ביום החודש הראשון באחד לחודש תקים את המשכן, “on the day of the first month, on the first day of it, you shall erect the Tabernacle.” On this occasion only, Moses himself was to erect the Tabernacle. From now on, during their journeys in the desert, the Levites would dismantle it as well as reassemble it at the next location. The meaning of the word תקים is equivalent to “putting the finishing touches to it.” The reason this is so, is because according to tradition Moses practiced assembling and dismantling the Tabernacle every single day during the 7 days of the inauguration of the priests. Now, on the eighth day, the first of Nissan, when he assembled it for the last time, the heavenly cloud, signifying the Presence of the Shechinah, materialized and took up its position above the Tabernacle, as we know from 40,33 ויכל משה את המלאכה, “Moses completed the work.” This is followed by ויכס הענן את אהל מועד, ”the cloud enveloped the Tent of Meeting.” Clearly, if the Torah inserted this verse at this point it means that prior to this the cloud was not in evidence. At any rate, on the first day (40,18) of the inaugural sacrifices Moses was told of all the portions in the Book of Leviticus up to and including the last verse in Parshat Tzav. Nonetheless, in spite of having this oral communication from G’d, the cloud had not been in evidence. G’d, as opposed to communicating with Moses from the Holy of Holies, had spoken to Moses directly from heaven, as He had done during the many months since the Exodus. However, in the Midrash Chazit, we have a statement saying that the opening line of Parshat Shemini, i.e. the words ויהי ביום השמיני, “It occurred on the eighth day, etc.” was fit (from a chronological point of view) to have been written at the very beginning of the Book of Leviticus, but seeing that the Torah is not bound by such considerations, it considered it more appropriate to write that paragraph adjacent to the legislation not to enter the holy precincts while in a state of inebriation. In other words, the opening lines of the Book of Leviticus were spoken by G’d to Moses after the paragraph in Leviticus 9,23 where the glory of G’d appeared for all the people to see, and after the death of the two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu in Leviticus

תקים את משכן אהל מועד, “assemble the Tabernacle including the tent which makes it the Tent of Meeting.” Nachmanides writes that this is the directive the execution of which is reported in 40,18 where the sequence of the assembly of different parts of the Tabernacle is reported. Seeing that Moses had already been shown a preview of the Tabernacle during the time he had spent on the Mountain, he had no difficulty in carrying out the directive. No directive was given where to place the Holy Ark, seeing that the very name ארון העדות, “Ark of Testimony,” contains the hint where it must be placed within the two parts of the Sanctuary. Moses certainly did not need to be told that the Tablets were to be put inside the Holy Ark. He only needed to be told that the first order of business when furnishing the Tabernacle was to place the Holy Ark inside. The Torah was similarly brief in its references to the Table and the Menorah, omitting the precise location of either of these two items within the Sanctuary. This had all been explained to Moses on a previous occasion. The Torah is also brief concerning the donning of Aaron as well as his sons of their priestly garments, not repeating the name of each garment. Mention of these garments here is made only to indicate at what stage of preparation for Temple service these garments had to be donned. They were not to be dressed in their priestly garments until after the Tabernacle in which they would perform their duties would have been assembled.

והיה המזבח קודש קדשים “the altar will become holy of holies.” Although the copper altar was standing in the courtyard of the Tabernacle, the Torah refers to it as “holy of holies.” The reason is that also the kind of offerings which are categorized as קדשי קדשים are being offered on it. (Compare Zevachim 7,1) The reason why the Torah wrote of the Tabernacle that it was קודש, holy, was to remind us that that the only part of the Tabernacle that qualified for the description קודש קדשים, holy of holies, was the section west of the dividing curtain. Possibly, the reason why the altar in the courtyard is called קודש קדשים, “holy of holies,” was because of its capacity to make people who came into direct contact with it “holy.” Compare (Exodus 29,37) כל הנוגע במזבח יקדש, “whoever or whatsoever touches the altar will become sanctified.” [This means that it becomes subject to far more stringent regulations governing what is sacred and what is profane. Ed.]

