ספר שמות

Another approach to the verse: ‎ובצלאל בן אורי....עשה את כל ‏אשר צוה ה' את משה‎, a look at Rashi who emphasizes the ‎word ‎כל‎ in this verse as an allusion to Exodus 35,32 where ‎Betzalel’s function is not only described as executive, i.e. someone ‎meticulously carrying out instructions, but as ‎לחשוב מחשבות‎, ‎‎“contributing original ideas of his own.” This is explained even ‎better when we look at psalms 119,59 ‎חשבתי דרכי וגו'‏‎, “I have ‎considered my ways, etc.” On psalms 121,5 ‎‏ ה' צלך‎, “the Lord is ‎your shadow,” a most difficult statement, the Midrash Shocher ‎Tov explains that just as man’s actions are reflected by his ‎shadow, so G’d also acts in a manner that reflects what man had ‎done. For example; G’d says that “when you (the collective soul of ‎the Jewish people) cry, I too join in your cries.” Therefore, as long ‎as we (the collective soul of the Jewish people) do not forget ‎Jerusalem (while we are in exile), we can be assured that G’d will ‎not forget Jerusalem either. (psalms 137,5). Keeping this in mind ‎we learn how important it is that we carefully consider every step ‎we take in life, as if it is in the wrong direction, G’d may follow ‎our footsteps to our detriment. This is not only a warning but ‎also a compliment, so that we do not consider our actions as ‎insignificant in this great universe, believing that what we do or ‎do not do, does not matter to G’d anyways.‎When these considerations are applied to Betzalel, whose ‎very name meant that he had been in G’d’s shadow, he would ‎certainly have to have in mind the appropriate thoughts when ‎fashioning each one of the many vessels used in the Tabernacle. ‎The word ‎בצלאל‎ can just as easily be translated as ‎א-ל הוא הצל שלו‎, ‎‎“G’d is his shadow.”‎Man’s body, according to our sages, consists of 248 limbs, an ‎allusion to the 248 positive commandments in the Torah, as well ‎as of 365 tendons, corresponding to the 365 negative ‎commandments in the Torah. This has been explained in ‎‎Kohelet Rabbah (Kohelet 1,3) on the words: ‎והארץ ‏לעולם עומדת‎, “but the earth endures forever,” as an allusion to the ‎structure of the celestial regions, i.e. just as man has 248 limbs ‎and 365 tendons there are parallel phenomena in heaven. Both ‎the inhabitants of heaven and those of earth share components ‎that correspond to the positive and negative commandments ‎found in the Torah, [and enumerated as such by our sages. ‎Ed.] Seeing that the Tabernacle was designed as the home ‎of the Shechinah on earth, it is natural that it contained ‎components that are parallel, [otherwise how would G’d ‎feel “at home,” in it? Ed.] This is what is meant when the ‎Torah wrote that Betzalel constructed all the components in ‎strict compliance with what G’d had commanded Moses. All the ‎individual components of the Tabernacle conformed to the ‎commandments of the Torah.‎When understood along these lines, Rashi’s query how ‎this was possible, seeing that at the time Moses was given these ‎instructions most of the commandments in the Torah had not ‎yet been revealed and communicated to the people; in fact they ‎were only communicated to Moses when the latter was in the ‎Tabernacle. (Compare Leviticus 1,1 ‎ויקרא אל משה וידבר ה' אליו מאהל ‏מועד לאמור‎, “He called (invited) to Moses, and spoke to him from ‎the Tabernacle saying, etc.” (instructing him to communicate ‎G’d’s commandments to the people.) Betzalel’s having stood in ‎G’d’s shadow at the time when Moses had heard the instructions ‎while on Mount Sinai, was aware of what G’d had told Moses at ‎the time, so that he was able to query what he thought was a ‎lapse of memory on the part of his great leader. The laws of the ‎Torah were first communicated to Moses as a potential, whereas ‎once the Tabernacle had been erected (also called Tent of ‎Testimony), G’d repeated His instructions as an actual, i.e. as ‎applicable as and when capable of being performed.‎