Pekudei: How Leaders Plant Seeds

By Floyd Tuler, delivered March 8, 2003

First, a summary of the Parsha: Moses makes accountings or Pekudei of all the materials that went into the making of the portable sanctuary or Mishkan. The details of the final fabrication of the vessels and utensils and the construction of the clothing for the Kohanim as described. The Mishkan is completed and Moses gives his approval of the quality and exactness of the construction after inspecting all of the components. He follows G-d’s command to erect the components. He follows G-d’s command to erect the Mishkan, and all the various vessels are put in their proper place. A cloud fills the Mishkan to signify G-d’s presence.

Most Haftarahs are a portion taken from the Prophets that has similar content to the Parsha. The Haftarah for Pekudei fits this model, but it is rarely read since Pekudei usually has a special Maftir and Haftarah associated with it.

So here is my short summary of the Haftarah: At the conclusion of the work of the Temple, Solomon gathered the elders of Israel and the Tribal elders for the ceremony of restoring the Aron to its rightful place in the Temple. The walls and curtains, and the vessels that had been used in the Mishkan were also brought, some to be used in the new Temple along with many additional vessels that had been made specifically for the Temple. “When the Kohanim came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord.” The entire congregation of Israel also joined the ceremony and the king blessed them.

The connection between the Parsha and the Haftarah is direct and clear – completion and dedication of the Mishkan in Sinai and completion and dedication of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The Haftarah describes an historical event, but surely the Rabbis must have had an instructional purpose in mind for its inclusion.

When I first started to think about the D’var Torah, I had a serious problem. This Haftarah is literally two pages in the middle of a book, the first Book of Kings. There is no context. We don’t have the continuity here that we have with the Torah portion and follows orderly from the previous weeks. So I broadened my view by comparing the complete story of Solomon building the Temple with the full description of the construction of the Mishkan as told in Pekudei and Vayekhel. And I decided to look at the differences rather than the similarities between the two narratives.

What strikes me most is the strong difference in the way the people participate in the two construction projects. Moses does Pekudei, that is accountings, because as described in Parshat Vayekhel:

“The men came with the women; everyone whose heart motivated him brought bracelets, nose-rings, rings, body ornaments – all sorts of gold ornaments.” The text continues after itemizing the many items brought to Moses – “the Children of Israel brought a free-willed offering to Hashem.” And there was just the right amount of material for the project. Bezalel and the artisans did their work “with wisdom, insight, and knowledge” that G-d gave them since they surely didn’t learn their crafts as slaves in Egypt.

In Pekudei, 12 times after a task is completed the text adds “as G-d commanded Moses.

Some words that come to mind when I read the text about the building of Mishkan are service to G-d, holy, love, joy, inspired, dedication, heart-felt motivation, freewill, generosity.

And now to Solomon’s Temple: 480 years after the children of Israel went out of Egypt, Solomon began the project to fulfill his father David’s wish to build the house of the Lord. First Kings 5:27 tells us, “And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel and the levy was thirty thousand men.” These men were sent into shifts to Lebanon with officers overseeing their work to quarry stones and cut wood. Builders and craftsmen worked for seven years to build the Temple and sanctuary with costly stones in-laid and overlaid with gold. The narrative says “And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceedingly many; the weight of the brass could not be found out.” No Pekudei here! In the dedication blessing, Solomon refers to the Temple as “this house which I have built.

The words that come to my mind when I read the story of Solomon’s Temple are nuanced: service to G-d, magnificent, splendour, grandiose, monument.

So how do two narratives end? Pekudei ends not with pageantry but with a description of how the purpose of the completed structure was fulfilled. Central is the “cloud” signifying G-d’s glory, which now dwells among the people of Israel. They are ready to set forth on their journey to the Promised Land.

As for Solomon’s story, creating and maintaining the excessive splendour of his kingdom necessitated the use of forced labour on a vast scale and turned the people against him. Late, political obligations imposed by the grandiose nature of his kingdom allowed pagan influences to enter. G-d became angry with Solomon and said to him “since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you.” And within one generation this mighty and wealthy kingdom was fractured in two. After reading the whole story, I think that Solomon began to plant the seeds of his downfall when he built the Temple.

We have two construction projects described. In one, Moses led a free-willed people to serve G-d according to G-d’s will. In another, it seems that Solomon forced the people to serve G-d according to his own view of how to accomplish G-d’s will. For our leaders and us alike, even if we are doing something that is right, it is important how we do it.

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