Parashat Pekudei literally means “accountings.” It deals with accountings of the various amounts of materials that were donated to the building of the Tabernacle and how those materials were used. Though there were 13 categories of materials that were donated, the Torah focuses on the silver. This is surprising, since we might have expected gold, which is far more precious than silver, to be the focus of the accounting. Though the amount of gold donated is mentioned, it is the silver that is fully accounted for. We will return to the question of why gold was not the focus in our second article on the parashah.
About Moses, God Himself testifies that he is trustworthy, “in all My house, he is honest.” It is not surprising therefore that when Moses goes to count the amount of silver received and account for how it was used, he takes with him, like every responsible accountant someone else, so that no one would suspect him for having taken something from all the silver. It was his incentive to do so. Indeed, later in parashat Korach, Moses he was suspected for having been with a married woman, something truly unbelievable. It is from him that we learn that if you are required to provide an audit of valuables, you should learn from Moses. Do not say to yourself, everybody trusts me. Make sure there is someone else there who will audit with you. This is an important principle for any accountant, or any person who is responsible for public wealth. Moses himself chose to have Itamar, the son of his brother Aharon, count the silver with him.
The commentaries say that even though Nadav and Avihu were still alive at this point in time, Moses, through his Ru’ach HaKodesh (holy spirit), realized that they would not survive for long. Thus, there are only four individuals who would be responsible for handling the affairs of the Tabernacle: Moses together with Aharon and Aharon’s other two sons, Itamar and Elazar. Another meaning of the word “Pekudei” relates to administration. A pakid is someone who has been given administrative duties. Itamar was entrusted with administering the work of the two Levite families of Gershon and Merari, who carried most of the weight of the Tabernacle—the wooden walls and the tapestries—when the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness; this included all that had to do with taking the Tabernacle apart and preparing it for the journey as well. Aharon’s other son, Elazar is not mentioned here, but he was the administrator of the Kehat family of Levites who were responsible for carrying the holy vessels in the Tabernacle.
Altogether then, there are 4 people who were entrusted with the proper running of the Tabernacle: Moses, Aharon, Elazar, and Itamar. We can correspond them to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah as follows. Moses and Aharon correspond to the yud and the hei, wisdom and understanding—the two companions that never part and who represent, “the hidden things are for Havayah our God.” Moses was drawn out of the water, which represents wisdom. Aharon’s name is cognate with “pregnancy,” and thus corresponds to the second letter hei and the Mother principle. Elazar and Itamar are the vav and hei, which represent, “and the revealed are for us and our children.” In passing, let us note that when considering Aharon’s four sons, before their death, Nadav and Avihu were the “hidden,” relative to their brothers, Elazar and Itamar who were the “revealed.”
letter of HavayahyudMosesthe concealedheiAharonvavElazar
the revealedheiItamar
Elazar draws down the light of Moshe and Aharon into the emotions of the heart, and the name Elazar means that the “Kel helps.” The help that God gives him here is described by the sages as, “If He [God] would not help, the individual would not be able to overcome [his evil inclination].” This is the help that God gives the heart in the battle against the evil inclination. For the heart to win, there must be a special illumination from above of the Name Kel, which the Zohar describes as “a light from wisdom.” This occurs in the World of Formation, the vav of Havayah.
What then is the connection between Itamar and the final hei of Havayah? The name Itamar is spelled identically to the Aramaic word the means, “it has already been said” and of course speech and words are literally the sefirah of kingdom (malchut), the final hei of Havayah.
Given this correspondence, the first verse of parashat Pekudei, which reads, “by Moses in the hand of Itamar the son of Aharon the Cohen” describes the relationship between wisdom—Moses—and kingdom—Itamar. This relationship is most often referred to by the phrase, “Father is the foundation of the daughter” or “Havayah with wisdom founded the earth.” This suggests that to make a true accounting, one needs both wisdom and kingdom. Mathematics corresponds to wisdom as opposed to the natural sciences, which correspond to understanding. This is a central principle in our teachings. But to conduct a true accounting, which in the Torah is called “a just accounting,” it must include kingdom, described as “justice is holy kingdom.” Accounting is not something we do only about money or materials. It also pertains to the accounting that every individual must conduct regarding his or her actions and behavior. And when we carry that type of accounting out, we also need to have both the Moses and Itamar in our soul present—"by Moses in the hand of Itamar.”
Looking more carefully at this verse, we see that the value of the words, “by Moses... in the hand of Itamar” is 1202, the same as the value of the first three words of Creation, “In the beginning God created,” teaching us that God too, when He created the world, did so with a just accounting and acted with faith. This mirrors the well-known teaching that the Tabernacle was constructed in a way that parallels all of the Workings of Creation.
(based on a class given on the 25th of Adar, 5773)
