Book of Shemos Vayakhel
BOOK OF SHEMOS VayaKHEl
38:8
He made the copper washbasin and its copper base from the mirrors of the legions of women.
The Talmud contrasts Moshe with all the other prophets in history, saying, “All the prophets looked into a dim glass, but Moshe looked through an illuminated glass.”
Chassidus explains that Moshe’s perception of the Divine was comparable to a person looking through “an illuminated glass”—an instrument such as a telescope that enables us to see distances beyond the scope of the naked eye. In contrast, the other prophets’ perception of the Divine was through a “dim glass,” alluding to a mirror—a coated glass that expands our range of view to include angles that we could not view directly. Whereas through a telescope we see the distant objects themselves, in a mirror we see only the objects’ reflections. Analogously, what the other prophets perceived was a reflection of the Divine, but Moshe was given a glimpse of Divinity itself.
This explains why when the women offered their personal mirrors as a contribution to the Mishkan, Moshe hesitated to accept them because he viewed mirrors as instruments of lust and temptation. G‑d, however, told Moshe to accept them, saying, “These are more precious to Me than all else, because through them the women produced the legions (they gave birth to) in Egypt.”
The mirrors epitomized finding G‑d in His reflection and shadow—discovering that even things that seem to be at odds with holiness can actually reflect the Divine. The women in Egypt “redirected” the mirrors from simple instruments of lust to agents of G‑dly purpose, by utilizing them to bring about the birth of another generation of Jews in the most dire of times.
Moshe, however, hoped for the Mishkan to be a place where G‑d’s presence was perceived in the manner to which he was accustomed—manifestly and directly. Why blur the revelation in the Mishkan by incorporating in it aspects of life in which G‑dliness—though present—is somewhat concealed?
Nevertheless, G‑d told Moshe to accept the mirrors. For the unearthing of G‑d’s presence even where He is normally “out of sight” is the ultimate fulfillment of G‑d’s desire to dwell in the lowest elements of this world. Though the G‑dly revelation therein is somewhat indirect, the Divine pleasure elicited by the challenge inherent in that discovery is “more precious to Me than all else.”
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 6, pp. 197–199
