Vayak’hel and P’kudei Ex 35-40

Torah Portion: Vayak’hel (He Assembled) P’Kudei (Accounts) Sh’mot (Exodus) 35:1-40:38

HafTorah: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

To begin with tonight I want to talk about something I saw this week that really caught my attention. In Sh’mot 38:21 we read, “The tabernacle, the tabernacle of testimony.” Usually when the Torah makes double use of a word it is making a deeper point. The Talmud picks up on this and states that here the point is that Torah is speaking of the earthly Tabernacle as being a shadow of the heavenly. This sounds really similar to Hebrews chapters 8-9, Hebrews 8:4 and 9:24. This brings us to the common argument used by many to say the Torah is finished and of little value to us as believers.