Art with Heart – Ki Tisa
The big day had finally arrived.
All the instructions had been given in the previous two parshas - Trumah and Tetzaveh. HKB”H showed Moshe every minute detail of the Mishkan, the schematics, the measurements, the form of every single element and commanded Moshe ועשית ארון, ועשית שלחן, ועשית מנורה and so on, ועשית ועשית ועשית …... Moshe was eager to get started with the nitty gritty work.
Then suddenly: “[trumpet blast] Mishkan Network News at 8:00: This just in….. Hashem has just announced that tomorrow construction will begin on the Mishkan and in charge of all construction will be ……. [trumpet blast] Betzalel ben Uri ben Hur together with Oholiav ben Achisamach and their ‘wise in heart’ assistants”
What a disappointment that must have been for Moshe that after all that preparation and build up …… the actual work was assigned to someone else. It was the same later with David Hamelech. Hashem revealed to him the entire project and schematics, but “No, you will not actually build it, your son Shlomo will build it.”
So who was this Betzalel guy? whom Hashem specified by name!
יעמוד, יייעעעעעמוד ..... חתן המשכן, בצלאל בן אורי בן חור למטה יהודה חזק!
And out of the crowd steps ….. a thirteen-year-old child and ascends the podium. “Get out of here kid!” everyone calls out. “But it’s me! I am Betzalel ben Uri ben Hur!
What? Hashem appointed a thirteen-year-old to oversee the building of the Mishkan? He’s just a kid! What does he know about construction? What about Yankel Shmulevitz from the Tribe of Menashe? He is the best stone mason in Am Yisrael – he actually built Pithom and Raamses. What about Itzik Feinblum from the Tribe of Shimon? You will never find a better metalworker than him! A thirteen-year-old-kid? Pah!
The truth is if you had asked just-turned-barmitzvah Betzalel the day before – How many microns thick do you laminate cedar wood in gold? He would have replied “What’s a micron?” The only “Pi” he knew about was when he would fantasize that his daily portion of Mann tasted like some blueberry filled pastry!
But that was yesterday.
During the previous night however Hashem gave him a crash course in integral calculus, gold, silver and copper work, sculpting stone, carpentry, gemology, weaving, leather work and every other skill he would need to be able to build the Mishkan. So when he stepped up to the podium, he put Yankel and Itzik in the shade!
Yes, it sounds like a bedtime story, but that is exactly how it happened according to Midrashei Chazal (OK, perhaps without the יעמוד and the blueberry pie).
Why did HKB”H not give the actual work to Moshe? Chazal bring different reasons. ויהי בישורון מלך בתאסף ראשי עם יחד שבטי ישראל. Moshe was like a מלך and it is not befitting for the king to do the actual work, but rather to delegate it. Just like Shlomo Hamelech did not actually do any metalwork, he delegated it.
Why davka Betzalel? It was a potentially problematic appointment. Betzalel was Moshe’s sister Miriam’s great-grandson. We know how Korach later complained about family monopolies, so why appoint someone so close to Moshe? Also why a thirteen-year-old? Wasn’t there anyone older who was better qualified? We know Betzalel didn’t have a clue about any of the skills until Hashem taught him. So why take this specific kid with no experience, potential conflict of interests and teach him instead of other highly gifted craftsmen in Am Yisrael?
So obviously when Hashem specifically named Betzalel, “קראתי בשם”, it was for a good reason.
The first reason is that he was a still under thirteen when Am Yisrael sinned with חטא העגל. Chazal say only the adult men sinned, not the women and not the children. That is also why all the men died in the desert, while all the women (with the exception of Miriam) and the children (who were under 13 at the time of חטא העגל) entered Eretz Yisrael.
Why specifically the grandson of Chur? because Betzalel inherited the same family trait of מסירות נפש from his grandfather. The Midrash tells how the Erev Rav demanded from Aharon and Chur to build the עגל and when Chur vehemently refused they killed him. To build a Mishkan demands the same unquestioning devotion and loyalty to HKB”H, which Betzalel had.
Why davka a child, as opposed to an adult? Chazal say that it is because a child lacks גאווה. If instead Hashem would have given the work to the eminent adult artists and artisans in Am Yisrael, they would have signed their names on their work, like all artists do and claimed credit. The Mishkan is the antithesis to גאווה and Betzalel could claim little credit because Hashem taught him everything overnight. It was therefore unquestioned who actually “built” the Mishkan, it was HKB”H Himself!
These are the main reasons given in the mefarshim, but to my mind there is another fundamental reason a child was chosen for the job.
