁹ and all those mentioned with the definite article, is as if to say: “the Tabernacle and the vessels which we will explain to the wise men doing the work in their details and measurements,” but speaking now to the whole congregation, he told them only their names in general.

footnotes: ¹⁹ Above, 2:6 ²⁰ Ezekiel 10:3. It should have said: b’vo ha’ish ²¹ Jeremiah 27:8. ²² Joshua 1:2. ²³ Above, 25:2. ²⁴ Ibid. ²⁵ Sotah 12b. ¹⁹ Above, 2:6 ²⁶ I Chronicles 29:1. ²⁷ Verse 11. ²⁷ Verse 11. ²⁸ Verse 12. ²⁹ Verse 13.

AND THEY CAME, EVERY ONE WHOSE HEART STIRRED HIM UP. This is said with reference to the wise men who did the work, for we do not find the use of this phrase, “the stirring up of the heart,” in connection with those who merely brought the donations; Scripture rather mentions “generosity of heart” with reference to them. Now the reason for using such a phrase, whose heart stirred him up, is because they undertook to do the work, although there was no one amongst them who had learned these crafts from an instructor, or had trained his hands at all to do them. Rather, a person who felt in his nature that he knew how to do such skills, his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Eternal³⁰ to come before Moses and say to him, “I will do all that my lord speaks.” I have already mentioned this in another section.³¹ Thus Scripture is stating that there came before Moses every one whose heart stirred him up to undertake the work, and every one whom his spirit made willing brought the offering. Then Moses said to all of them that G-d had called by name Bezalel,³² and Oholiab.³³, Verse 34. Afterwards Moses called them and every wise-hearted man³⁴, 36:2. to come before him, and he gave them the whole donation [brought by the people so that they could proceed to do the work].

footnotes: ³⁰ II Chronicles 17:6. ³¹ Above, 31:2. ³² Further, Verse 30. ³³ Ibid. ³⁴ Ibid.

AND THE MEN CAME ‘AL HANASHIM’ (WITH THE WOMEN). The meaning of this expression is that because donations of ornaments were more common amongst women, and they all had these jewels [cited in the verse: nose-rings, and ear-rings, and signet-rings, and golden beads, all jewels of gold], therefore they immediately pulled off their ear-rings and signet-rings and were the first to come to Moses, and [afterwards] they brought with them those men with whom they found ornaments. For the phrase al hanashim indicates that they were there first, while the men joined them later. Similar usage of the word al is found in these verses: Aram is confederate ‘al’ Ephraim,³⁵ for that war [against Judah] was mainly led by Ephraim [i.e., the kingdom of Israel]; *and he did not put them ‘al’ (unto) Laban’s flock;*³⁶ ‘v’alav’ (and next unto him) shall be the tribe of Manasseh.³⁷ There are other similar instances. Thus Scripture is stating that all — men and women — came with nose-rings, and ear-rings, and signet-rings, and golden beads, and with all jewels of gold, such as bracelets and ear-rings, as all of the people found some jewelry to bring. It further states that some of them brought an offering of gold, in some broken form or as coin.

footnotes: ³⁵ Isaiah 7:2. ³⁶ Genesis 30:40. ³⁷ Numbers 2:20.

And every man, with whom was found blue-purple and red-purple.³⁸ The reason for this expression is that these items were found only amongst a few of the people. Then Scripture states again, and every man, with whom was found acacia-wood,³⁹ because the people who had this kind of wood were still fewer in number. It states, Every one that did set apart an offering of silver and brass,³⁹ because most people had silver and brass in coins or vessels. Scripture, however, did not mention this above together with all jewels of gold, because it mentioned there the women, and they did not have silver and brass ornaments but gold ones, just as Aaron said, Pull off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives.⁴⁰

footnotes: ³⁸ Verse 23. ³⁹ Verse 24. ³⁹ Verse 24. ⁴⁰ Above, 32:2.

And every man that ‘heinif tenufath’ (brought an offering of) gold. This is so phrased because the number of these people was not as great as those who brought silver and brass. Thus the amount of gold brought was not as much as that of silver and brass. It is for this reason that the gold donation is called tenufah (waving), whilst that of silver and brass is called terumah (offering),⁴¹… for one who brings gold waves it with his hand to show the importance of the donation, or it may be that those who take it from him wave the gold to show up the donor in a praiseworthy light for having brought such a donation. However, in the section of Eileh Pekudei Scripture calls the donations of both gold and brass tenufah,⁴²… And in Verse 29: And the brass of ‘hatenufah’… because there it does not mention at all terumah (free-will offering,) but only the silver of them that were numbered.⁴³, Verse 25. And since everyone had to give the half-shekel in order to be counted, it is not called terumah which indicates a free-will offering. See Ramban above at beginning of Seder Ki Thisa. It is possible that brass also was called tenufah because it was more important to them than silver, since they did not have much of it. Or it may have been very important on its own merit, similar to that which is said, and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold.⁴⁴

footnotes: ⁴¹ Thus in Verse 24: Every one that ‘meirim terumath’ (set apart an offering of) silver and brass ⁴² Further, 38:24: And the gold of ‘hatenufah’ ⁴³ Ibid. ⁴⁴ Ezra 8:27.