Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei

Exodus 35:1-38:20 (Vayakhel) - Exodus 38:21-40:38 (Pekudei)

We read the last two parashots of the book of Shemot, and we enter the last Shabbat special before Pesaj: Shabbat HaChodesh, which announces that the month of Nisan is about to start and that we must speed up the preparations for Passover. This Special Shabbat is preceded by three others: Shabbat Shekalim, Shabbat Zachor and Shabbat Parah. Each one of them reminds us of something special, be it our necessary contribution for the construction of our community, or the memory of the evil deeds of Amalek, or the purification ritual to celebrate Pesaj that was done in the Temple, or as in this case, to remind us that Nisan is already beginning and that Pesach It is just around the corner.

The last two parashots of Shemot may sound repetitive, and it is true that they are, but the Pesaj Seder is also repetitive since the story we tell ourselves each year is the same. For this reason, the sages recommend, or force us, to let's be attentive as if they were telling us for the first time, as if we were going out again from Egypt for the first time. The insistence on reading over and over again about construction of the Mishkan is yet another example of the importance that tradition attaches to the fact that build together, some with their own name, like Bezalel, but the most anonymously, but all equally important. The deliverance from Egypt is just the In principle, building our place in the world is a long and tedious process and, yes, sometimes repetitive.