Pekudei Text message

Parashat Pekudei (The Records of the Tabernacle) 

This is the last section of the book of Exodus. We are finishing reading about the tabernacle and the accounting of all that the people donated and brought to its construction.  It is a short parasha, and 18 times we find in it this following verse ending: “as Hashem commanded Moses”.

Eighteen is a number we know very well, it represents life and it is also the name our main prayer, the Amidah (Shemoneh Esrei, “The Eighteen”).

Maybe the repetition is telling us that when you build something there should be a director, someone in charge, someone who commands; but we also need to be partners. We cannot sit and wait until G-d does everything. We need to do our share, and do “as Hashem commanded Moses”.

In memory of my beloved mother and teacher Miriam Rachel bat Israel Itzchak Z"L