Play it Again, Sam
By Rabbi David Polsky

From a literary perspective, parashat Vayakhel and parashat Pekudei are tedious and repetitious. They mostly just repeat parshiot Terumah and Tetzaveh, in which God commands the Israelites to put together the mishkan. Vayakhel and Pekudei merely recount the Israelites fulfilling the commands found in the aforementioned parshiot. While reading these parshiot, we wonder why they were never abridged into one or two verses stating that the Israelites fulfilled all of God’s commands.

I believe that the repetitiousness of the parshiot can be appreciated after examining their context within the biblical narrative. Previously, the Israelites committed the grievous sin with the golden calf. The commentators debate the exact nature of their sin. While some commentators understand the calf as a deity or an intermediary, others understand the calf as a prop to inspire worship. Although such a reading helps explain Aaron’s involvement in the creation of the calf and answer other questions, it possesses its own difficulty.

According to this understanding, there should be no difference between the calf and the Tabernacle. Both would merely serve as ritual objects in the service of God. That being the case, the sin of the calf should not merit the Israelites being threatened with extinction.

The most persuasive response is that of R. Yehuda Halevi in his medieval philosophical work, The Kuzari. He writes that the premise of the question is correct. There was no real difference between the calf and the Tabernacle. The only distinction is that the Tabernacle was commanded by God, while the calf was not. While there was nothing inherently wrong in using their calf in worship, their employment of it without God’s sanction led to His fierce reaction.

This teaching helps us to greater appreciate the repetition in parshiot Vayakhel and Pekudei. The Israelites’ sin had stemmed from their desire to worship in a manner that God did not command. Accordingly, fulfilling God’s commands regarding the Tabernacle serves as the best way to atone. Parshiot Vayakhel and Pekudei delineates every facet of the Tabernacle’s construction to demonstrate that the Israelites have agreed to worship only as commanded by God. While the repetitive nature of Vayakhel and Pekudei can appear boring, nothing could better express the fact that the Israelites learned their lesson.