The holiest place in the Mishkan was just above the כפורת between the two כרובים. This is where Hashem’s שכינה rested when He spoke to Moshe. According to the Zohar Hakadosh the כרובים had the faces of two children, one male and one female. Davka there Hashem’s שכינה rested, between two children! If the job had been given to an adult artist, the כרובים could very well have ended up with one having the face of 100-year-old, whiskered Avraham Avinu and the other the face of 90-year-old Sarah Imeinu. Both erstwhile characters for sure, but not the כוונה of HKB”H.
A few years ago when I conducted a Lechem Hapanim baking workshop and presented my discovery that the Korban Lechem Hapanim’s geometrics resembled a smiley face, an adult woman came up to me afterwards and said that it could not be, it was too simplistic - it was not possible that the Mikdash was so simplistic and “childish”. To her “adult” perspective it would have been more fitting if the כרובים were in the image of Avraham and Sarah or Yitzchak and Rivka.
To conceive of such a “simplistic” design takes the mind of child, a תמים mind. When it says תמים תהיה עם ה' א-לקיך it is referring to a childlike innocence, the purity of someone who is free of sin, like Adam and Chava before the חטא. In my shiur on parshat Truma (www.showbreadinstitute.org/truma2021) I described how the Mikdash mirrored the blueprint of Gan Eden. No adult could possibly fully comprehend such a reality, only an innocent child.
On the one hand Betzalel had the purity of an innocent child, but on the other hand he was gifted by Hashem with unprecedented knowledge and artistic skill. Finally he had a burning מסירות נפש and devotion inherited from Chur.
As any accomplished musician/artist/dancer etc. will tell you, having a natural gift is only a starting point. Unless you relentlessly devote yourself to developing that gift, you will never be a Mozart, a Van Gogh or a Rudolph Nureyev.
It is interesting how the passuk refers to the quality of Betzalel, Oholiav and their assistants – חכם לב wise of heart. It seems like a contradiction in terms. Wisdom is rooted in the brain, while emotion is rooted in the heart and often they are at odds with each other.
From over 7 years of researching the Lechem Hapanim I can personally attest that advanced scientific knowledge is required to fully understand the physics and the chemistry. However, science is not the whole story. If it was all about science, Hashem would have used Yankel Shmulevitz and Shmuel Feinblum to build the Mishkan. Below the science and the physics a series of deeper layers emerge that gives meaning to the superficial physics and this comes from the heart, not the brain – it is something that is “felt”, not deducted with logic.
Betzalel was not only taught masonry, carpentry, etc. by the best Teacher in the business, but he possessed the unique ability to fathom the meaning behind the construction. Actually in most cases when building the Mishkan, it was the meaning that dictated the construction. Today when “reverse engineering” the Mikdash as I do, the process is reversed. You come to discover the meaning only after fully understanding the construction.
The Mishkan was a symbol of peace, equality and אחדות. Even though it was compartmentalized according to class, כהן, לוי, ישראל it did not pit one class against the other. The partner of Betzalel (from the Tribe of Yehuda) was Oholiav (from the Tribe of Dan). The Tribe of Yehuda, the “important” tribe destined for monarchy, was paired with the “lowly” Tribe of Dan to show that in the Mishkan, ALL Twelve Tribes are equal in Hashem’s eyes.
Each understood that they had a specific role to play which complemented the other parts. How ludicrous it would be if your arm would fight with your leg or your stomach to find out who was more important. All are parts of the same body, performing their specific functions for the benefit of the whole. This principle is fundamental and especially poignant as we approach yet another, unnecessary round of premature elections here in Israel because our nation has not yet internalized the importance of this principle as the left arm continues to fight with the right arm and the head with the heart.
The Mishkan was a reflection of the מקדש של מעלה and Gan Eden. Hashem created the world with עשרה מאמרות, the power of speech and He taught these secrets (ספר היצירה) to Betzalel who used them to create the Mishkan. The Mishkan was also a reflection of our spiritual neshama and had its roots in generosity (כל נדיב לבו) and humility (an absence of גאווה).
I believe this throws important light on a well known מחלוקת between Rashi and the Rambam regarding who will build the third and final Beit Hamikdash, Hashem or us? Rashi says that the 3rd Mikdash will descend from Heaven, ready-made and we will not raise a hand in its construction. The Rambam holds that we are obligated by a מצוות עשה from the Torah to build the Mikdash and it is we who will build the 3rd Mikdash, with our own hands.
Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. We undoubtedly have an intricate connection with the Mikdash, it is part of the makeup of our neshama and to me it is inconceivable that we will not participate in any way in its construction. All the fundamental principles of the Mishkan, generosity, humility, equality, etc. – dictate that we be active participants in its construction, as it is a reflection of us! On the other hand, we will be able to claim little credit for our work and it will be guided and directed by Hashem Himself, from above, instructing us what to do down here. Just like Betzalel could claim little credit, so will it be with the 3rd Beit Hamikdash, it will unquestionably be Hashem’s work מקדש ה' כוננו ידיך. בבי"א.
