Yonatan Kaplan and NAvid Ahdoot Parhat Pekudei

Yonatan Kaplan and Navid Ahdoot

Parshah Pekudei

            In this week’s Parshah, Nehama Leibowitz speaks about the mediums of the different items used in the Mishkan, including gold, silver, and bronze. She specifically speaks of the items being made from bronze, quoting a pasuk that says “And with it he made… the bronze altar, and its bronze grating.” Yet we learn in a Pasuk afterwards “the bronze altar and its grating of bronze…the basin and the stand.” She quotes the Abravanel who asks the question of why we do not include the basin and its stand, which we know are also made out of bronze, in the original listing of all the things made from bronze.

            We believe that the Abravanel has a very keen look on the Torah for asking a question on something that is very easily overlooked.

              He answers his question by saying that the original pasuk only refers to the bronze materials that were donated by Bnei Yisrael, while the basin and its stand were not donated in that same way and were not even made of the same materials. He says that it was made of mirrors that were donated by the women. 

            We are having a hard time understanding exactly what this answer is saying; though we are sure it’s our fault, not the Abravanel’s.

Now, she continues to talk about these mirrors that we spoke about in terms of the basin and its stand. The Ramban takes a peshat view on the pasuk of “And he made the basin of bronze…the women who crowded at the door of the tent of meeting” and says that there were women who gathered outside of the Tent of Meeting  and gave bronze mirrors as a gift to the mishkan, which eventually became part of the basin.

Nehama then asks another question on the text; she asks why Moshe used the mirrors of the women for the basin that will eventually be the thing that sanctifies the Kohanim, letting them “sanctify their deeds?”

She quotes Hirsch first in answering this. Hirsch answers this by saying that it is very appropriate that we use mirrors to sanctify humans body parts, for mirrors make human very aware of their bodies.

She then quotes the Ibn Ezra, who says that these mirrors were from women who were so holy that they didn’t even need their mirrors anymore, for they are not superficial and don’t need to make themselves beautiful, like every other woman does. This dedication of the mirrors showed the women’s devotion to the mishkan for they gave up their desire of their mirrors. So, it makes sense that they would use these mirrors as mediums to sanctify the kohanim for that is purely spiritual.

Nehama then asks another question on the text; she asks why Moshe used the mirrors of the women for the basin that will eventually be the thing that sanctifies the Kohanim, letting them “sanctify their deeds?"

She quotes Hirsch first in answering this. Hirsch answers this by saying that it is very appropriate that we use mirrors to sanctify humans body parts, for mirrors make human very aware of their bodies.

She then quotes the Ibn Ezra, who says that these mirrors were from women who were so holy that they didn’t even need their mirrors anymore, for they are not superficial and don’t need to make themselves beautiful, like every other woman does. This dedication of the mirrors showed the women’s devotion to the mishkan for they gave up their desire of their mirrors. So, it makes sense that they would use these mirrors as mediums to sanctify the kohanim for that is purely spiritual.

  Rashi teaches us that these mirrors were used for the husbands during their times of hard labor in Egypt. The wives would take the mirrors to them while they were working, and say “I am more comely than you” whereas the husband would repeat the same thing, leading to them having relations. Because of this, they were able to bring up a huge generation of people in Egypt, and so Hashem says that these mirrors are worthy of being used in the mishkan. 

This Rashi is similar to a midrash, which explains that the mirrors were representative of something superficial and seemingly bad. So, originally we may think that they shouldn’t be used for a holy purpose, but that is exactly the point. Mirrors were used for bad, but in Egypt women used them to save the nation and to enable the nation to reproduce. So these items should be used in the mishkan for they are even better since they could have been used for bad, but were used for good.

We believe that this is a very moving idea, which can be applied to everyone. The idea that everything can be used for good, it just depends on how we perceive that thing and how we take it. And it teaches us that even if we may have some bad aspects, if we use them for good then we can become even greater than before.