וְלַחְשֹׁ֖ב מַֽחַשָׁבֹ֑ת לַעֲשֹׂ֛ת בַּזָּהָ֥ב וּבַכֶּ֖סֶף וּבַנְּחֹֽשֶׁת׃
untuk merancang karya-karya yang penuh keahlian, untuk mengerjakan emas, perak, dan tembaga,
Degel Machaneh Ephraim
And the ability to instruct he instilled in his heart: And its Targum (Targum Yonatan on Exodus 35:34) is, "and to teach the crafts." And on, "And to design designs" (Exodus 35:32), the Targum is also, "And to teach the crafts." And to explain this, we need to preface [the Sages'] statement, may their memory be blessed, (Berakhot 55a:13), "Bezalel knew how to combine the letters with which the heavens and the earth were created." And there is a need to understand what requirement there is for him to know this, in order to build the tabernacle. However the matter is like this: It is known that the Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah and created the world, and the verse assists [this understanding], "I was with Him as a confidant (oman)" (Proverbs 8:30) - do not read [it as], "confidant," but rather [as], "craftsman (uman)." See there (Zohar, Trumah 61:635). And it is known that the tabernacle was also a model of the design of the entire creation of the heavens and the earth. For everything was included in it in order to connect the higher beings and the lower beings, as it is found in the commentators. And in the Midrash: Everything that was stated in the act of creation was stated with the tabernacle. Such as, "And God completed (vayekhal), on the seventh day, His work that He had done" (Genesis 2:20); and it is also stated (Exodus 40:33), "and Moshe completed (vayekhal) the tabernacle, etc." See there. It comes out that for the building of the tabernacle, it is required to know how to combine the letters through which the heavens and the earth were created. And this is [the meaning of] that which the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said, "Betzalel knew, etc." And those were the letters of the Torah, through which the world was built. And it can be said that this is what it hints over here - "And the ability to instruct he instilled in his heart." Backwards, that is, in the heart he instilled Torah (instruction). And that is that which [the Targum Yonatan] translated, "and to teach the crafts." Meaning, that he would teach and study the Torah, which is the craft of the Holy One, blessed be He, with the combination of the letters through which the heavens and the earth were created. And through this, he was also able to design designs for the service and the crafts for the tabernacle. For it is all with one secret. So does it appear to me.
Kedushat Levi
Another approach to the verse: ובצלאל בן אורי....עשה את כל אשר צוה ה' את משה, a look at Rashi who emphasizes the word כל in this verse as an allusion to Exodus 35,32 where Betzalel’s function is not only described as executive, i.e. someone meticulously carrying out instructions, but as לחשוב מחשבות, “contributing original ideas of his own.” This is explained even better when we look at psalms 119,59 חשבתי דרכי וגו', “I have considered my ways, etc.” On psalms 121,5 ה' צלך, “the Lord is your shadow,” a most difficult statement, the Midrash Shocher Tov explains that just as man’s actions are reflected by his shadow, so G’d also acts in a manner that reflects what man had done. For example; G’d says that “when you (the collective soul of the Jewish people) cry, I too join in your cries.” Therefore, as long as we (the collective soul of the Jewish people) do not forget Jerusalem (while we are in exile), we can be assured that G’d will not forget Jerusalem either. (psalms 137,5). Keeping this in mind we learn how important it is that we carefully consider every step we take in life, as if it is in the wrong direction, G’d may follow our footsteps to our detriment. This is not only a warning but also a compliment, so that we do not consider our actions as insignificant in this great universe, believing that what we do or do not do, does not matter to G’d anyways.
When these considerations are applied to Betzalel, whose very name meant that he had been in G’d’s shadow, he would certainly have to have in mind the appropriate thoughts when fashioning each one of the many vessels used in the Tabernacle. The word בצלאל can just as easily be translated as א-ל הוא הצל שלו, “G’d is his shadow.”
