In Parshas Vayakhel, Moshe conveys G-d’s instructions regarding the Mishkan to Bnei Yisrael, and the craftsmen construct all the Mishkan’s components. Parshas Pekudei then relates how the finished work was brought before Moshe, who assembled the Mishkan and initiated its service, whereupon “the glory of G-d filled the Mishkan.”
An exception to this pattern, however, is the account of the bigdei kehunah, the garments worn by the Kohanim while serving in the Mishkan. The crafting of the bigdei kehunah is not recounted in Vayakhel, where the Torah describes the other work done by the Mishkan’s craftsmen, but in Pekudei, where the service is set into motion.
This anomaly draws attention to the distinction that the Rambam makes in his enumeration of the 613 mitzvos, where he includes dressing in the bigdei kehunah as one of the 613, but does not include crafting them. Evidently, he views crafting the clothes merely as a means of facilitating the mitzvah of wearing them, but not a mitzvah of its own. Conversely, he lists constructing the other components of the Mishkan as a mitzvah in and of itself, independent of the mitzvos related to using them in the Mishkan’s service.
Accordingly, Parshas Vayakhel, the theme of which is the construction of the Mishkan and its parts, discusses only the components of the Mishkan whose construction had independent “mitzvah significance.” In contrast, the theme of Parshas Pekudei is the Divine response elicited by the Mishkan and its service after it was operational. The Torah therefore describes the fashioning of the bigdei kehunah in Parshas Pekudei, rather than in Vayakhel, for the garments achieve their “mitzvah significance” only through their actual utilization—when worn by the Kohanim for their service in a fully operational Mishkan.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 3, p. 934, fn. 4
