Commentary for Exodus 37:35

ויעש בצלאל AND BEZALEL MADE [THE ARK] — Because he gave himself over to the work more whole-heartedly than the other wise men it is called after his name (his name alone is associated with the act) (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 10).

Because he extended himself for the work . . . I.e., throughout the section it is written, “He made,” but it is not written “Betzalel” as it does about the ark. This is because they [the other items] do not have as much sanctity as the ark, so Betzalel did not wish to exert himself as much in making them. Instead, Betzalel showed Oholiav and the other disciples [what to do], and they made them. But the ark possessed great sanctity, so Betzalel personally exerted himself over it and extended himself more for the work.

Kap. 37. V. 1. ויעש בצלאל. Während bei den anderen Gegenständen Bezalel sich mehr oder minder auf eine anordnende und leitende Tätigkeit beschränkt haben dürfte, war der ארון, das Hauptobjekt, dem eigentlich die ganze heilige Wohnung errichtet wurde, sein unmittelbares Werk.

ויעש בצלאל את הארון, “Betzalel constructed the Ark.” It was the first of the furnishings of the Tabernacle. This corresponds to what we read in Psalms 119,130: and פתח דבריך יאיר מבין פתיים, “even the preamble to the words You inscribed give light.” David referred to the “light” G–d had created on the first day prior to proceeding to creating the three dimensional universe. This is what the Holy Ark represented in the Tabernacle as the Torah it contained has been defined by Solomon in Proverbs 6,23 as: כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, “for the individual commandment is a lamp, whereas the Torah as a whole represents light itself.” The reason why you do not find Betzalel’s name associated with any of the furnishings of the Tabernacle other than the Holy Ark, is that in connection with that item Betzalel had demonstrated the degree of holy spirit which G–d had endowed him with. Moses had suggested to Betzalel to construct the Holy Ark as the first item to be made for the Tabernacle, whereupon Betzalel upon hearing this questioned it by saying to him: “are you sure? Does one not build a house before making the furniture for it?” Moses then remembered that he had forgotten the order in which G–d had told him to proceed. Our sages kept this story alive by pointing out that the meaning of Betzalel’s name בצל-אל is: ”in the shadow of G–d,” i.e. he must have been nearby when G–d instructed Moses. (Compare Talmud, tractate B’rachot folio 55)

עצי שטים, “acacia wood.” It was so named because the Israelites would commit grave sins at a location by that name. Using this type of wood was meant to help atone for that sin by the people.

על צלעות הארון, on the sides of the Ark. The three times the word "the Ark" is mentioned in this paragraph corresponds to the three "Arks" i.e. the golden outer Ark, the one made of acacia wood, and the golden inner Ark, as we are taught in Yuma 72.

משני קצותיו, at the two ends thereof. Perhaps the verse wants to inform us that Betzalel did not make the lid of equal thickness throughout before pounding it with a hammer. He may have flattened it with hammer blows to correspond to the size required to fit as a lid over the Ark. He had added additional amounts of gold at either end so that he could fashion the cherubs out of that excess. This is why the Torah had to specify that the cherubs were made from the respective extremities of the lid.

V. 8. קצוותו, und so auch Kap. 39. 4 bei den Achseln des Ephods, die zum Tragen der beiden Schohamsteine bestimmt waren, hebt die Schrift das Pluralzeichen des Substantivs an sich durch besonderes Waw hervor, da ein Waw als aus dem dritten Radixbuchstaben ה hervorgegangen erscheinen könnte, lässt aber demgegenüber das Pluralzeichen י in dem Suffixum schwinden, und eben dieser letztere Umstand scheint die Sicherung des Plurals an sich durch Verdeutlichung des Plural-Waws notwendig gemacht zu haben, damit man das Ganze nicht als Singular begreife. Bei beiden Gegenständen, den Cherubim und den Ephodachseln, scheint die Schrift bemüht zu sein, die Einheit ungeachtet der Zweiseitigkeit für die Auffassung zu wahren. Wenn auch das in dem ארון bewahrte Gottesgesetz in der Verwirklichung in doppelseitiger Richtung in die Erscheinung tritt, wie wir dies (zu Kap. 25, 17-20) zu entwickeln versucht, so sind doch beide Seiten wesentlich eins, und es ist keiner Seite eine die andere überwiegende Bedeutung zuzumessen, wie ja auch diese Einheit durch Blick und Stellung der Cherubim veranschaulicht ist. Und ebenso, obgleich die Nation auf den beiden Schohamsteinen rechts und links geteilt erscheint, so ist doch die Nation vor Gott wesentlich eine unteilbare Einheit und keinem Teile ist eine die andere überragende Bedeutung zuzuerkennen, wie diese Einheit noch ausdrücklich auch hinsichtlich der die Steine tragenden Achseln durch die Beifügung: הֻבָר hervorgehoben ist.