Man’s body, according to our sages, consists of 248 limbs, an allusion to the 248 positive commandments in the Torah, as well as of 365 tendons, corresponding to the 365 negative commandments in the Torah. This has been explained in Kohelet Rabbah (Kohelet 1,3) on the words: והארץ לעולם עומדת, “but the earth endures forever,” as an allusion to the structure of the celestial regions, i.e. just as man has 248 limbs and 365 tendons there are parallel phenomena in heaven. Both the inhabitants of heaven and those of earth share components that correspond to the positive and negative commandments found in the Torah, [and enumerated as such by our sages. Ed.] Seeing that the Tabernacle was designed as the home of the Shechinah on earth, it is natural that it contained components that are parallel, [otherwise how would G’d feel “at home,” in it? Ed.] This is what is meant when the Torah wrote that Betzalel constructed all the components in strict compliance with what G’d had commanded Moses. All the individual components of the Tabernacle conformed to the commandments of the Torah.
When understood along these lines, Rashi’s query how this was possible, seeing that at the time Moses was given these instructions most of the commandments in the Torah had not yet been revealed and communicated to the people; in fact they were only communicated to Moses when the latter was in the Tabernacle. (Compare Leviticus 1,1 ויקרא אל משה וידבר ה' אליו מאהל מועד לאמור, “He called (invited) to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tabernacle saying, etc.” (instructing him to communicate G’d’s commandments to the people.) Betzalel’s having stood in G’d’s shadow at the time when Moses had heard the instructions while on Mount Sinai, was aware of what G’d had told Moses at the time, so that he was able to query what he thought was a lapse of memory on the part of his great leader. The laws of the Torah were first communicated to Moses as a potential, whereas once the Tabernacle had been erected (also called Tent of Testimony), G’d repeated His instructions as an actual, i.e. as applicable as and when capable of being performed.
When these considerations are applied to Betzalel, whose very name meant that he had been in G’d’s shadow, he would certainly have to have in mind the appropriate thoughts when fashioning each one of the many vessels used in the Tabernacle. The word בצלאל can just as easily be translated as א-ל הוא הצל שלו, “G’d is his shadow.”
Man’s body, according to our sages, consists of 248 limbs, an allusion to the 248 positive commandments in the Torah, as well as of 365 tendons, corresponding to the 365 negative commandments in the Torah. This has been explained in Kohelet Rabbah (Kohelet 1,3) on the words: והארץ לעולם עומדת, “but the earth endures forever,” as an allusion to the structure of the celestial regions, i.e. just as man has 248 limbs and 365 tendons there are parallel phenomena in heaven. Both the inhabitants of heaven and those of earth share components that correspond to the positive and negative commandments found in the Torah, [and enumerated as such by our sages. Ed.] Seeing that the Tabernacle was designed as the home of the Shechinah on earth, it is natural that it contained components that are parallel, [otherwise how would G’d feel “at home,” in it? Ed.] This is what is meant when the Torah wrote that Betzalel constructed all the components in strict compliance with what G’d had commanded Moses. All the individual components of the Tabernacle conformed to the commandments of the Torah.
When understood along these lines, Rashi’s query how this was possible, seeing that at the time Moses was given these instructions most of the commandments in the Torah had not yet been revealed and communicated to the people; in fact they were only communicated to Moses when the latter was in the Tabernacle. (Compare Leviticus 1,1 ויקרא אל משה וידבר ה' אליו מאהל מועד לאמור, “He called (invited) to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tabernacle saying, etc.” (instructing him to communicate G’d’s commandments to the people.) Betzalel’s having stood in G’d’s shadow at the time when Moses had heard the instructions while on Mount Sinai, was aware of what G’d had told Moses at the time, so that he was able to query what he thought was a lapse of memory on the part of his great leader. The laws of the Torah were first communicated to Moses as a potential, whereas once the Tabernacle had been erected (also called Tent of Testimony), G’d repeated His instructions as an actual, i.e. as applicable as and when capable of being performed.