Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

129
Pekudei
Donations and Atonement
Mitchell Perlmutter
P arshat Pekudei begins with Moshe’s meticulous counting of all the gold, silver,
and copper that B’nei Yisrael brought forth for the building of the Mishkan. Even
though Moshe entrusted Betzalel with the task of carrying out the Mishkan’s building,
Moshe felt that it was necessary for him to count everything himself. There are perhaps
two reasons for him doing this. Firstly, Moshe would not rely on assumptions when
it came to something as precious as building the Mishkan. Secondly, in case anyone
should accuse him of stealing any of the precious metals, Moshe could cover his bases.
(Rav Moshe Feinstein)
As the Or Hachaim (38:24) points out, the Torah makes a special point in telling us
that all of the precious materials that were brought as donations to the Mishkan were
used: “All the gold that was used for the work--for all the holy work...” Even though
the second part of the statement seems superfluous, according to the Or Hachaim, it
is coming to highlight the fact that the usage of all the materials was a great miracle. It
would be logical to assume, for example, that when the cherubim were carved out there
would be some gold shavings left over. However, we see here that not even a scrap was
put to waste. All of the surplus material was incorporated into the Mishkan without
making individual parts any bigger than their original required measurements.
Based on the understanding that all of the gold, silver, and copper that B’nei Yisrael
was ordered to hand over (originally, back in Parshat Trumah) was done as a form of
atonement for cheit ha-egel, we can understand why this miracle was so important