When Perfection Meets Reality: Pekudei
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
March 27, 2025
This week's Torah portion, Pekudei ("Inventory," Exodus 38:21--40:38), brings to an end the exciting yet turbulent story of the Exodus. Exodus, the second book of the Torah, begins with slavery and genocide, but ends triumphantly, as the Israelites--having received the Torah and built a magnificent sanctuary--finally find themselves on their way to the Promised Land. In Hollywood movies, this isn't exactly the way second installments usually end. This happy ending does not give the audience (or the studios) a cliffhanger for a third installment. So what gives?
The completion of the Tabernacle represents perfection. In fact, the Torah uses the same word to describe it that was used earlier, in the book of Genesis, to underscore the perfection of God's work of Creation. In Genesis, God transforms tohu va-vohu ("utter chaos," Gen. 1:2) into a vast and majestic structure of beauty and order. Likewise, in the story of Exodus, Moses succeeds in turning the Israelites from a "mixed multitude" (Ex. 12:38) into a unified and purposeful nation. Building the Tabernacle--the narrative occupies nearly half of the entire book--is symbolic of this transformation. The Israelites are no longer slaves; their labor at this point is accomplished through inspiration and free will, not coercion and duress. The "inventory" of all the work and materials that were needed for this creation reminds us that this magnificent structure didn't just happen. True peace--shalom--never just happens. Making peace means repairing the damage, assembling and putting together all the broken pieces. Moses's role first in freeing the Israelites and then uniting them was not simple or easy. All God had to do was to speak the words, and the world came into being. Moses's task was much more difficult. He first needed to discover within himself the will and the courage to overcome his fears and physical challenges. Then he had to stand up again and again against those who opposed his vision and path. Worst of all, at the very moment that should have been the glorious culmination of all his work, as he comes down from the top of Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the Ten Commandments in his hands, Moses instead has to face the complete undoing of everything he had struggled to accomplish: the Israelites have turned back into a wild mob as they dance in ecstatic revelry around a sculpted idol, the Golden Calf. As many commentators have observed, building the Tabernacle was the tikkun--the repair work--that was necessary in order to rebuild the nation after this fall. The task of bringing shalom--wholeness--to a people that, like the shattered pieces of the Tablets of the Law, had broken down in every way, became a sacred project. It was, in the end, an act of true and holy "completion," bringing sh'leimut--wholeness and perfection--to a chaotic world.
But perfection has no place in the world of reality as we know it. With the sacred work of constructing the Sanctuary completed, we are left asking ourselves, now what? The Tabernacle represents God's Presence among us, but how do we approach it? If only Moses and Aaron are permitted to enter it, how do we, the people, connect to God? The answer--at least for those days--is through sacrifices. The next book of the Torah, Va-Yikra, will describe the different kinds of sacrifices that will connect the People with God. And then--the civil laws that will be needed to connect us to one another as a sacred community and--in Moses's sublime vision--a nation of priests.
Seen as a whole, Pekudei is more than an inventory, more than the sum of its parts. This portion is a microcosm of the entire Torah, offering us not only a vision of a perfect future, but also directions for getting there, a pathway, step by step, to the Promised Land.
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