Tafsiran Keluaran 35:35: Rabbeinu Bahya

מלא אותם חכמת לב, “He filled them with a wise heart.” There are 32 paths of wisdom (as we know from Sefer Yetzirah 1,1). The 32 fringes which make up the commandment of ציצית correspond to these 32 paths of wisdom. I will explain the deeper meaning of this when discussing the relevant passage in the Torah in Numbers 15,38 under the heading: “a kabbalistic approach.”

Seeing that attaining true understanding of the emanation חכמה is beyond most people, the Sefer Yetzirah speaks about 32 נתיבות, “paths,” leading to wisdom rather than 32 דרכים, “ways” to wisdom. The word דרך means a “broad way,” whereas the word נתיב refers to a “narrow path.” This is reflected in the words of prophet Jeremiah (6,16) who said עמדו על דרכים וראו, ושאלו לנתיבות עולם, “stand by the roads and consider; inquire about ancient paths.” The prophet uses the word ראו to encourage exploration of the broad דרך, while concerning the narrow נתיב he speaks only of “inquire,” knowing that it is so much more difficult to obtain accurate information about where a narrow path leads to.

Seeing that “wisdom” is so elusive, it is difficult to trace its origin. The only way is to explore it by means of the 32 different paths, each one revealing a small aspect of it. Wisdom, i.e. its root, is comparable perhaps to the roots of a tree which are covered with earth, difficult to trace. Only by following each little ridge in the earth can one tediously piece together where the centre of the tree (of wisdom) is to be found. When the Torah mentions the expression חכמת לב, “wisdom of the heart,” in our verse this is designed to highlight the outstanding wisdom of Betzalel and Oholiov who were filled with wisdom by the Shechinah. It is an expression similar to Genesis 6,6 where the Torah describes G’d’s anger at the corruption of mankind with the words ויתעצב אל לבו, “He was saddened at ‘his heart,’” i.e. at the abuse man had made of the wisdom the seat of which is in his heart. The word לב to describe wisdom is also found in Kings I 5,26 where Solomon had requested a לב שומע a “discerning heart” to enable him to judge the people.” G’d responded by וה' נתן חכמה לשלמה, “G’d had given wisdom to Solomon.” Seeing that both Betzalel and Oholiov were true believers, the Torah described their חכמה as being like that of the Shechinah itself, writing that “Hashem had filled them with the spirit of G’d, i.e. “divine-like spirit” (verse 31).
When the Torah writes בהמה instead of בהם in 36,1 describing how Betzalel and Oholiov related to their task in fashioning each of the furnishings of the Tabernacle, the extra letter ה at the end of the word בהם was meant to alert us to the quality of the wisdom they needed in order to perform all this work successfully, i.e. G’d-like wisdom.
This is not the only time that the Shechinah is alluded to in the written Torah by means of the letter ה, as I have pointed out repeatedly such as on Exodus 15,16.
On the other hand, it is possible that the reason the Torah did not write בהם as we would have expected, is precisely to indicate that man is not able to penetrate to the root of wisdom so that the word had to be imperfect, reflecting man’s imperfect faculties. As David pointed our in Psalms 49,13 there are aspects of wisdom in which man is no better than an animal. Such thoughts are also expressed in Psalms 92,7 where David in discussing the majesty of G’d’s works exclaims: “a man cannot know, a fool cannot understand this.” The reason David describes man as איש, a term of distinction, in that line, is that he says that even worthy man cannot understand the greatness of the Lord’s works to their full extent. The translation of the word בער is: “beast-like.” David’s meaning then is that though איש, man, may attain great stature, when it comes to understanding the wisdom expressed in the Lord’s works his understanding is more or less animal-like, i.e. totally inadequate.