L’Exode 35:1 Cabale : Zohar

AND MOSES ASSEMBLED ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, ETC. R. Hiya opened here a discourse on the text: “And Saul said unto the Kenites: Go depart”, etc. (I Sam. 15, 6). ‘Observe’, he said, ‘that in regard to Amalek it is written: “I remember that which Amalek did to Israel”, etc. (Ibid. 15, 2). What is the reason that none of the wars waged by other nations against Israel was so displeasing to the Almighty as was the war waged against them by Amalek? The reason, assuredly, is that the battle with Amalek was waged on both fronts, both on high and below; for at that time the evil serpent gathered all its forces both above and below.

AND MOSES AS SEMBLED. R. Abba cited in connection with this the verse: “Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones” (Deut. 31, 12). ‘Just as there’, he said, ‘the gathering comprised the whole of Israel, so here also Moses assembled the whole of Israel; to wit, the six hundred thousand men.’

Subsequently, however, the sections separated, each betaking itself to its own affinity, and so the mixed multitude made the golden calf and led astray numbers who afterwards died, and thus brought upon Israel death and slaughter. The Holy One, blessed be He, then said: “Henceforward the work of the Tabernacle shall be performed from the side of Israel only.” Straightway “Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel… Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord” (Ibid. 35, 1-5). “From among you” emphatically, but not “from every man whose heart maketh him willing”, as in the previous injunction. Furthermore, as no place of assembly is mentioned, the words, “And Moses assembled”, etc., signify that, as the mixed multitude were mingled among the Israelites, Moses found it necessary to assemble the latter on one side so as to segregate them from the former.’