Moses Doth Protest Too Much: Parshat Pekudei

Every time we wrap up the Torah scrolls before we accompany them back to the ark we sing the song that every child who ever went to Hebrew school knows by heart: Torah (7X) tzivah lanu Moshe, which is a phrase that appears towards the end of the Torah:

תּוֹרָ֥ה צִוָּה־לָ֖נוּ מֹשֶׁ֑ה מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה קְהִלַּ֥ת יַעֲקֹֽב

“The Torah that Moses commanded us, is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4).

If we understand this literally, the Torah we study today which is our legacy, is because Moses commanded us to observe it. Yet when we finish reading this week’s parsha, we see that the phrase כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה, “as God commanded Moses” is repeated almost eighteen times, in contrast to the previous parsha where nothing is said about God commanding Moses, nor is Moses’s name even mentioned. Thus we have a conundrum! Who is the supreme commander? God or Moses? Who runs the show? Today, both in Israel and in the US, there are conflicts between the chiefs of the different branches of government, with each one being threatened by, or threatening the other, rather than cooperating for a common good. Is it healthy to have one supreme ruler, with absolute power? Is the alternative divide and conquer? Is it possible to think out of the box and cooperate? Clearly, the redactor of the bible felt it necessary to repeat the phrase, ka-asher tziva Adonai et Moshe?

WHAT DO OUR COMMENTATORS SAY

The great biblical commentator, Nachmanides (Ramban 1194-1270) addresses the phrase in connection with Bezalel:

AND BEZALEL THE SON OF URI, THE SON OF HUR, OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, MADE ALL THAT GOD COMMANDED MOSES. The meaning of this is that everything was done through his direction, for he acted as instructor to all the wise men, and they all did their work in his presence and showed him all that they had done, just as it is said, And He hath put in his heart that he may teach. But all the wise-hearted men also did the work, as it is said, and every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work made the Tabernacle. In the opinion of our Rabbis, this verse is intended to praise Bezalel, and to say that even these things that his master Moses did not tell him, he understood through his own mind in exactly the same way that they had been told to Moses on Sinai. Thus, the intention of Scripture is not to state that Bezalel did all the work, but that in all which was done through him, he fulfilled all that God commanded Moses. It is for this reason that Scripture does not state in connection with anything that was done until now: “as God spoke to Moses,” for this would have implied: “as Moses said by the word of God,” and he [i.e., Bezalel] changed their order from that which Moses had told him. Therefore Scripture stated everything in general terms, and said that Bezalel did everything as G-d had said…

According to this, Scripture didn’t mention “when God commanded Moses” for each of the utensils of the Mishkan because Bezalel changed the order that Moses had commanded. But later on, it is not clear who and how many anonymous artists there were who did the work; and so, it was necessary to make clear that all the artists were following as God commanded Moses. And to explain why there are so many mentions of Moses in this parsha in comparison to the previous one where he is not mentioned at all, we have an interesting insight given by a major Torah leader of pre-war Poland and post-war Israel, Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin (1880-1966) in his commentary Oznaim Latorah:

God wrote in His Torah “When God commanded Moses,” in every section about the making of priestly garments to correct the omission of Moses’s name in the previous parsha of Tetzaveh.

Rashi writes that the repetition of God commanding Moses is so that no one will think that Moses is taking credit away from God.

All of this thinking about Moses following God’s orders might seem far-fetched. We might even say that the Redactor of Scripture “doth protest too much” by repetition. But perhaps it is necessary, because otherwise there is a real danger that Moses will be considered a God. There is a good reason why we do not know where he is buried. And let’s not forget that when Moses disappeared for forty days, the people felt as if God abandoned them and that’s why Aaron made them another God to replace Moses.

Perhaps it is necessary, to repeat the phrase “As God commanded Moses” 18 times at the end of the book of Exodus. Should we think twice before we sing Torah Tzivah Lanu Moshe when we dress the Torah scroll after reading it? Surely, we all are living in a world where it is dangerous to have popular leaders commanding us and changing the game, as they grab power which they should not have.

This Shabbat as we are finishing the book of Exodus, let us say together, hazak hazak ve-nitchazek. In our being strong (hazak) we are resilient and together we keep ourselves strong.

Shabbat shalom.