Toward the end of the parsha, the verse reads [38:8] “He made the Laver of copper and its base of copper, from the mirrors of the legions (hatzov’os) who massed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” The kior was the basin in which the Kohanim washed their hands and feet every day at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Moshe constructed the kior from the ‘mirrors of the legions.’
Rash”i here relates a fascinating tradition from the Sages as to the nature of these mirrors: The women of the Jewish people donated their copper mirrors to the building fund of the Tabernacle. Moshe was hesitant to accept this gift. He felt that the object that the women stood in front of to fix their hair and to put on their lipstick was, perhaps, not appropriate to use in the Mishkan. He was about to reject them because he considered them ‘made for the evil inclination.’
G-d overruled Moshe. G-d said, “there is nothing more dear to Me than those mirrors; for with those mirrors the women were able to establish masses of legions in Egypt”.
When the husbands were out slaving away at the pyramids, they had no drive, no ambition, and no hope for the future. The women went and beautified themselves for their husbands in front of these mirrors and engaged their husbands in relations. As a result of that, there were masses of the Jewish nation.
“Therefore,” G-d said, “there is nothing more important to Me. Take those mirrors and make them part of the kior.”
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch writes that it is particularly fitting and proper that they used these mirrors specifically for the kior. The kior was that vessel which was used to “sanctify their hands and feet.” On a symbolic level, the idea of sanctifying one’s hands and feet means the sanctification of one’s actions. A person has the ability to infuse with holiness that which his hands and feet produce.
The Catholic religion insists that the sensual side of a person is inherently bad. It is a product of the ‘Original Sin.’ The Torah says “No! This is not true.”
There is no aspect of a human being that cannot be elevated, that cannot be infused with holiness. Eating can be for the sake of Heaven. Marital relations can be for the sake of Heaven. Everything can be holy. It depends what we make of it.
This is represented by the vessel which accomplishes “sanctification of hands and feet.” It teaches that one can in fact make holy every single act of one’s life — one’s work, one’s play, one’s eating, and one’s marital life. Everything can be infused with holiness.
The mirrors of those women represented that beautiful moment in Jewish history when women made themselves attractive and enticed their husbands entirely for the sake of Heaven. It is the sensual side of human beings on the highest level. So, G-d said, take those mirrors and put them in the vessel which teaches for all generations that it is possible to infuse every and any part of one’s life with a higher level of sanctity.
