Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei - 5766

Order and Disorder

I would like to dedicate this essay to the complete and speedy recovery, with the help of HaShem, of my good friend, Danny Kurz, who has been diagnosed with a very serious illness. I take the liberty of asking all the readers of these words to say Tehilim and be mitpallel for “Daniel Leiv ben Shoshana,” a “talmid chacham” and a “mentsch;” a “gentleman and a scholar,” and a “ben Torah” in every sense of the word.

In Parashiot Vayakhel and Pekudei, one is awe-struck by the precision and orderly detail that the Torah gives to the Mishkan. It is as if the Holy One, Blessed is He, is an Architect (which of course, He is, the Architect of the Cosmos, as well as the “Tzayar HaOlamim,” the Artist of the World). Exact placement of every element of the “Mishkan,” including the “Aron,” the Holy Ark, the “Menorah,” the Lamp, the “Shulchan,” the Table of the Showbread, the Golden Altar and the Earthen Altar, with precise dimensions for each; gold here, silver there, copper in the other place. Wool dyed turquoise-blue, purple and scarlet made to overhang the Mishkan. The procedure for preparing the incense used in the Temple is also described in detail. “The Rabbis taught, ‘How is the incense mixture formulated? Three hundred sixty eight “maneh” were in it; three hundred sixty five corresponding to the days of the solar year… And three extra “maneh,” from which the “Kohen Gadol,” the High Priest, would bring both his handfuls into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur… Eleven kinds of spices were in it, as follows: 1) stacte 2) onycha 3) galbanum …11) cinnamon.”

I had the privilege this past Sunday of saying the Daf Yomi Shiur as a substitute for the regular “Maggid Shiur,” who was out of town. The text was the beginning of the fifth chapter of Pesachim, “Tamid Nishchat,” that opens with a discussion of the times that the processing of the “Tamid shel Bein HaArbayim,” the Afternoon “Continual Offering” began on various occasions: an ordinary weekday, Erev Shabbat, Shabbat itself, and Erev Shabbat that coincides with Erev Pesach. These times are influenced by various aspects of the “Seder HaAvodah,” the Order of the Temple Service.

In the Introduction to the “Birkat Kohanim,” the Blessing of the Priests on the “Shalosh Regalim,” the three major Festivals, we pray that our prayers be as pleasing to HaShem as the Temple sacrifices. We continue, “Please, O Merciful One, in Your Great Mercy, return Your Divine Presence to Zion, Your City, and the ‘Seder HaAvodah,’ the Order of the Temple Service, to Yerushalayim…”

In the Morning Prayer of the “Korbanot,” the Sacrifices, we find a paragraph in which the great Scholar of the Gemara, Abaye, cites the “Seder HaAvodah,” the Order of the Temple Service “…based on the tradition and according to the Scholar of the Mishnah, Abba Shaul.” The Order begins with the placement of the large pile of wood on the Earthen Altar, upon which the Offerings were burned, and proceeds through fifteen elements till the “Tamid shel bein HaArbayim,” the Afternoon Continual Offering, the initial topic of “Tamid Nishchat.”

Another place where Sequence and Order are important is the great “Seder” (the word means “Order”) of Pesach, which is fast approaching. Also composed of fifteen elements, from “Kadesh,” the Act of Sanctification of the Holiday, through “Maggid,” Teaching, the age-old question and answer method of teaching the next generation about the greatness of the Creator, and how He took His People out of Egypt, through “Matzah” and “Marror,” symbols of the Exodus and of the Bondage that our People endured, “Hallel,” the great Song of Praise, culminating in “Nirtzah,” the acceptance of our “Seder HaAvodah” of the Evening.

A list appears after “Kriat Shema,” where in the “Emmet VeYatziv,” True and Firm, Prayer, fifteen synonyms of Truth and Uprightness are mentioned as aspects of the Truthfulness of HaShem.

The organization of the human body is precise and orderly. The DNA code uniquely determines each individual and his physical traits. But the human being possesses more than physical traits. In one of the greatest of all mysteries, the human being is more than his body, is more than “what he eats.” The human being has a Divinely implanted “Neshamah,” or Soul, a conscience about which it is said, “For the Soul of Man is the Lamp of G-d, searching out all of his innards.” (Mishlei 20:27). And he is granted, and somehow it is implemented in his physical being, the ability to interact with HaShem, to pray and to be inspired.

In its normal functioning, cells behave in an orderly manner. Eye cells assist in seeing; lung cells assist in breathing; heart cells assist in the pumping of blood. But there is a disease which makes cells behave in a disorderly manner, and attempt to spread their disorderliness and chaos throughout the body. As at the Creation, You drew an orderly universe out of “Tohu VaVohu” – Chaos and Disorder, Please, HaShem, Restore Order to the cells of our friend.

In Pirkei Avot (4:19) we find, “Rabbi Yanai says, ‘It is not in our power to explain either the tranquility of the wicked or the suffering of the Righteous.’ ” He couldn’t explain why bad things happen to good people. Allow us, Please, HaShem, to fulfill Rabbi Yanai’s statement with the fright alone.

Rather, in the Spirit of the Month of Adar, the Month of Happiness, as we say, “When Adar comes, happiness abounds,” fulfill the blessing of the Megilah, “It will be turned upside down, such that the Jews will rule, they over their enemies.” And likewise, implement the Spirit of the Month of Nisan, the “Month of Redemption,” about which it is said, “In Nisan they were redeemed; in Nisan they will be redeemed in the future.”

As we say in Tachanun, in the section composed by King Chizkiyahu, when he was besieged by Sancheriv, and the situation seemed hopeless, “It is foreigners who say, ‘There is no expectation or hope!’ Be gracious to the nation whose hope is in Your Name. O Pure One, bring near Your Salvation…’ ”

This Shabbat, we conclude Sefer Shemot; as at the end of each of the Seforim, we recite, Danny, for you and with you, “Chazak! Chazak! VeNitchazek!” Be strong! Be strong! And together, with the help of the Holy One, “…we will make ourselves strong!”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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