ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל, “Moses assembled the entire community of the Children of Israel. The comprehensive term עדה includes both men and women. Seeing that both the men and the women had contributed of their belongings for the work on the Tabernacle they were all entitled to be addressed here directly. The assembly mentioned here, occurred on the day after Moses had returned from his last trip to the Mountain on Yom Kippur and had informed the people that the instructions to build a Sanctuary for G’d were living proof that they were back in G’ds favour. While it is true that Moses himself had already received such instructions on his first ascent to the Mountain, to wit chapter 25,8 ועשו לי מקדש, seeing that the sin of the golden calf had intervened, and G’d’s manifest Presence had withdrawn in the interval, these instructions now had to be renewed.

אלה הדברים וגו', “these are the things, etc.” Some commentators feel that the words אלה הדברים focus on the Sabbath legislation which follows immediately. The reason the Torah used the plural mode אלה instead of זה הדבר, is to make the point that the Sabbath and all it entails is a commandment that is considered as weighty as the remainder of the laws of the Torah. [Deliberate violation of the Sabbath makes one a heretic, even if one conscientiously observes all the other commandments. Ed.] Alternatively, the fact that the Sabbath legislation includes the prohibition of 39 categories of activities known collectively as אבות מלאכות, makes the plural mode אלה perfectly appropriate. Nachmanides writes that the words אלה הדברים refer to the instructions relating to the building of the Tabernacle, and its various components. The reason why the Torah mentioned the sanctity of the Sabbath before proceeding with the details of the Tabernacle, was to stress that the work for the Tabernacle was not to override the laws of resting on the Sabbath.

כל העושה בו מלאכה יומת, “anyone performing forbidden categories of work on that day deserves to be executed.” Even if the person concerned was busy doing work sanctioned by heaven, it does not take precedence over the legislation governing the rules of the Sabbath. One of these rules, for instance, is what follows:

לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם, “do not kindle any fire in any of your dwellings;” we find a disagreement between the scholars of the Talmud (Shabbat 70) concerning this particular verse. Some hold that the reason why this particular work prohibition is the only one specifically mentioned in the Torah, is to place it in a different category from the other prohibited categories of activities, i.e. all the others are subject to the death penalty, whereas this one is punishable only by thirty nine lashes, (according to Rashi, not even that*)* as are most other negative commandments when violated deliberately. [the technical term for this view by Rabbi Yossi is ללאו יצאה, “it was singled out as a lesser transgression.” The other opinion views this prohibition as an example, לחלק יצאה, “singled out, [as representative of the rules applying to all thirty nine categories. Ed.] The thirty-nine categories themselves are based on activities without which the work on the Tabernacle could not have been carried out successfully; hence they are appropriate as guidelines as to what is and what is not prohibited on the Sabbath. Some scholars feel that the reason why kindling a fire had to be mentioned especially, is that the general public does not view this activity as “work,” seeing that it is permitted on the festivals when used to prepare food. Still other commentators feel that a basic activity, such as kindling a fire, is so necessary that people could not have imagined that it was forbidden on pain of death if the Torah had not spelled it out for them specifically. Nachmanides writes that seeing the Torah does not add here that anyone performing forbidden work will be put to death, we might have thought that when this kindling of fire is performed in order to enable us to have hot meals on the Sabbath, that this is not forbidden, just as it is not forbidden on Passover or the other festivals, although the Torah writes that no work may be performed on those festivals. By specifically stating that lighting a fire on the Sabbath, for whatever reason, is forbidden, we are reminded that the Sabbath is different from the festivals in this respect.

יביאה את תרומת ה', “he shall bring it as his contribution to Hashem.” The meaning is the same as if the Torah had written יביא, without the letter ה at the end. It happens quite frequently in Scripture that the pronoun is used, as in this case, prematurely, and only afterwards does the Torah explain to what this pronoun [in this instance the letter ה for “it” referred. Another such example is found in Exodus 2,6 ותפתח ותראהו, “She opened it and saw him, את הילד, “the boy.” Moses now proceeds to tell the entire congregation all the details of the work to be performed, not because all the people would participate in it, but to make them aware of the gigantic nature of this project, undertaken in the desert in the absence of workshops, etc. It was also to bring home to them that substantial contributions were required to ensure the successful conclusion of the project. Interestingly, when referring to the Tabernacle as well as to its furnishings, Moses uses the definitive article, i.e. the letter ה, making it sound as if all these phenomena were already familiar to the people whom he addressed. By use of this definitive article, he intimated that the details would be conveyed to the artisans commissioned to actually carry out the work.

