Why Was Gold Created?
The Torah portion of Pekudei (next week’s parashah) enumerates all the weights of all the materials that were donated for the work of the Tabernacle. The counting begins with the weight of the gold, the weight of the silver, and the weight of the copper.
However, there is a very important difference that many commentators point out. There is a striking distinction between gold, silver, and copper: for the silver and copper, it is written what the material weighed was used for. But regarding gold, initially, only the weight of the material is written, but its use is missing. What is the difference?
It is written that gold was created solely for use in of the Temple, unlike silver and copper. Silver and copper belong to this world, and it is permissible for everyone to use silver and copper for their own needs, for mundane purposes. From the outset, however, we should use everything that God gives us for the sake of heaven, so that all mundane things will be pure with the purity of the sacred. Gold, however, is strictly sacred. It was not fitting to create gold at all. It was created for the sake of the Temple. According to this understanding, there is no need to write what purpose gold serves, because it is obvious that gold and the Temple are one and the same. It is not even for a particular purpose, but rather, a purpose in and of itself. Do we need silver in the Temple? In the days of King Solomon, who built the Temple in Jerusalem, a house for eternity, silver was considered worthless. So too, in the Tabernacle (sometimes referred to as “the Temple”), there is a need to justify the use of silver and copper. But gold needs no justification.
Gold Expresses “the Nature of the Good is To Do Good”
In the first account of Creation, it was written that everything that God created for His glory was good. From the verse, “God saw the light, that it was good” until the conclusion, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Afterward, in the second account of Creation, we find the good mentioned only in reference to gold, “And the gold of that land is good” (וּזֲהַב הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא טוֹב); this refers to the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel is the place of gold, and the gold of the land is good. Gold is thus intrinsically good, good for the sake of the Temple which is itself an expression of the essence of goodness, the Holy Blessed One.
About the good there is a well-known aphorism, “the nature of the good is to do good” (טֶבַע הַטּוֹב לְהֵיטִיב). God’s innate nature to do good is revealed in gold. From this we might say that every Jew is a “golden child.” How so? Jew comes from Judah the progenitor of King David. David (דָוִד) has the same value as “gold” (זָהָב), which is attributed to the seven shades of gold in his beard.
Since gold is the good itself, it is affiliated with the Temple (and the Tabernacle), especially since the Temple is described as, “this good mountain and the Lebanon.”
