50 | MARCH 14 • 2024 
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ekudei has sometimes 
been called “The 
Accountant’s Parshah,” 
because that is how it begins, 
with the audited accounts 
of the money and materials 
donated to the Sanctuary. It 
is the Torah’s way of teaching 
us the need 
for financial 
transparency.
But beneath 
the sometimes-
dry surface 
lie two 
extraordinary 
stories, one 
told in last week’s parshah, 
the other the week before, 
teaching us something deep 
about Jewish nature that is 
still true today.
The first has to do with 
the Sanctuary itself. God 
told Moses to ask people to 
make contributions. Some 
brought gold, some silver, 

some copper. Some gave wool 
or linen or animal-skins. 
Others contributed acacia 
wood, oil, spices or incense. 
Some gave precious stones for 
the High Priest’s breastplate. 
What was remarkable was the 
willingness with which they 
gave:

“The people continued 
to bring freewill offerings 
morning after morning. So all 
the skilled workers who were 
doing all the work on the 
Sanctuary left what they were 
doing and said to Moses, ‘The 
people are bringing more 
than enough for doing the 
work the Lord commanded 
to be done.’ So Moses gave an 
order and they sent this word 
throughout the camp: ‘No 
man or woman is to make 
anything else as an offering 
for the Sanctuary.’
“And so the people were 
restrained from bringing 

more, because what they 
already had was more than 
enough to do all the work.” 
Ex. 36:3-7
They brought too much. 
Moses had to tell them 
to stop. That is not the 
Israelites as we have become 
accustomed to seeing them, 
argumentative, quarrelsome, 
ungrateful. This is a people 
that longs to give.
One parshah earlier, we 
read a very different story. 
The people were anxious. 
Moses had been up the 
mountain for a long time. 
Was he still alive? Had some 
accident happened to him? 
If so, how would they receive 
the Divine word telling them 
what to do and where to go? 
Hence their demand for a 
Calf — essentially an oracle, 
an object through which 
Divine instruction could be 
heard.

Aaron, according to the 
most favored explanation, 
realized that he could not 
stop the people directly by 
refusing their request, so he 
adopted a stalling maneuver. 
He did something with the 
intention of slowing them 
down, trusting that if the 
work could be delayed, Moses 
would reappear. 
This is what he said: 
“Aaron answered them, ‘Take 
off the gold earrings that your 
wives, your sons and your 
daughters are wearing, and 
bring them to me.’” Ex. 32:2
According to the Midrash, 
he thought this would create 
arguments within families 
and the project would be 
delayed. Instead, immediately 
thereafter, without a pause, 
we read: “So all the people 
took off their earrings and 
brought them to Aaron.” Ex. 
32:3

BY LINA TROCHEZ ON UNSPLASH

On Jewish Character

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