ויבאו כל איש אשר נשאו לבו, “Every man whose heart inspired him came;” Nachmanides draws our attention to the change in expression here. In connection with the donations, (25,2) the Torah had described the individual’s motivation with the words אשר נדבנו לבו, “whose heart motivates him,” whereas here we are told about a different level of generosity, enthusiasm, i.e. אשר נשאו לבו, “whose heart inspired him.” Men who had no training in performing any of these tasks were inspired and suddenly were able to perform tasks they had never considered themselves capable of performing. Artisans who were skilled in performing tasks but had never trained others to do so, now became skilled at teaching their art, and men or women who had never displayed skill with their hands were suddenly inspired to do so. They came to Moses volunteering to perform the tasks that were required.

ויבאו האנשים על הנשים, “The men came together with the women;” the meaning of the word על הנשים is that the men “played second fiddle” to the women, who had been the primary movers in getting the whole project off to a flying start. One of the reasons the women were so quick in contributing, was that they had plenty of jewelry with which they were in the habit of adorning themselves. They did not have to go searching for things to contribute. All they had to do was to take off part of their jewelry and to hand it to Moses.

וכל איש אשר הניף תנופת זהב לה', “and any man who raised up an offering of gold for G’d.” Seeing that the Torah had already reported that all kinds of golden vessels had been donated, here we must think in terms of either gold coins or remnants of golden vessels that had somehow disintegrated.

וכל איש אשר נמצא אתו תכלת וארגמן, “as well any man in whose possession there was blue wool and purple wool.” Finding such cloth dyed in the required colours was more difficult, as not many people owned such. We find a similar expression later when people who happened to own shittim wood for the beams of the Tabernacle are described as אשר נמצא אתו, “who possessed such.” On the other hand, when speaking of contributions of metal such as silver and copper, the Torah uses the word כל “all,” as if to hint that everyone possessed such metals in abundance, so that there was no problem in raising the contributions necessary in the required quantities or even more than that. This expression כל had not been used when the Torah spoke of contributions of gold, seeing that the gold was primarily donated by the women who had golden jewelry, but who did not own silver and copper in their own right. [they could not legally donate what belonged to their husbands. Ed.] In Parshat Pekudey the Torah refers to both gold and copper as תנופה, “a raised up” offering. The reason for this may be the absence of any reference to a donation, i.e. תרומה[the word תרומה from the root הרים, to elevate something, obviated the need for reference to תנופה when gold was mentioned earlier. Ed.] Silver donated is described there without being defined as either תרומה or תנופה, presumably because the half shekel silver coins contributed by all the males above 20 years of age were mandatory contributions, not the result of any feeling of generosity on the part of the donor who had to atone for a serious sin he had been guilty of. [seeing that there is a confusion in the text of the author’s manuscript about this, I have substituted my own interpretation. The Torah, after all, did write that the silver was the proceeds of the people numbered. (38,25,) Ed.] Copper may have qualified for a distinctive adjective as it was not common and much in demand, so that giving it away represented an act of special generosity.

והנשיאים הביאו, “and the princes had brought (gemstones).” According to Ibn Ezra when the people at the time of the Exodus asked their Egyptian neighbours for valuables, each person asked for things commensurate to his station in society. The princes therefore had asked for jewels, which they now contributed for use in the breastplate of the High Priest. According to a comment by the Targum Yonatan ben Uziel, and a note in the Tanchuma, the word נשיאים here is rendered as ענני שמיא, “celestial clouds,“ i.e. a kind of angel? And these angels came and contributed these jewels for the breastplate and Ephod of the High Priest. In Yuma 75 the word נשיאים is also used in that sense. (based on Proverbs 25,14 )