Putting Together the Pieces
The parshiot of Vayakel and Pekudei are the parshiot of resolution. The Midrash tells us that “Vayakel Moshe, Moshe gathered the people,” is a tikkun for “Vayakel Ha’am, the people gathered to build the egel.” Similarly, we sinned as a nation with the words “eileh elohecha Yisrael, this is your god, Israel,” and we atoned with the words, “eileh pikudei, these are the accounts of the Mishkan.” These are the parshiot in which we get back a bit of what we lost at chet ha’egel. Which also means, these are the parshiot that give us insight into how to regain our spirituality when we feel disconnected.
Our moment of connection at Har Sinai was an echo of the first moment of creation. The world was created with ten ma’amarot. During the first ma’amar, Bereisheit, which brought everything into existence in potential, the unity of Hashem was still perfectly clear. Then, through the next nine ma’amarim, the details of creation came into focus and the unity of Hashem was more hidden. By the time Adam was created in Gan Eden, he was standing in a world of details and differentiation. His avodah was to look out at all those forces and find the unity of Hashem .
We achieved this avodah at the foot of Har Sinai, when we stood as a nation, completely unified in our desire to serve Hashem. At that moment, when Hashem communicated the first of the Ten Commandments, the unity behind creation was revealed with clarity. “Now you see and know that Hashem (YKVK) is Elokim, there is no other.” (Devarim 4:35) The name Elokim reflects Hashem’s mastery over all the various forces of creation. The name YKVK expresses Hashem’s unified essence, which is beyond the confines of this world. At Har Sinai we could see clearly how all the forces of nature are only expressions of the unity of Hashem. We became eidim, witnesses, to the unity of Hashem, and in that way unified all of creation.
Unfortunately, we did not stay in that spiritual state of unity. We moved into a state of separation. And that, explains the Maharal, is the root of evil in this world. Chazal compare the four rivers that branch out from the one river in Gan Eden to the four kingdoms of our galut. The farther we are from unity, the farther we are from Hashem. Chazal tell us that Eisav lived in a state of separation, worshiping many gods, and that the antidote to Eisav is Yosef, whose name means to gather, and who has the ability to gather all those many forces into one.
As a nation we gathered together to build the egel, but it was not for the purpose of real unity. We fixed this by gathering together for the purpose of creating the Mishkan, a place where Hashem’s unity could be perceived in the world.
After chet ha’egel, we could no longer understand the Torah in the same way. At Har Sinai we understood the mitzvot from their highest level, from their source, and all the details of the mitzvot followed naturally from that understanding. After chet ha’egel the path was inverted. We see the details, and from the details we recreate the unity. And so, the parshiot after the egel are filled with detail after detail. As a nation, we put all those details together to create the Mishkan. In this way we transformed the path of separation we created with the words “eilah elohecha Yisrael, this is your god, Israel,” into a path toward unity and closeness with Hashem, the path of “eileh pikudei, these are the accounts of the Mishkan.”
Yosef is our guide for this path. He is the force that overcomes Eisav. His name has two meanings, and they work together. The first is asifa, to gather. Yosef’s strength comes from his ability to gather within himself all of his own various strengths, and to focus on the source of those strengths. The other meaning of Yosef’s name is “hosafa,” to add. The result of gathering together our strengths within ourselves, and focusing on the Source, is that we draw forth vitality and siyata dishmaya. When we focus on our connection to Hashem, we have more than what we started with.
This struck me as a particularly powerful message as we are approaching Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and all the preparations that come with preparing for Pesach. There are so many scattered details, so many scattered crumbs. The result is that we ourselves start to feel scattered. This piece of Torah reminded me of the strength we can give ourselves when we take a few moments, perhaps over a cup of tea, to gather together the parts of ourselves that feel scattered when we are stressed. We can gift ourselves with tremendous vitality just by taking a few moments of quiet relaxation and gathering our strengths. Whether we are beginning to prepare for Pesach this week or not, may we all be blessed with a joyous, relaxed, and productive week.