V. 16. אשר על השלחן,die sofort genannten, קערות waren die Formen, in denen das Brot bis zur Schichtung auf den Tisch bewahrt wurde. Sie kamen nicht auf den Tisch, und durfte daher das על in weiterem Sinne als: zum Tisch gehörig gefasst werden.

ויעש את המנורה, He constructed the candlestick, etc. You will find that the Torah refers to the various furnishings of the Tabernacle by the same description both when we are told about what was required and when the execution is reported. Why, in this instance, did the Torah depart from this rule and instead of describing the candlestick as "the candlestick for illumination" or as "the golden candlestick," it is simply described as "the candlestick?"

Perhaps the answer may be found in the rule (Menachot 28) that under certain conditions the candlestick could be made from other metals, as hinted in the word תיעשה, (25,31). The Torah mentioned in chapter 25 that the candlestick had to be made of gold in order to remind us that the rule that it could be made of cheaper metals did not apply under the conditions prevailing then. It could also be that the meaning of the words "the golden candlestick" simply means that it was to be made of gold and not of any other metal although such a candlestick is acceptable in principle. In our context the Torah simply emphasised that Betzalel conformed to the instruction and made the candlestick out of gold as ordered.

V. 22. וקנותם. Siehe zu Kap. 25, 36.

ויעש את מזבח הקטורת, he constructed the altar for incense. The reason that the construction of the golden altar is mentioned here is because it was situated inside the Sanctuary as opposed to the copper altar mentioned afterwards. I have explained the reason why its construction had been commanded after G'd commanded the construction of the copper altar (compare 27,1 and 30,1 respectively) in my commentary on וכן תעשו.

על שתי צלעותיו על שני צדיו, “upon the two ribs thereof, on the two sides thereof.” There is some duplication of words here.

AND HE MADE THE HOLY ANOINTING OIL, AND THE PURE INCENSE OF SWEET SPICES. Scripture did not explain these as it did with the others, for according to the way it writes about the others it should have said, “and he took the chief spices, of flowing myrrh etc.,⁷⁵Above, 30:23. and he made them into the holy anointing oil; and he took sweet spices, stacte, and onycha etc.⁷⁶Ibid., Verse 34. and he made them into an incense compounded after the art of the perfumers.” But the reason [for Scripture not saying so] is because He did not state the whole process of the making of the oil of anointment when He gave the command for them, as I have explained there.⁷⁶Ibid., Verse 34. In the making of the incense likewise it does not mention all the spices, but relied on them [the craftsmen who made the Tabernacle] by saying that it should be made after the art of the perfumer,⁷⁷Ibid., Verse 35. and therefore when they made it Scripture only mentioned that they made it according to the way of the perfumers. This is the sense of the expression, holy… pure, after the art of the perfumer.

ויעש את שמן המשחה קדש, he meant for it to be enduring infinitely (not to evaporate or otherwise disintegrate). We have encountered the meaning of the word קדש in this sense already on Exodus 30,31קדש יהיה לכם ולדורותיכם, “it shall be sacred for you as it will last throughout your generations.”

ויעש את שמן המשחה קודש, “He made the oil of anointing, holy;” the reason why the Torah adds the adjective קודש when describing the making of this oil, is because it was used to sanctify the Tabernacle, its furnishings, both Aaron’s and his sons’ garments. The incense, on the other hand, is described as being טהור, pure, to tell us that it is subject to being contaminated ritually. Nachmanides writes the reason why the Torah did not spell out the components that the oil of anointing consisted of as it did when Moses was commanded to make it in chapter 30, was that even when Moses was commanded about the making of the oil of anointing and the incense, the Torah did not furnish a complete list of the ingredients. The Torah had contented itself with mentioning “מעשה רוקח,” the work of perfumers. If it was in order to be brief at that time, it was in order to be equally brief when it reports the compliance with the directive.

ויעש את שמן המשחה, “he made the holy anointing oil;” why was this verse inserted at this juncture? The question is in place as we would have expected the Torah to have written this verse after all the vessels that required anointing had been completed, seeing that the work of the copper altar as well as the washbasin and its stand had not yet been completed as well as other portable utensils which would require to be ritually pure? Rabbi Chavell speculates that seeing that no one answered this question, and we know that many parts of the Tabernacle were ultimately hidden to prevent them falling into enemy hands, the holy anointing oil, which according to tradition never diminished even after use, was also something that was hidden, whereas the copper altar and the washbasin were not considered holy enough to have to be hidden.

ואת קטורת הסמים טהור; with spices from which any foreign elements had been carefully removed, i.e. טהור, “pure, unadulterated.”