Vayakheil- Pikudei:  Tribute

These two parshioth, for the most part, repeat the details of the construction of the Tarbernacle, its vessels and the priestly garments.  These two parshoith are different from Terumah and Titzaveh.  They describe the construction, whereas the earlier parshioth were the instructions.  Vayakheil- Pikudei contain more accounting information: the amounts of gold, silver, and brass that was used,and some information about the source of the materials and labor. 

The Tabernacle was a project supported by a combination of taxes and contributions. The tax was the half shekel poll tax  described in Ki Thissa ( just before the golden calf rebellion).  We are told that the silver collected from that tax was recast into the sockets for the boards of the sanctuary.  This silver was used to plant the boards in the ground, a hardly, if at all, visible role.  Other boards  were socketed with copper, but the wall that  kept the public out of the sanctum had a hidden luxury. 

We are also informed that the laver, the wash basin for the priests entering the service, was constructed from mirrors.  This seems to have been a voluntary offering, perhaps a fad, an activity that went viral through a certain part of the population.  These people had a material, some kind of brass, that was most suitable for the task of constructing the basin, and they gave it up.  

Onkelos reminds us that the owners of these mirrors were female.  That evokes, the  presumably contrasting story , of the gold broken off the women's ornaments  to make the golden calf.  The details are not given here, but presumably these mirrors were given voluntarily by these women.

The source of  the remaining precious materials is not specified, except that they were a contribution, a  tribute .  This trumah, restated in Vayakheil  is very deeply connected with all of the nuances of meaning associated with the words tribute and  contribution.  Clearly, a contribution is a "tribute" together (con). The donations for the Tabernacle are given for common goal and a large part of that goal is the unification brought about by working together and having something that represents the group together, the Union

Tribute itself comes from the word tribe.  The tribal nature of the Temple is represented by the precious stones worn by the Cohen on the shoulders of the Ephod and the 12 stones in the Choshen, both having the names of the tribes inscribed on them. 

Tribute comes to mean, in medieval times, the payment given by the vassal state to the empire for 'protection.'  An important aspect of the Tabernacle is protection from both the wrath of Gd and lethal consequences of Gd's intimate presence, in the absence of the prescribed protection: the coverings, partitions, curtains and smoke of the sanctum and the altar service. 

My friend Chuck Broches died this week. His life was a tribute to the Jewish community of Seattle.  He protected. He unified.  He appeased the Lrd. 

His legacy is bound up in the concerns of the living