Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, Yocheved Dafneh bat Dinah Zehavah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
The term, “u’chvode Hashem,” is found twice in the context of the Mishkan: “The cloud covered the Communion Tent, and Hashem’s glory (u’chvode Hashem) filled the Tabernacle. Moshe could not come into the Communion Tent, since the cloud (anan) had rested on it, and Hashem’s glory (u’chvode Hashem) filled the Tabernacle.” (Sefer Shemot 40:34-35, translation, The Living Torah, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan zatzal, with my emendations)  In his Aramaic translation of the Torah on our pasukim, Onkelos (first-second century CE) renders u’chvode Hashem as, “vi’kara d’Hashem” (“and the honor of Hashem”), reminiscent of the celebrated verse in Megillat Esther, “And the Jews had light and happiness and gladness and honor--l’yehudim hayitah orah v’simchah v’sasone vi’kar.” (8:16, translation my own)
 
What does u’chvode Hashem mean? Was it a mystical feeling engendered by being in proximity to the Almighty’s Presence, or something else entirely? While Rashi (1040-1105) is silent regarding the meaning of u’chvode Hashem in our pasukim, his brief gloss on Sefer Bamidbar 14:10, one of the five other pasukim containing this expression in Tanach, identifies u’chvode Hashem with the anan. In contrast, the Rambam (Maimonides, 1135-1204) in his philosophic magnum opus, Moreh HaNevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed) interprets our expression as: “... the created light (ha’or sh’nivra) that is designated as kavode in every passage [in Tanach] and that filled the tabernacle…” (I:19, translation, Dr. Shlomo Pines, page 46, brackets my own, and see as well, I:64)  Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz (1550-1619), known as, “the Kli Yakar,” after the name of his commentary on the Torah, embraces the Rambam’s approach in his examination of our pasuk:

It appears from this verse that kavode Hashem is not the same thing as “the anan.” Rather, the fire and the light, that is, kavode Hashem, was visible from the midst of the anan, for without the cloud it would have been impossible to gaze upon it. For if a person cannot look directly at the light of the sun, all the more so is it the case regarding the splendorous light of His Shechinah, may He be blessed. Therefore, this holy light was visible solely from inside the cloud. (Translation my own)
 
We now have two ways of defining the nature of kavode Hashem: According to Rashi, it refers to the anan, whereas both the Rambam and the Kli Yakar associate it with some kind of Divine light; either “ha’or sh’nivra” (Rambam) or “the splendorous light of His Shechinah, may He be blessed” (Kli Yakar). These explications bring us closer to a more profound understanding of one of the most celebrated pasukim in our tefilot: “And one [of the Seraphim] called to the other and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory (m’lo kol ha’aretz k’vodo).” (Sefer Yeshayahu 6:3, translation, The Judaica Press Tanach, brackets my own) 
 
May the time come soon, and in our days, when the entire Jewish people, and all humankind, will gaze upon the splendorous light of the Shechinah, and join the Seraphim in recognizing m’lo kol ha’aretz k’vodo. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.
 
Please contact me at [email protected] to be added to my weekly email list.
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav

 
Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, Yocheved Dafneh bat Dinah Zehavah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
Our parasha begins with the explicit linkage of Shabbat and the Mishkan:

Moshe called the entire community of b’nai Yisrael to assemble, and he said to them: “These are the things that the L-rd commanded to make [those objects that will be in the Mishkan]. Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have sanctity, a day of complete rest to Hashem…And Moshe spoke to the whole community of b’nai Yisrael, saying: “This is the word that Hashem has commanded to say: ‘Take from yourselves an offering (terumah) for Hashem; every generous hearted person shall bring it, [namely] Hashem’s offering: gold, silver, and copper.’” (Sefer Shemot 35:1-2, 4-5, this and all Tanach translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach, emendations my own)
 
My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993), known as the “Rav” by his followers and disciples, notes that there are three other passages in the Torah where we find a direct connection between Shabbat and the Mishkan: Parashat Ki Tisa 31: 1-17, Parashat Kedoshim 19:30 and Parashat Behar 26:2. This leads him to ask, “What is the nature of these intertwined concepts?” He begins his response by suggesting:

The answer is fundamental: Both Shabbat and the Tabernacle constitute sanctuaries. One is a sanctuary in time while the other is a sanctuary in space. God wants Jews to establish a residence for Him both in space and in time. The Jew who has prepared properly for the Sabbath and is about to light his candles finds himself in the same position as the Jew of two thousand years ago preparing to enter the Sanctuary. (This and the following Rav Soloveitchik quotes, Darosh Darash Yosef: Discourses of Rav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik on the Weekly Parashah, Rabbi Avishai C. David, editor, pages 197-199, underlining my own.)
 
