Parshat Truma Rabbi Chaim Brovender

After Hashem directs Moshe to make the Tabernacle (the mishkan), and to collect the necessary material there is a summarizing verse:

"They shall make me a Temple, so that I may dwell among them, as I show you… and so shall you do…" (25: 9).

Rashi comments on the last phrase and says: "…in future generations". He explains: "should one of the vessels be lost, or when you make the vessels of the permanent Temple (in Jerusalem) such as the Tables, Candelabra, or other vessels that King Shlomo made, make them according to the model of the vessels that you are making for the mishkan."

For Rashi this position is demanded by the "waw" which connects the phrase to the verse itself, "and you shall do it so".

This comment has caused some dissent among commentators. Ramban disagrees with Rashi and points out that King Shlomo made the copper altar twenty ama in length and twenty ama in width (cf. Divrei HaYamim II, 4:1). The altar that Moshe made was five ama by five ama. This point is made by other commentators and it is difficult to understand how Rashi could have overlooked this fact.

On the other hand, the interpretation in Rashi is a quote from a Gemara (Sanhedrin 16b and a parallel source Shvuot 16a), and has to be understood. Let us look at the words of Chazal.

The Mishna teaches that if we wish to increase the area of the city of Yerushalayim, we need the directive to come from a court of seventy one. This is because the city has a special status, and this special status can be imposed on new territory only with the approval of the highest court in the land. One might say that the drasha takes the words "and so shall you do" out of their specific context, referring to the vessels of the mishkan and applies them in a general way to the problem of increasing the territory of the city of Yerushalayim. The notion in the drasha is clear but the process or the thinking of chazal less so. If the Torah tells us that the vessels should be made as described, why would this indicate that the city could be increased only by the intervention of the Sanhedrin?

The drasha apparently means that just as Moshe determined (something) with regard to the vessels in the mishkan so were the Sanhedrin able to determine the size of the city of Yerushalayim. In other words the Sanhedrin had the authority to clarify this matter of the extent of the kedusha of the city and to declare that a new area also had kedusha and that special regulations applied to it.

Rashi reverses the drasha and says the following: just as the Sanhedrin so too Moshe. The vessels are described by the verses in the Torah but the final authority lies with Moshe. He decides whether the vessel is appropriate for use in the mishkan. Since precision in this world is not possible the measurements in the Torah are ultimately approximate and the final decision rests with Moshe.

Rashi's point is that when the Bet Hamikdash will be built King Shlomo will function as Moshe functioned before him. He will be able to determine that new vessels (if needed) are appropriate for the Temple. This determination is made by the prophet, or the Sanhedrin in the model of Moshe our teacher. King Shlomo made the vessels according to the model that was presented in the Torah. This doesn't mean that he had to maintain the exact size and measure, but that he was sufficiently great as a prophet to ensure that the vessels he built would be acceptable in heaven

Gut Shabbos,
Chaim Brovender

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