דבר תורה פרשת ויקהל

D’var Torah for Parshat Vayakhel

This week's parsha is parshat Vayakhel. We learn about Bnai Yisrael being asked to donate gold, silver, and precious metals to the building of the Mishkan. So many items were donated that Moshe had to tell everyone to stop! This was unbelievable and on some level showed how guilty Bnai Yisrael must have felt about donating their items for the Golden Calf in last week’s parsha.

We can learn from this that having riches and a lot of possessions is a nice thing, but also a challenge. You can choose to either use these riches for good - to donate to a good cause, or for bad, like Bnai Yisrael did with the creation of the Golden Calf.

We can also learn this week, the importance of Shabbat. Even the building of the Mishkan was paused for the Shabbat. No work was done, and Moshe insisted that Bnai Yisrael keep Shabbat and continue with the Mishkan afterwards. We can learn from this that if Shabbat came first, even over the building of the holy Mishkan, that all of our ‘work’ can certainly wait until after Shabbat. We should give this special day the respect it deserves.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rachel Feld