ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל. The Zohar on this verse, Sullam edition Vayakhel page 10, deals at length with the rule that women should not mix with the men during a funeral procession. We are quoting only excerpts. Rabbi Shimon begins by saying that most people do not die before their allotted time unless they did not take care of themselves. The angel of death is present amongst the women during a funeral. At that time he has the opportunity to seduce the women, an ability he has already demonstrated when he seduced the first woman in גן עדן. There is an ancient custom to try and confuse Satan (the angel of death) by blowing the shofar when somebody dies or during a funeral. During the procession permission is granted to Satan to be active and, having examined their faces, to select his victims. The Zohar goes on to explain how to arrange funeral processions so that men and women should not face each other, and so that the men should not walk where the women had walked before, all this so as to neutralise the power of the angel of death. During the episode of the golden calf, the angel of death danced amongst the Jewish people, having a field day. When Moses observed this he assembled all the men by themselves so as to neutralise the power of the angel of death. The men were prohibited from mingling with the women until the donations for the Tabernacle were collected. This is the meaning of 35,22: "The men came with the women." It is significant that the Torah does not say: "The men brought (donations) with the women." The Torah wanted to point out that from the episode of the golden calf until the building of the Tabernacle the men were kept aloof from the women. Only then did the angel of death depart from the camp.

לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת. The word "fire" here is an allusion to the destructive fire engendered by strife and anger. One needs to be careful not to allow oneself to become angry so that the fire of that hatred should not consume one. The "fire" is an allusion to the fire of purgatory that one would suffer from as a result..

אלה פקודי המשכן ואת האלף ושבע מאות וגו'. Midrash Tanchuma section 7 comments on this verse that Moses rendered an accounting to the Jewish people for all the gold, silver and copper received, explaining how it had all been used; he even accounted for the hooks which were not visible once the Tabernacle was assembled. Moses was concerned, that because these hooks on the columns were not visible, he could be subjected to the suspicion by some Israelites of having appropriated the silver for himself. When G–d showed Moses where the silver had gone, Moses in turn immediately made a point of publicly accounting for the use that had been made of the silver which was over and above what had been used for the sockets for the boards and the pillars. The Israelites were satisfied upon hearing this.

We learn from this that if even a Moses, of whom G–d Himself had testified that "he is trusted in My entire House" (Numbers 12,7), felt it incumbent to render an account to the people, no Jewish trustee, however well reputed, should feel it below his dignity to offer an accounting of how he spent the public funds entrusted to him.

We have stated that just as the Tabernacle serves to assure us of the Presence of G–d's שכינה in our midst, so man's physical stature is meant to be the receptacle for G–d's Presence within him. In order to attain this goal, he must strive to purify his entire body from head to toe. If he succeeds in doing this he will experience the fulfilment of ושכנתי בתוכם, "I shall dwell amongst them."