For the Rav, Shabbat is our sanctuary in time, and the Mishkan/Beit HaMikdash our sanctuary in space. This similarity constitutes the underlying reason, “…why the Torah, in four different places, linked the sanctity of the Sabbath and that of the Tabernacle.” Nevertheless, in the Rav’s estimation, while the Mishkan and Shabbat are both sanctuaries, the nature of their specific sanctity is substantively quite different. For the Rav, the holiness of the Mishkan is supernatural:

There is a difference between the sanctity of Shabbat and that of the Tabernacle and the Temple. The sanctity of the Mikdash can never disappear, for although the physical Temple was destroyed, the Shechinah is always there…The Shechinah was both a physical light and a spiritual experience. It was outside of nature and defied the laws of causality, for the Mishkan was nothing less than an ongoing miracle that transcended the natural order.
 
In contrast, kedushat Shabbat operates within the natural world:

Shabbat demonstrates God’s presence on a natural level…God reveals Himself in the order of nature. One can experience God through the blue sky and the flowering bush. All this is enhanced by the awareness of Shabbat, which epitomizes the natural order at rest. God has no desire to interfere with the natural order. Each individual must pause…to take God’s presence within the natural order into account.
 
Given this distinction, we may very well wonder if the supernatural nature (l’ma’alah min hateva) of the Mishkan/Beit HaMikdash has primacy over Shabbat which operates within the bounds of nature. The Rav addresses this issue in an unequivocable manner:

We have survived two thousand years without the Beit ha-Mikdash, but we could never have survived without Shabbat… Jewish survival is not bound up with the Mishkan. While the Mishkan is a lofty and important place, we must remember…Shabbat, which is essential to Jewish survival, is stronger. 
 
May the time come soon, and in our days, when we will experience kedushat Shabbat as we bear witness to the transcendent holiness of the newly rebuilt Beit HaMikdash. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.
 
Please contact me at [email protected] to be added to my weekly email list.
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav

 
Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, Yocheved Dafneh bat Dinah Zehavah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
The best-known theme in our parasha is the Chet HaEgel (the Sin of the Golden Calf), the most grievous sin in our nation’s storied history. In addition, our sidrah contains the powerful narratives of Hashem’s forgiveness for this heinous offense, and Moshe’s second journey to the crest of Har Sinai with the second set of tablets (luchot) in hand, upon which Hashem inscribed “the words that were on the first luchot … the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments.” (Sefer Shemot 34:1 and 28, all Torah translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach)  
 
While the words that were on the first luchot and the second luchot were the same, their origin was significantly different. Whereas in the first instance the Torah states, “now the tablets were Hashem’s work,” (32:16) regarding the second luchot we find, “hew for yourself [Moshe] two stone tablets like the first ones… (34:1)  Moreover, a singular difference obtains between Moshe of the first luchot, and Moshe of the second, for it is only in the latter case that the Torah relates his miraculous transformation:

And it came to pass when Moshe descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moshe’s hand when he descended from the mountain, and Moshe did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant (ki karan or panuv) while He had spoken with him. And Aharon and all b’nai Yisrael saw Moshe and behold! the skin of his face had become radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. (34:29-30)
 
My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993), known as the “Rav” by his followers and disciples, suggests that “Moshe’s face began to radiate light because he spoke frequently with God.” (This and the following Rav Soloveitchik quotes, Darosh Darash Yosef: Discourses of Rav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik on the Weekly Parashah, Rabbi Avishai C. David, editor, pages 188-189, brackets and underlining my own.)  As even a cursory reading of the Torah suggests, however, Moshe Rabbeinu had engaged in many ongoing and intense personal encounters with Hashem prior to receiving the second set of luchot. This is perhaps why the Rav asked: “Why did Moshe develop this quality [of radiating light] on Yom Kippur [per the second set of luchot] rather than on Shavuot [per the first set of luchot], when God spoke to him?” In my estimation, the Rav’s response is nothing less than an intellectual tour de force:

The answer lies in the difference between the Oral Law [Torah she’beal peh] and the Written Law [Torah she’bichtav]. In receiving the Law, Moshe was a worthy messenger uniquely qualified for this purpose. However, his personality was not yet intertwined with the Torah. The quality of radiance implies that Moshe absorbed the Torah into the essence of his personality—that he now personified the Torah and, in effect, had been transformed into a living sefer Torah. This happened only on Yom Kippur when he received the Oral Torah.
 
