In the previous chapter of the book of Exodus, we learned about all the efforts that it took to build the Tabernacle. After Moshe practically begged God for a second chance for the people of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf, they were forgiven and received the second set of Tablets. At the start of this week’s portion, Moshe gathered all of the people of Israel in preparation to build the Tabernacle. Every wise and skilled member of the nation was expected not only to participate in the building of the Tabernacle but also to dedicate their valuable personal belongings as gifts to God for the building. The parsha states that, “Men and women, all whose hearts moved them, all who would make an elevation offering of gold to GOD, came bringing brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants—gold objects of all kinds.”
A common theme in Judaism is the notion of spirituality over materialism. The people of Israel are about to construct a house for God, the source of all spirituality. This begs the question of why the whole portion goes into such great detail about the materials needed. Why does God even need a physical house, even more so built out of the nicest, most desirable, and expensive items the nation owns?
According to the overview in the Stone Edition of the ArtScroll Chumash, all of the vessels of the Mishkan represent different aspects of the relationship between God and man. Starting with the ark, the vessel that contains the Tablets, representing the highest level of spirituality, containing God’s Torah, teachings, and will. It symbolizes pure holiness directly from God. Another vessel of importance, the Table or shulchan, which held the showbread, represents the physical side of human existence. It reflects mankind’s dependence on sustenance and material needs—dependence on physicality.
In the book Derech Hashem, the famous Italian Talmudic scholar, known as the Ramchal, explained that man is composed of two opposites: a pure soul, pulling us towards spirituality, and an earthly body, pulling us towards physicality. According to the Ramchal, God designed the world so that even though humans are deeply immersed in material existence, they can still reach spiritual perfection from within that physical reality. God established guidelines and direction for how people should use the world and its resources so that, when followed properly, these actions help a person remove the deficiencies of their physical nature and move closer to God. Through engaging with the physical world, a person can transform ordinary material actions into acts that lead to spiritual elevation. In this way, what might seem like a low or physical condition can actually become the source of a person’s growth and honor.
Similarly, in Rabbi Jeremy Kagan’s book The Choice to Be, he analyzes the idea of Amalek, the historic enemy of the Jews, severing the tie between the physical and spiritual. He discussed the actual meaning of the word Amalek, derived from the word melikah, which alludes to the severing of the head from the body. The head is the entry point of the soul into the body, so cutting one off from the other signifies cutting off the spiritual from the physical.
He then goes on to explain the two types of separation. The more obvious one is simply indulging in the physical world with no engagement in anything spiritual. However, the one that may be more difficult to catch is what Amalek did best. “A more complex form”, he says, “is a denial of the significance of physical reality. In this version, a person considers himself wholly spiritual, which is impossible in the context of this world. His connection to spirituality inevitably degenerates into a façade or corrupt fantasy so that he is, in effect, also living only in the physical world” (Kagan, 2012, p. 30). Kagan is expressing that pretending to be “purely spiritual” is just another way of denying reality, because the only way to achieve true spirituality is through the physical world, a world we simply cannot reject.
These examples show that each realm is incomplete without the other; they are interdependent. In Parashat Vayakhel, the Jewish nation built these vessels from physical materials, showing that holiness is not meant to remain separate from the world. Instead, through human action and mitzvot, the physical and spiritual work together to elevate and connect us to God in the deepest way possible. We are physical beings, and God is the source of all spirituality. The only way to reach one another is by combining the realms and elevating ourselves through tangible means.
Finally, we can see through the giving of the jewelry and the symbolism of the vessels in the Tabernacle, that it is possible to turn our everyday possessions into means of serving God; it is our intentions that determine the outcome.
