PARSHAS PEKUDEI
Can you figure out what each picture has to do with the parsha?
Rabbi Dani Staum
KEY to Parshas Pekudei Pix
Chazak – Parshas Pekudei is the conclusion of Chumash Shemos.
Putting up Fence Panels – The boards surrounding the Mishkan were so heavy that they couldn’t be lifted. Hashem told Moshe to try to lift them and then he was miraculously able to erect them – 39:33, see Rashi
A place for Everything – The Torah details where each vessel was to be situated in the Mishkan – 40:1-8. In addition, Bezalel suggested they build the Mishkan structure before the vessels, even though Hashem commanded Moshe the opposite. Bezalel’s logic was that one has to have a place for the furniture before he constricts it – 38:22
Repaired broken heart – The Mishkan is called the Mishkan of Testimony because the very structure testified that Hashem had forgiven the nation for committing the sin of the golden calf – 38:21, see Rashi
The Golden Strand – They took pieces of gold and beat them down until they had strands of gold. Those strands were combined with other materials to make the vestments of the Kohanim – 39:3, see Rashi
Rosh Chodesh Nissan – The official service in the Mishkan was to begin on Rosh Chodesh Nissan – 40:2
Accounting – Pekudei means accountings. The beginning of the parsha lists calculations of the total amounts of materials used for the Mishkan – 38:21
Low cloud – The end the chumash states that the divine Cloud was omnipresent above the Mishkan. (Ramban writes that Chumash Shemos, which is about exile and redemption, does not conclude until this point, when the nation returned to the level of their forefathers upon whom the Divine Presence was omnipresent.) 40:34-38
I will go wherever you are – The Chumash concludes by saying that the cloud remained upon the Mishkan “through all their traveling” – 40:38
