חִשַּׁ֥בְתִּי דְרָכָ֑י וָאָשִׁ֥יבָה רַ֝גְלַ֗י אֶל־עֵדֹתֶֽיךָ׃
Aku memikirkan jalan-jalanku, lalu aku membalikkan kakiku kepada peringatan-peringatan-Mu.
Sefat Emet
In the midrash "'I have considered my ways.' Every day, I would calculate and say: I am going to this place and that residence, but my legs would take etc." For in every thing and in every place, there exists the life-force of God, may He be blessed. However, while the life-force specifically resides in, and is clothed in, different places in different ways, inside it is all one and the same. And this is the relevance of the "ways" in the verse, which are normally dangerous -- when the person is referred to [by the midrash] as "going," it means that the person is drawing His life-force, may He be blessed, into every thing and in every place, as described above, through deliberating before every matter. In this manner, the person can find a true core-point in every thing. "Your decrees" (eidotecha) means "clarification," for a person must be a witness (eid) to make clear and to testify that everything comes from God, may He be blessed, as described above. "Synagogues" (batei k'neisiyot) -- the meaning is to bring everyone inside (l'hachnis) the totality, so that no one is left apart from the source of life-force, which gives life to everything, as described above. The [necessary] will from a person is the true subsuming of all intelligence and knowledge into the will of God, may He be blessed. This, even though initially it comes about through calculation and reasoned analysis. And this is what is meant by "I have considered my ways." Throughout, the goal must be to cleave in this manner to the Supreme Will, to subsume intelligence to Him, though this comes about through knowledge and calculation, as described above. And this is what is meant by [walking] "b'hukotai" [specifically in those of My laws that are not humanly understandable] -- -- that you should labor in Torah, not with the intent of the studying being to know or to comprehend, but rather so that one can dissolve and be subsumed in Him, as is appropriate, and to desire always to come near to that which one does not comprehend. And this, the constant striving in Torah to nullify oneself and subsume knowledge to that which is beyond comprehension. And in this way, one comprehends more, in order to nullify oneself more. This is laboring in Torah.
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.