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Again the same generosity. 
Now, these two projects 
could not be less alike. One, 
the Tabernacle, was holy. 
The other, the Calf, was close 
to being an idol. Building the 
Tabernacle was a supreme 
mitzvah; making the Calf 
was a terrible sin. Yet their 
response was the same 
in both cases. Hence this 
comment of the Sages:
“One cannot understand 
the nature of this people. If 
they are appealed to for a 
Calf, they give. If appealed 
to for the Tabernacle, they 
give.” Yerushalmi Shekalim 
1, 45
The common factor 
was generosity. Jews may 
not always make the right 
choices in what they give to, 
but they give.
In the 12th century, Moses 
Maimonides twice interrupts 
his customary calm legal 
prose in his law code, the 
Mishneh Torah, to make 
the same point. Speaking 
about tzedakah, charity, he 
says: “We have never seen 
or heard about a Jewish 
community which does not 
have a charity fund.” Laws of 
Gifts to the poor, 9:3
The idea that a Jewish 
community could exist 
without a network of 
charitable provisions was 
almost inconceivable. 
Later in the same book, 
Maimonides says:
“We are obligated to 
be more scrupulous in 
fulfilling the commandment 
of tzedakah than any other 
positive commandment 
because tzedakah is the sign 
of the righteous person, 
a descendant of Abraham 
our father, as it is said, 
‘For I know him, that he 
will command his children 
… to do tzedakah’ … If 

someone is cruel and does 
not show mercy, there are 
sufficient grounds to suspect 
his lineage, since cruelty 
is found only among the 
other nations … Whoever 
refuses to give charity is 
called Belial, the same term 
which is applied to idol 
worshippers.” Laws of Gifts to 
the poor, 10:1-3

Maimonides is here saying 
more than that Jews give 
charity. He is saying that a 
charitable disposition is writ-
ten into Jewish genes, part of 
our inherited DNA. It is one 
of the signs of being a child 
of Abraham, so much so that 
if someone does not give 
charity there are “grounds to 
suspect his lineage.” Whether 
this is nature or nurture or 
both, to be Jewish is to give.
There is a fascinating fea-
ture of the geography of the 
Land of Israel. It contains 
two seas: the Sea of Galilee 
and the Dead Sea. The Sea 
of Galilee is full of life. 
The Dead Sea, as its name 
implies, is not. Yet they are 
fed by the same river, the 
Jordan. The difference is that 
the Sea of Galilee receives 
water and gives water. The 
Dead Sea receives but does 
not give. 
To receive but not to give 
is, in Jewish geography as 
well as Jewish psychology, 
simply not life.
So it was in the time of 
Moses. So it is today. In 
virtually every country in 
which Jews live, their chari-
table giving is out of all pro-
portion to their numbers. In 
Judaism, to live is to give. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan 

Sacks served as the chief rabbi of 

the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His 

teachings have been made available 

to all at rabbisacks.org. 

Real Redemption
T

he last Torah reading 
in the book of Exodus, 
Parshat Pekudei, gives 
a tally of all the materials used 
in the construction of the 
Tabernacle. This is actually the 
culmination of hundreds 
of verses describing every 
detail and facet of this 
portable Temple.
The Book of Exodus, 
however, begins on a 
totally different note. It 
tells the story of the very 
first systematic persecu-
tion of the Jews; where a 
tyrannical government 
devised a plan on how to 
gradually strip the Jews 
of their freedoms and 
enslave them. Pharaoh, 
based on irrational fears and 
biases, discusses with his advis-
ers how to solve “the Jewish 
Problem.
” The result is nearly 
an entire century of brutal slave 
labor imposed on the Jews.
The great Torah commenta-
tor Nachmanides tells us that 
another name for the Book of 
Exodus is the Book of Exile 
and Redemption. It starts with 
the ancient Israelites’ exile and 
suffering in Egypt. It continues 
to describe how God intervened 
on their behalf and struck the 
Egyptians with 10 devastating 
plagues. The grand finale of 
this story is the splitting of 
the sea, where the Israelites 
passed through unscathed, and 
Pharaoh’s armies and chariots 
were drowned. 
Nachmanides asks that if the 
book is about exile and redemp-
tion, then the story should end 
once the Jews are freed from 
Egypt.
Why does the Torah con-
tinue with dozens of chapters 
dedicated to the building of 

a Tabernacle? Surely, it’s anti-
climactic! Once we’ve learned 
about the Jewish suffering and 
how God saved them, shouldn’t 
the book end right there and 
skip the many details of the 
Tabernacle?
But Nachmanides 
explains that true 
redemption cannot be 
defined merely by alle-
viating the suffering that 
one encountered. It’s only 
after the victim has been 
restored to his former sta-
tus and glory that he can 
be said to be redeemed. 
Imagine an upstanding 
citizen is imprisoned for 
a crime he didn’t commit. 
When the evidence prov-
ing his innocence is uncovered 
and he’s freed from incarcera-
tion, he’s not yet redeemed. It’s 
only once his name has been 
publicly cleared, and he can 
return to his community with 
his previous stature, that we can 
say he has been redeemed.
Before the exile to Egypt, 
during the lives of the 
Patriarchs, there existed a spe-
cial closeness between God and 
the Jewish people. The presence 
of the Almighty could be felt in 
the tents of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob. Even after the Jews are 
freed from bondage, they can’t 
be said to be redeemed, because 
they haven’t yet regained this 
special relationship with God.
It’s only after they build the 
Tabernacle, and God’s pres-
ence once again rests among 
the Jews, only then can we call 
them redeemed. This is why the 
Book of Exodus continues on to 
this final stage of redemption. 

Rabbi Chaim Fink is a rabbi and 

educator at Detroit Partners in Torah.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Chaim Fink

Parshat 

Pekudei: 

Exodus 

30:21-40:38; 

I Kings 

7:51-8:21.