1.
After the great catastrophe, the fragments must be gathered and new tablets built. In this, the leader and the people alike will be tested: whether they can overcome the disaster and rise from the depths of the worship of the Golden Calf and its idolatrous dances to the heights of building the Tabernacle and bringing the Divine Presence into their midst.
The second book of the Torah contains not only the message of liberation from slavery, but the filling of that message with substance: the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle, a constitution, and the indwelling of the Divine Presence. Not merely freedom from bondage, but entry into a covenant that means a different kind of freedom, one the world had never known until then: eternal freedom. On the Sabbath, the transformation of a nation of slaves into an organized people with a law and a sanctuary reaches completion. Now it is possible to enter the land and establish there a kingdom that will implement the constitution and ideas given at the covenant of Sinai.
2.
It is worth recalling the beginning: the Torah did not precede Israel; Israel preceded it. In other words, the Torah was not given to individual members of the nation, however great they might have been, but only to the people as a whole. It was the people who left Egypt and, by virtue of being a people, entered into the covenant at Sinai and received the Torah. This was the first goal stated to the first patriarch: "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation" (Genesis 12:1–2). The establishment of a nation that would be a blessing to the world.
How does one become a nation? In the covenant between the pieces, the path was marked for the founder of the nation: "You shall surely know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them… and afterward they shall go out with great wealth… and the fourth generation will return here" (Genesis 15:13–16).
Individuals become a family, the family a tribe, and thus they are absorbed into the womb of the Egyptian empire until the embryo of Hebrew nationhood is complete and is born in labor pains of blood and fire and pillars of smoke. This national body must then be filled with eternal content, but first, its clear presence in history must be recognized. Only by virtue of being a people could we claim ownership of our one land. The condition for inheriting the land is the establishment of a political entity, a kingdom or a state, which will apply the sovereignty of the people over the land and thus be able to pass it on to future generations.
3.
"And all the work of the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was finished… and Moses finished the work" (Exodus 39:32; 40:33).
Not for nothing did our sages hear in these words the completion of another, greater work: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their hosts. And God finished on the seventh day the work that He had done" (Genesis 2:1–2).
Here is the connection between the beginning of Genesis and the end of Exodus, between the God who created heaven and earth and His people who built a sanctuary for His presence. This forms a frame that begins with the creation of the universe and ends with the Divine Presence dwelling among a people who spread His message of improving and repairing the world: "And the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle" (Exodus 40:34).
I once said at a conference in Italy that when the Divine Presence rests upon a person, it leads to prophecy. And what is an invention, a scientific breakthrough, or a startup if not inspiration from above, a spark that ignites the creative spirit of humanity to improve and refine the world?
In exile, we spent most of our time on survival. With our return to the land, we could once again engage in spirit, in Torah, and in science. The dormant national spirit has awakened and inspires us with countless remarkable ideas. For now, this is expressed in science and technology, but in the future, one may even expect the renewal of prophecy.
Why are we in the midst of this war? We have no border with Iran, yet since the ayatollah regime seized the Iranian civilization, it has devoted its energy and capabilities not to improving the lives of its citizens but to war against the Jewish people and their state. Not only against our physical existence, but above all against our spiritual and cultural message. For this reason, the war has a unique moral dimension.
4.
On the Sabbath before the month of Nisan begins, the portion of the sanctification of the new month is added: "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you" (Exodus 12:2).
Nisan is the month of our birth as a nation, and this was the first commandment given to the nation of slaves while still in Egypt, just before their liberation. It is a legal act establishing the beginning of months according to which our calendar is set, including the festivals.
To free the Hebrews' consciousness from slavery, they first had to gain control of time. From a historical and philosophical perspective, this commandment freed us from submission to the normal laws of history. A people that does not obey the usual laws of decay of civilizations and nations, that did not disappear into the fog of history after its destruction, but rose again from its ashes and returned home to its land to reestablish its kingdom. And not once, but twice. There is no similar phenomenon in world history.
At the beginning of the portion Vayakhel, before Moses recruits the people to contribute materials for the construction of the Tabernacle, he emphasizes: "Six days' work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have holiness, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord" (Exodus 35:2).
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel aptly noted that before building a sanctuary for the holiness of place, we first learned to sanctify time, the Sabbath. And the work of building the Tabernacle does not override the Sabbath. While other nations invested their efforts in building palaces and monumental structures, the Jewish people built palaces over time.
5.
It is no coincidence that our control over time is linked to our nation's birth. The late Rabbi Chaim Druckman once wrote that a slave does not control his time; his master does. By granting us the ability to sanctify time, the Torah transformed slaves into masters of their own time.
Moreover, in the 12th century Maimonides ruled ("Mishneh Torah", Laws of sanctification of the new moon 1:8): "Months are calculated and years intercalated only in the Land of Israel, as it is said: 'For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem'" (Isaiah 2:3). Already at the beginning of the growth of Hebrew nationhood, the ultimate goal was marked: entry into the land. Our sovereignty over time draws from our hold on the land.
The Book of the Zohar heard in the words: "These are the accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of testimony, which were accounted at Moses' command" (Exodus 38:21), not only the instructions Moses gave to the craftsmen who built the Tabernacle, but something deeper.
In Hebrew, the Torah uses the word Pekudei (the accounts). The root is P-K-D (פק"ד), which also means 'to remember' or 'to take notice of.' These matters reminded the Zohar of the first 'remembrance' (Pekidah) at the Burning Bush, where Moses was commanded to tell the Children of Israel: "Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them… I have surely remembered ('pakod pakadeti') you and what is being done to you in Egypt" (Exodus 3:16).
This was the code passed through the nation ever since Joseph made them swear: "I am about to die, but God will surely remember ('pakod yifkod') you and bring you up… to the land" (Genesis 50:24–25).
One day the redeemer would arrive and identify himself with the words "I have surely remembered," meaning: I take notice of you and the land I swore to give your fathers. The Zohar therefore expands the code phrase "I have surely remembered" not only to the redemption from the house of bondage but also to include the purpose of the "accounts of the Tabernacle" and the indwelling of the Divine Presence.
6.
The second book of the Torah ends with movement: "Throughout all their journeys" (Exodus 40:36–38).
This is the decisive answer to every antisemite who questions our right to exist: we do not merely survive in history; we shape it. From the ashes of catastrophe, we built a state, and from the current struggle, we will build another level of spirit, prophecy, and creativity.
The cloud has not yet come to rest, and the journey is not complete. But the goal, whispered from generation to generation already in Egypt — "I have surely remembered" — remains clear even today: to establish in the beloved land of our forefathers a state that will be a dwelling place of blessing for all the families of the earth.
Patience. We are on our way.
