Komentarz do Wyjścia 39:1

ומן התכלת והארגמן וגו׳ AND OF THE BLUE PURPLE AND OF THE RED PURPLE etc. — But there is no mention of linen here. From this fact I derive (cf. Rashi on Exodus 31:10) that these בגדי שרד mentioned here were not identical with the garments of the priests, for there was linen in the garments of the priests. But these were the cloths with which they covered up the holy vessels at the time of removing and packing up the articles in the Tabernacle when they set out on their journeyings which indeed had no linen in them.

בגדי שרד, covers about which the only information we have is that the picture on each indicated which object each one was to cover.

כאשר צוה ה׳ את משה; as G'd had commanded Moses. The Torah emphasises this to tell us that the Tabernacle corresponded to G'd's instructions in all its details as we already explained in connection with 27,20 that G'd considered that Moses had a personal share, i.e. merit, in every detail of the construction of the Tabernacle although he personally had not been commanded to perform the work.

Kap. 39. V. 1. בגדי השרד (siehe Kap. 31, 10). Auch der Umstand, dass die פקודי המשכן nach Beendigung des Heiligtums, nicht aber erst nach gänzlicher Beendigung aller von den Spenden anzufertigenden heiligen Gegenstände, wozu ja auch die Priestergewänder gehören, stehen, spricht dafür, dass es sich hier nicht um eine Abrechnung über das Erhaltene und dessen Verwendung handelt. — כאשר צוה ד׳ וגו׳: dieser Schluss findet sich bei Anfertigung der Gewänder, nicht aber bei Anfertigung der das משכן bildenden Teile. Von diesen ist es erst nach Zusammensetzung und Aufstellung derselben Kap. 40, 19 u. 21 ff. gesagt. Ein jedes Gewandstück ist mit der Anfertigung vollendet. Die die Wohnung bildenden Teppiche etc. und Geräte fanden ihre Vollendung erst nach deren Zusammensetzung und Aufstellung.

עשו בגדי שרד, “they made into sacramental vestments.” Each garment was composed of a different kind of fabric. How did this work out? All the coverings needed to transport the Tabernacle’s furnishings in, such as the candlestick, the table, the golden altar, the laver, etc., were made totally of blue wool, תכלת. For instance, the coverings for the copper altar were made of red wool, (Numbers 4,13), and the covers for the Table and the showbreads were made of purple coloured wool, (Numbers 4,8). All the details have been spelled out in the Book of Numbers chapter 4.

Another meaning of the verse is simply that when the artisans were about to commence any part of the work, they would first say "as per G'd's instructions to Moses."

Another reason the Torah had to write this verse is that there is no commandment which does not contain elements over and beyond its performance with one's hands or other parts of one's body. The Torah never revealed more than a fraction of the totality of a commandment as we know from a statement of Rabbi Yochanan in Gittin 60. There were then intellectual dimensions to the commandments G'd had given to Moses which are not recorded in the written text. The Torah here testified that all these dimensions were complied with and that the artisans deserved credit for this. Whereas some of these hidden dimensions of a מצוה are alluded to by the way the legislation in question is recorded in the Torah such as the "crowns" on the letters, others are not, though most of the hidden aspects of each מצוה were revealed to Moses while he was on Mount Sinai. We have Rabbi Akiva telling us in Sanhedrin 106 that one could deduce 300 halachot from the shape of the uppper part of the letter ל alone. At any rate, the message of the Torah here is that all the hidden aspects connected with construction of the Holy Tabernacle were carried out by those concerned with constructing it.