Category Archives: Parshat ויקהל

Parshat ויקהל

Parshat ויקהל Exodus 35:30 – A leader must be approved by those he leads

Exodus 35:30 Moses said to the children of Israel, see God has called on Betzalel  the son of Uri the son of Hur from the tribe of Yehuda

Gemora Brachos 55a:  R. Isaac said: We must not appoint a leader over a Community without first consulting it, as it says: See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Do you consider Bezalel suitable? He replied: Sovereign of the Universe, if Thou thinkest him suitable, surely I must also! Said [God] to him: All the same, go and consult them. He went and asked Israel: Do you consider Bezalel suitable? They replied: If the Holy One, blessed be He, and you consider him suitable, surely we must!

 Torah Temimah Colloquial Translation on Note #22:

Note what the Tashbetz writes in section 155 regarding the resulting halacha from this text. The Tashbetz states that a king who appoints a ruler for the Jews without consulting them will cause that ruler to not have authority to enact laws against their consent. Further, for such a ruler the Jews are exempt from making payments if the ruler’s calculations are decided by an expert to be erroneous.

This is the lesson that we see from the fact that even the Holy One, Blessed Be He, consulted with the congregation prior to appointing a ruler over them.

Note also what is written in the Orach Hayim section 153.

Editor’s Note: In this note, the Torah Temimah is defending the practice of gaining the consent of the governed.

Parshat ויקהל Exodus 35:27 – Princes or Clouds?

Exodus 35:27 And the princes [nisi’im] brought the shoham stones and filling stones for the ephod and for the choshen;

Gemora Yoma 75a:  Actual clouds [nisi’im] as it says in Proverbs 25:14 “clouds [nisi’im] and wind”

Torah Temimah Colloquial Translation on Note #20:

In other words “nisi’im” refers to actual clouds. The reason for taking this posuk out of its simple meaning and explaining it in a forced manner like this, perhaps is because in all the places where it mentions the princes (nisi’im) it specifies them with a particular proper noun. Examples of such phrases are: “princes of Israel” or “prinices of the congregation” or “princes of the tribes” or “princes of the forefathers”. Here, [in our posuk] it just mentions the word “princes” [without any clarification of which princes]. This drasha also includes within it the interpretation of the next posuk where it says the phrase “in the morning, in the morning”. That when the manna fell from heaven, precious stones and pearls fell with it. The manna fell from the place of the clouds [nisi’im]. These are the clouds, therefore, referred to in our posuk as having brought the precious stones.  

However, it does require further investigation as to how the nisi’im in our posuk could possibly mean clouds. Note that it also says that they brought the oil for the menorah. And we hold that [halachically] the oil for the menorah must be olive oil. This is explained in the beginning of parsha Ki Tetze and in the Gemora Menachos 89a. Clearly it would be impossible for the clouds to bring the olive oil. Perhaps one could possibly say that the answer is related to the answer also in Menachos 89a that actually wheat fell from the clouds. See what Rashi and Tosafot say over there in that Gemora.

In general, however, we don’t learn [laws] from miracles and there is no requirement to answer questions relating to aggada.

Editor’s Note: It is wonderful how the Torah Temimah explains why the Gemora chooses to take the word “nisi’im” out of its clear meaning. On the other hand, when the Torah Temimah delves into that answer he runs into unanswerable questions. This being aggadic material however, these questions are not cause for alarm.