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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