...all its pegs and all the pegs of the Courtyard shall be of copper. And you shall command the Children of Israel... [The first, being the final words of the previous Parsha, Terumah, while the second, being the first words of the current Parsha, Teztaveh].
Let us attempt to understand the juxtaposition of the last word of the previous Parsha, 'נחשת', and the opening of the present Parsha with the words 'ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל'.
The word נחש"ת is an acronym of the following four words, ש'קלים ת'ראה נ'ר ח'ודש - Flame, Month, Shekalim and To be seen. These words that are referred to in this acronym allude to the three Mitzvos that Moshe Rabainu had a difficult time understanding until he saw their prototype. (גמ' . נרמנחות כט ע"א וירושלמי שקלים פ"א ה"ד) - flame, refers to the Menorah’s shape and design. חודש – month, refers to the size of the new moon that is needed for the High Court to be able to sanctify the Rosh Chodesh. שקל - Shekel, refers to the exact weight of the half-Shekel that is needed to fulfill the Mitzvah of ‘Machatzis Hashekel’.
It would seem that the difficulty that Moshe had in understanding these three specific Mitzvos, was not merely due to the complexity in their physical sense, for there are many areas in the Torah that are much more complex. Rather, each one of these Mitzvos had a particular element within itself, which was a result of Moshe being destined to die in the desert and not enter the Land of Israel. At the time that Moshe received the Torah, and was learning all the Mitzvos and their associated elements, he was not yet aware that he was to die in the desert, and thus when he came across these three particular Mitzvos, he was puzzled and could not comprehend those specific elements, as we shall further explain.
‘Rosh Chodesh’
The Mitzvah is to sanctify the new moon at the beginning of every lunar month. The moon waning at the end of every month and then waxing anew at the beginning of every month corresponds to the Jewish people, who likewise, have their time of grandeur and greatness and yet also go through phases of minimalism and paucity. Earlier sources teach us, that had Moshe been the one to bring the Jews into the Land of Israel, the Temple would never have been destroyed and the Jews would not have gone into exile, rather, the Jews would always have remained in their grandeur state. Thus, the moon too, would never diminish in size, but would always remain in its full state. When Hashem told Moshe about ‘Rosh Chodesh’, Moshe realized that the moon would be waning and waxing, which was something that he could not understand, as he thought that he would be taking the Jews into Israel, and thus the moon would always be in its complete splendor.
‘Menorah’
The Mitzvah was to make a Menorah that has seven branches, which would weaken the power of the seven nations found within the boundaries of Israel. Moshe knew that once they enter Israel, they will weaken the power of all seventy nations and, accordingly, would need to construct ten Menorahs, as we indeed find Shlomo Hamelech constructing that many Menorahs when building the Temple many years later. Moshe, who at that time thought that he will be entering Israel, could not understand why he was charged with constructing only one Menorah.
‘Shekel’
The word 'שקל', [when calculated through the numerical system called א"ת ב"ש in which the letters שק"ל match up to the letters בד"כ] has the numerical value of twenty six, which corresponds to the numerical value of the Holy Name of Hashem. Here too, Moshe knew that if he was to enter Israel together with the Jews, the Temple would never be destroyed, which would be a symbol of Hashem’s “stature” being “complete”. He therefore could not understand why the Mitzvah was to take only half a shekel, which would represent, so to speak, an “incomplete stature”.
The Torah begins our Parsha by saying; ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל - And you shall command the Children of Israel, keeping Moshe’s name distinctly absent. This indicates that the day will come when Moshe, too, will remain absent from the Children of Israel, as he will die in the desert and the Jews will go up to Israel without him. Because this very fact that Moshe will not enter the Land of Israel, is what was behind all those elements that Moshe was unable to understand, we can understand the connection between those matters that were unclear to Moshe and were hinted to in the word נחשת, at the very end of last week’s Parsha, to the fact that Moshe would die in the desert which is hinted to in the very beginning of this week’s Parsha.
(פרשת תצוה אות א)
