36 | MARCH 19 • 2020 

Spirit
torah portion

T

he Sanctuary and all of its 
furnishings are described 
in exquisite detail in this 
week’
s Torah portion with one 
exception: the ki’
ur, the large 
wash basin in which the priests 
sanctified themselves by wash-
ing their hands and feet prior to 
each Divine service.
Virtually all the other items 
in the Sanctuary are given 
exact measurements, but here 
the Torah speaks only in gen-
eral terms. What 
makes the wash basin 
unique? What message 
is the Torah convey-
ing in highlighting its 
uniqueness?
For an answer, we 
turn to the verse that 
states that the basin 
was made of the 
“mirrors of the ser-
vice women” [Exodus 
38:8]. According to 
Rabbi Samson Rafael 
Hirsch (19th century 
Germany), the phrase 
ba-marot ha-tzovot 
(mirrors of the ser-
vice women) suggests that the 
copper mirrors were not melted 
down at all, but that the wash 
basin was “… fitted together 
almost without any alteration at 
all, so that it would be recogniz-
able that the basin consisted of 
mirrors.
”
Of all contributions to the 
Sanctuary, why should the mir-
rors retain their unique identity? 
Does it not seem curious that 
the very symbol of vanity would 
find a new incarnation as a cen-
tral piece inside the Sanctuary? 
Indeed, without first stopping 
at the basin to wash their hands 
and feet, the priests could not 
begin the Temple service. How 
could such “vanities” become 
such a significant aspect of our 
Sanctuary?
According to Rashi, the inclu-
sion of the women’
s mirrors 
inside the Sanctuary is really the 
story of a religious metamor-
phosis; not the rejection of the 

physical, but rather the sanctifi-
cation of the physical.
Rashi cites our sages, who 
taught that when the Israelite 
women brought a gift offering of 
the actual mirrors, they were ini-
tially rejected by Moses because 
they were made for the evil 
instinct. But God said to Moses: 
“
Accept them; these are more 
beloved to me than anything 
else. Through these mirrors, 
the women established many 
legions in Egypt.
” (A play on 
the word tzovot, translated as 
“service women,
” but which 
literally means “legions,
” and 
is a reference to the mul-
titudes of children whom 
the women conceived and 
birthed.)
Rashi continues: “When 
the husbands would come 
home exhausted from back-
breaking work, their wives 
would bring them food 
and drink. And they would 
take the mirrors and would 
appear together with their 
husbands in the reflection of 
the mirror. Thus they would 
entice their husbands (in order 
to) become pregnant.
”
The mirrors thus represent 
the women’
s unswerving faith 
in their people’
s future, which 
is all the more impressive given 
that at that time, the Israelites 
were being enslaved and their 
male babies thrown into the Nile 
during the Egyptian subjugation. 
Love for another, expressed 
in the highest form by love for 
one’
s beloved, is the greatest 
manifestation of sanctity, and 
it is precisely this attraction 
that has the power to secure 
our Jewish eternity. Thus, the 
Sanctuary is sanctified by the 
mirrors of the women in Egypt, 
who taught, by their example, 
how to turn the most physical 
human drive into the highest act 
of Divine service. 

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of 
Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of 
Efrat, Israel.

Sanctifying Intimacy

Parshat 

Vayakhel/

Pekudday: 

Exodus 35:1-

40:38; Ezekiel 

45:16-46:18. 

(Shabbat 

HaChodesh)

Rabbi Shlomo 
Riskin

5829 Maple Rd. Ste. 129 
 West Bloomfi
 eld, MI 48322

248.757.2503

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