ויקם משה את המשכן, “Moses assembled the Tabernacle.” Nachmanides writes that it is remarkable that in the following the Torah describes how Moses assembled the Tabernacle step by step, without making any mention of the anointing of either the Tabernacle itself or its furnishings. Nor does the Torah here mention the anointing of Aaron and his sons, or the inaugural offerings, even though all these details have already appeared in the commandment given to Moses. The reason for this omission appears to be that we have already been told in verse 17 that (apparently, i.e. hukam) the Tabernacle had erected itself (without the help of Moses) on the first day of the inaugural offerings, on the 23rd day of Adar. During the days between the 23rd of Adar and the first day of Nissan, Moses himself would erect and dismantle the Tabernacle every day, and during these trials he did not perform any anointings whatsoever. The command about anointing was repeated on that occasion, similar to what had already been reported in Parshat Tzav. It follows that when the Torah writes here that Moses arranged the show breads on the Table, that he lit the lamps of the *Menorah, (*verses 22-23) he did all this after having performed the anointing necessary, as it was forbidden to perform these acts of temple service unless the vessels involved had been consecrated by means of anointing. When the Torah in Leviticus chapter 8, describes Moses as performing Temple service (normally reserved for the priests) he did all this after having consecrated with anointing oil all the parties involved and al the vessels involved. Personally, I do not understand how Moses would be presumed to have repeated the same procedures with Aaron and his sons for seven days consecutively, without having already anointed them.

ויקח ויתן את העדות אל הארון, “He took and placed the Tablets inside the Holy Ark.” The word ויקח means that he took the Tablets out of a wooden box where they had been kept since Moses brought them from the Mountain with him on the Day of Atonement and transferred them to the Holy Ark constructed by Betzalel

,ויקטר עליו קטורת סמים “he burned up incense on it.” According to Rashi the subject of the word ויקטר is Aaron. Nachmanides writes that this is a scribe’s error, and it has to be Moses who offered this incense for he had been doing so for all the eight days of the inaugural rites. The same applies to such statements as (verse 23) ויערוך עליו ערך לחם, that he arranged the show-breads on the table, or verse 25) “that he lit the Menorah, or (verse 29) that he offered burned offerings on the altar. All the directives commencing with 40,2 were given for Moses personally to carry out. [Nachmanides is borne out by Rashi writing on verse 29 that Moses performed all these tasks on the eighth day just as he had during the preceding seven days. Ed.] The words עולת תמיד לדורותיכם in Exodus 29,42 where the priests have been charged with the Temple service (commencing with 29,38) are meant to become operative after conclusion of the inaugural rites on the first of Nissan. Even though in the chapter commanding Moses to perform all these rights, no specific mention is made of Moses also offering the incense, he understood this to be an integral part of all the other steps of the Temple service he was to perform during these seven days of inaugural consecration rites. Alternately, the presenting of the incense is automatically included in the commandment (40,5) ונתתה את מזבח הזהב לקטורת לפני ארון העדות, וגו', “you are to place the golden altar for burning incense in front of the ark of testimony, in front of the dividing curtain.” As to Exodus 30,6 where the Torah commands Moses to place the golden altar for incense in front of the dividing curtain, and for Aaron to offer incense on it, every morning, etc., this refers to the duties Aaron is to perform on a regular basis after the conclusion of the inaugural rites. We know that Aaron’s commencing his duties began with his lighting the lamps on the Menorah on the evening of the 1st of Nissan, i.e. at the end of the eighth day. In other words, he did not offer incense before, as Moses was specifically described as lighting the Menorah on the evening preceding the 1st of Nissan (40,25) as he had been commanded in 40,4.

ולא יכול משה לבא אל אהל מועד, “and Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting.” In a different verse (Numbers 7,89) we are told of “Moses entering the Tent of Meeting in order to speak with G’d, etc.” There appears to be some contradiction here. Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning of the text we must understand the words ובבא משה אל אהל מועד in Numbers not as Moses actually having entered the Tent, but that he heard the voice of G’d emanating from the Holy of Holies and on account of that he did not cross the threshold of the Tabernacle. An alternate explanation of the two verses is that the meaning of the words in our verse is simply that “Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting (without obtaining express permission from G’d to do so.” Upon being invited, he would enter the tent, just as he had been invited to ascend Mount Sinai at the time of the revelation, and had not proceeded without being called upon to do so.)

Parshat Vayikra.