This week we read the last to portions of the Chumash / Book of Exodus combined.
In the first VAYAKHEIL, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai for the third and final time and immediately assembles the Jewish people. Moses informed them that G-d has forgiven them for the sin of the golden calf and instructed them to build the Tabernacle as a sign of his forgiveness.
In the second portion PEKUDEI, the portion opens with whom Moses appointed over the functioning and transport of the Tabernacle.
Having concluded the account of how the artisans fashioned the various components of the Tabernacle, the Torah proceeds to describes how these same artisans fashioned the priestly garments and how the Tabernacle was finally erected.
This week is also called Parashat HACHODESH. This being the 1st of Nissan, a special Torah reading (Exodus 12:1–20), called Hachodesh (“the month,” literally, meaning “the new [moon]”), is added to the regular Torah reading. This is the fourth of four supplementary readings added in the weeks preceding Purim and Passover (Shekalim, Zachor, Parah and Hachodesh).
Hachodesh contains G‑d’s communication to Moses on the 1st of Nissan, in Egypt, two weeks before the Exodus, in which He conveys to him the first mitzvah commanded to the people of Israel: to set the Jewish calendar in accordance with the monthly birth of the new moon, and to regard Nissan, the month of the Exodus, as “the head of months.”
Wishing you a successful week, followed by a meaningful Shabbat.
With our prayers for an everlasting peace in Israel with Moshiach now.
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