This week’s sedra marks the end of an era, the mishkan is finally completed and the Jewish people are able to embark on their journey. Before they can move on, they need to balance the books, so the sedra starts with a detailed account of the materials collected for the project and how they were used. The mishkan was built with public funds and the Torah appears to teach us the need for transparency. It seems like accountancy has been a Jewish profession since Biblical times!
The sedra Pekudei takes its name from the opening line, these are the pekudei of the mishkan. The word pekudei is an obscure one that needs some explanation. It is generally taken to mean an account of the donations and the uses to which they were put. However, a close reading of the text will actually show that the lists are incomplete. The verses only mention gold and copper and a partial account of the silver. Other materials are not mentioned at all. Could the Bible possibly be fiddling its own books?
The Hebrew root pkd is never used in any other place in the Torah to refer to materials. Rather it is used to describe a group of people and is never far from the idea of thinking. The term pekudei ha’eida refer to all those who come to mind in the concept of community, all those who belong to the community and as members, make up that community.
Building on this idea, the term pekudei hamishkan refers to all those things that made the mishkan and essentially constitute it. All the things that were made for the mishkan are integral to it and nothing is of secondary importance.
Rav Shimshon Rephael Hirsch uses this principle to explain that the idea here is not to provide an account of all the materials used. Rather to show us that despite the relatively small amount of resources needed (compared to the Temples that were later built in Jerusalem), the spiritual impact of these donations was huge. He explains that these verses are essentially a continuation of the previous weeks’ reading. As such the word pekudei means to belong. He translates the opening line as follows, ‘These are the things that belong to the mishkan…’
We are all part of a community and we all have a contribution to make. Every person, every contribution is unique, valuable and precious and plays its own part in making something that is so much more powerful than the sum of its parts.