The Rav’s answer is based upon his analysis that, “in the same way that Parashat Yitro describes the giving of the Written Law to Moshe [first luchot, Shavuot], Parashat Ki Tisa describes the giving of the Torah she’beal peh—the Oral Law [second luchot, Yom Kippur]:” The Rav derives this concept from the verse that appears in our parasha two pasukim before we are told of Moshe’s radiant face: “Hashem said to Moshe: ‘Inscribe these words for yourself, for according to these words [that is, Torah she’beal peh] I have formed a covenant with you and with Israel.’” (34:27)  As such, the Rav maintains that Moshe Rabbeinu became a “living sefer Torah… only on Yom Kippur when he received the Oral Torah.”
 
It is crucial to note that this pasuk also states, “for according to these words I have formed a covenant with you [Moshe] and with Israel.” Though only Moshe was transformed to the point that he literally radiated the light of the Torah, the Jewish people were also changed for evermore when Hashem gave us the second set of luchot—the Torah she’beal peh—for this is the source of our everlasting covenant with Him. As the Rav asserts: “Only through the Oral Law could God make a lasting covenant with the Israelites. The Talmud in Tractate Gittin [60b] states, ‘God made a covenant with the Jewish people exclusively around the Oral Law.’”
 
These ideas are given voice in the celebrated phrase of our morning tefilah: “Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu u’mah nayim goraleinu u’mah yafah yerushateinu!” (“We are overjoyed in the goodliness of our portion! And how pleasing is our fate! And how desirous is our inheritance!”). May our eternal covenant with the Almighty, created through the unique power of the Torah she’beal peh, bring us ever closer to Him. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.
 
Please contact me at [email protected] to be added to my weekly email list.
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav

Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, Yocheved Dafneh bat Dinah Zehavah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
The Choshen Mishpat, worn by the Kohane Gadol, is one of the more fascinating bigdei kahuna (garments of the kohanim) that is described in our parasha: “And you [Moshe] shall make a decision breastplate (Choshen Mishpat). It shall be a patterned brocade like the ephod. Make it out of gold [thread], sky-blue, dark red and crimson wool, and twined linen.” This translation of, “decision breastplate,” derives from the placement of the Urim and Thumim therein, special stones from which prophetic communications were revealed to the Kohane Gadol: “Place the Urim and Thumim in the decision breastplate, and they shall be over Aharon’s heart when he comes before G-d. Aharon will then carry the decision-making device for the Jewish people before G-d at all times.” (Sefer Shemot 28:15, 30, translation, The Living Torah, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, with my emendations)
 
In his Commentary on the Torah, Rashi (1040-1105) cites an opinion found in Talmud Bavli, Arachin 16a and Zevachin 88b, that suggests the purpose of the Choshen Mishpat is to procure atonement for error in legal decisions. (28:15)  Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv, 1816-1893) takes issue with Rashi’s approach, since “[these Talmudic sources suggest this explanation of the Choshen Mishpat] solely as an allusion and an intimation (remez v’asmachata), and as a statement that by no means represents its essential purpose.” (Ha’amek Davar, Sefer Shemot 28:15, this and the following translation and brackets my own)  As such, the Netziv offers his own analysis of the inherent meaning of the Choshen Mishpat:

Rather, the primary explanation of the word, “mishpat,” is to seek redress for insults against the Jewish people. [So, too, do we find] that the Targum Yonatan on Malachim I:8:49, translates “v’asita mishpatam (and You will maintain their cause),” as, “v’tit’p’rah ulbanhon (and You will seek compensation for their humiliation).” …and, therefore, the [focus on] the Choshen comes to invoke the salvation of the Jewish people and seek revenge against those who pursue them.
 
In sum, the Netziv maintains that the role of the Choshen Mishpat is to “invoke the salvation of the Jewish people and seek revenge against those who pursue them.” In my view, this concept is evocative of the tefilah we recite each morning immediately before the recitation of the Shemoneh Esrai, wherein we beseech Hashem to bring forth the redemption of our people: “Rock of Israel, arise to the aid of Israel and liberate, as You pledged, Judah and Israel. Our Redeemer—Hashem, Master of Legions, is His Name—the Holy One of Israel. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who redeemed Israel.” (Translation, The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, page 97.)  May this time come soon and, in our days, v’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.

To be added to my weekly email list, please contact me at [email protected].

*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd

*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav