출애굽기 28:5의 주석

והם יקחו AND THEY SHALL TAKE — Those men, wise in heart (cf. v. 3), who are to make the garments shall receive from the donors את הזהב ואת התכלת THE GOLD AND THE BLUE PURPLE, in order to make the garments of them.

AND THEY SHALL TAKE THE GOLD. Now up to this point all the commands were directed to Moses himself: and thou shalt make,⁵³Verse 2. thou shalt make,⁵⁴Above, 26:1. but now He commanded that He should speak unto all that are wise-hearted that they make the garments. It is for this reason that He said, and they shall take the gold and the blue-purple, meaning that they are to receive the free-will gifts directly from the public, and make with them the garments. The purport thereof is to state that the gifts should not be weighed out to them, nor be counted, for they are trustworthy people, similarly to that which is said, Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work; for they dealt faithfully.⁵⁵II Kings 12:16. And just as this is said with reference to the garments, the same applied to the whole work of the Tabernacle. Only on the first day [of its construction] is it written, and they received of Moses,⁵⁶Further, 36:3. and even then they took everything from him without an accounting. But on the other days the people brought the gifts directly to those who did the work. Therefore it is written, And they spoke unto Moses, saying: The people bring much more than enough⁵⁷Ibid., Verse 5. — for it was to them that the people brought the free-will gifts, not that they gave them to Moses for him to weigh it out to them. However, after the workers had collected everything, they did count and weigh it out, and told it to Moses, as it is written, and the gold of the offering was twenty and nine talents etc.⁵⁸Ibid., 38:24.

והם יקחו את הזהב, just as the correct degree of dedication to its purpose was required by these חכמי לב while they would be engaged in fashioning the Tabernacle and its paraphernalia, so the same degree of mental concentration on their holy task was required while they received these contributions from the people or their go betweens.

והם יקחו את הזהב, “and they shall take the gold, etc.” Up until this point all the directives had been addressed to Moses personally, whereas now G’d commanded that Moses address all the wise-hearted people to fashion the vestments, therefore the Torah had to continue with והם יקחו וגו', that these wise-hearted people had to get hold of the raw materials they were to employ when making these vestments. They would receive them directly from the donors and there would be no need for an accounting of the quantity of such materials handed over to the artisans entrusted with the work. They were all trustworthy. The same principle also applied to all the other people engaged in the construction of the Tabernacle. We know this from the fact that the only time mention is made of these donations being handed over by the people was on the first day they had been given such an opportunity, and Moses already had to stop them from binging additional contributions as the Tabernacle’s needs had already been oversubscribed. (compare 35,21 and 36,7) It is clear from there that the people brought their contributions directly to the artisans appointed to convert the materials into the respective furnishings of garments.

Shall receive from the donors. . . Rashi is explaining that the pronoun “they” does not refer to “Aharon and his sons,” mentioned immediately before, but to the “wise at heart” in v. 3. The word יקחו [usually] conveys legal acquisition, which is unrelated to craftsmanship and the artisans who perform their work. Therefore Rashi explains that here, יקחו means “they shall receive” the materials in order to make the garments. And because there is no receiver without one who gives, Rashi adds: “From the donors the gold. . .”

והם, “and they,” the artisans, יקחו את הזהב, “will take the gold; gold which has been discussed elsewhere, i.e. the donations of gold listed in Parshat T’rumah. G-d tells Moses that just as He wishes that Moses should use these donations of gold in the construction of the Tabernacle, so He also wishes that some of it be used for making the priestly vestments. People will not say that Aaron uses this in order to flatter himself, or to enrich himself, as they are aware that it is he who facilitates their obtaining forgiveness for their sins. This will all be spelled out later on.