Komentarz do Wyjścia 39:32

ויעשו בני ישראל AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MADE the work ככל אשר צוה ה' וגו׳ ACCORDING TO ALL THAT THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES [SO DID THEY] or [SO THEY MADE IT].

ותכל...ויעשו בני ישראל, the work in its totality was attributed to all the people of Israel seeing that each one of them had a direct or indirect share in it, whether by contributing material, labour, or skill.

ותכל כל עבודת משכן האהל, All the work of the Tabernacle, the Tent was complete, etc. The word ותכל indicates that the completion was not the result of the Israelites not continuing; as far as they were concerned they would gladly have continued to work on that project. The word ותכל refers to the end of the verse, i.e. "what G'd had commanded." The project was terminated in accordance with G'd's instructions.

ותכל, the construction of this word parallels Genesis 43,34 ותרב, where the Torah describes the gift Joseph gave to his brother Binyamin as being larger than the ones he gave to his other brothers.

The work. Rashi adds the phrase, “The work,” to inform us what B’nei Yisrael did. For it is written [just before], “Thus was completed all the work of the mishkon.” If so, they surely did the work [already], so what does it mean that they “did”? Therefore, Rashi explains, “The work.” The verse is conveying that the work they did was not any different, but rather they did it just as God commanded Moshe.

ותכל כל עבודת, “thus was completed all the work;” according to our sages the work was completed on the 25th day in the month of kislev, the day we commence to celebrate the festival of Chanukkah.

כן עשו. They did exactly as instructed, neither adding nor subtracting from the instructions.

It also indicates that some of the tasks were completed on their own and not by the B’nei Yisrael, such as the menorah (see Rashi on 25:31).

The word may also be understood in the sense of Psalms 84,3: נכספה וגם כלתה נפשי לחצרות השם. "I long, I yearn for the courtyards of the Lord." Our verse describes the enthusiasm with which the work was performed from start to finish.

ויעשו בני ישראל, the children of Israel did, etc. The Torah teaches that a person's delegate is accounted as like the person who has delegated him. The Torah here credits all of the Israelites with having constructed the Holy Tabernacle although it was only Betzalel (and his helpers) who had actually performed all the work. While it is true that Betzalel had received his instructions from G'd and not from the Israelites, the fact that the Israelites had given their silent consent to Betzalel's appointment meant that he acted as their delegate.

It appears that the Torah teaches us a general rule about the way Torah can be observed successfully by showing how the Israelites conferred merits one upon the other. The Torah (in its entirety) is only capable of fulfilment by means of the entire Jewish nation. Every individual Jew is charged with the duty to perform those commandments which he is able to fulfil, keeping in mind his individual status [an Israelite cannot perform service in the Temple, for instance, Ed.] This is the true meaning of Leviticus 19,18: "you shall love your fellow Jew as he is part of yourself." Without the fellow Jew, no individual Jew would be able to function as a total Jew. Each Jew has a task to help another Jew to become a whole Jew by means of his fulfilling commandments which the second Jew is unable to fulfil either at that moment or ever. As a result, the fellow Jew is not אחר "someone else," but is part of "oneself," כמוך.

This is the only way in which we can reconcile ourselves to G'd's commanding us to fulfil 613 commandments without which our body and soul are not really truly "healthy." The Torah has actually denied us a chance to fulfil a substantial part of all these 613 commandments. Are we to be permanent physical and spiritual cripples? Clearly, Torah and its observance then is not only a project for the individual but for the community. The Torah drove home this point by legislating laws which can be performed only by women, only by Levites, only by priests, and, in some instances, only by sinners, i.e. sinners who are anxious to rehabilitate them selves. Our verse describing the whole nation as performing what G'd had commanded Moses that they do, teaches this lesson. The reason that this was an appropriate time to teach us this lesson is that the 13 basic raw materials needed for the Tabernacle were as interdependent one upon the other as Jews are dependent upon each other in order to achieve the harmonious personality G'd desires for each Jew to develop into by means of his מצוה performance. It makes perfect sense therefore, that the Torah considers every Jew as having contributed all 13 kinds of raw materials needed for the Tabernacle.

ככל אשר צוה השם, in accordance with all that G'd had commanded, etc. The Torah emphasises this point to prevent people from drawing the wrong conclusion when they would observe the whole Tabernacle being dismantled two months and twenty days later (when the Israelites started their journey away from Mount Sinai compare Numbers 10,11 and Shemot Rabbah 52,2). One should not interpret the dismantling as proof that there had been structural defects or defects in the design of the Tabernacle and that this was the reason it was being dismantled. The Torah therefore testified that every detail of the execution of G'd's instruction of how to make the Tabernacle had been strictly adhered to. Another reason some Israelites might think that there were imperfections in the Tabernacle was the fact that it had been completed already on the 25th of Kislev though it is reported as having been erected only on the first of Nissan (40,2). G'd waited with having the Tabernacle erected until that date as the month of Nissan ushers in the period of the redemption from Egypt and the tyranny the Israelites had experienced there. According to another interpretation also mentioned in Shemot Rabbah 52, it was the anniversary of the birthday of Isaac, or the anniversary of the day G'd had first told Abraham that Isaac would be born.

אשר צוה השם, which G'd had commanded, etc. The reason the Torah added the words: כן עשו, "so they did," and did not content itself by simply writing ויעשו, they did is, that the Torah wished to credit the Israelites not only with construction of the Tabernacle but with carrying out all the commandments G'd had given to Moses, i.e. ככל, in accordance with everything G'd had commanded Moses, i.e. the entire Torah. With these words G'd "burned and scattered the ashes of the sin of the golden calf," i.e. finally disposed of any visible remnants of that sin.