Parshat Pekudei

This week’s Parsha describes the completion of all of the work done for the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle.  At the completion of the work done for the Mishkan, the Torah says (Exodus 39:32), “and the children of Israel did according to all the Lord commanded.”  The strange thing about this verse is that throughout the description of the building of the Mishkan, the children of Israel as a whole, have never been credited with doing all the work before.  The people doing the work were usually qualified as “wise hearted craftsmen” or Bezalel, the chief architect, and his staff.  So the question is:  Why does the Torah here credit the entirety of the Jewish people with all of the work done for the Mishkan if they didn’t all actually do all of the work?

I really like the answer to this question which is given by the Torah commentary Or Ha-hayyim, which I will share with you. 

The Or Ha-hayyim comments:

“Evidently the text wished to indicate the mutual, interlocking character of Torah observances, by means of which the children of Israel brought reciprocal benefits on each other.  The Torah was given to be collectively observed by Israel as a whole.  Each individual would contribute his best to their mutual benefit.  Perhaps an allusion to this can be found in the Scriptural admonition: “And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, implying “who IS as thyself”.  Thy neighbor’s welfare will contribute to yours and through him you complement your own perfection, so that he is not someone else, but you yourself and like a part of you.  The Almighty gave us 613 precepts and it is impossible for one person to observe them all.  There are, for example: Priests, Levites and Israelite men and women.  Some precepts apply only to Priests, others can only be fulfilled by Israelite men, and others only by the women.  In what way is it feasible for the individual to observe all the precepts, attaining the complete perfection symbolized in the correspondence between the number of precepts, negative and positive, and the 248 limbs and 265 sinews respectively of the human body?  The answer must be that the Torah can be observed collectively, by the people as a whole, each individual deriving benefit from the observance of his neighbor and each individual’s performance complementing that of the other.”

I would like to add that it follows from this lesson by the Or Ha-hayyim that we need to appreciate all members of our community.  Regardless of a person’s level of observance, gender, age, mental ability, etc., every member of our community adds something to the community just by being a part of it.