This week’s Torah portion is Vayakhel-Pekudei, which covers Exodus 35:1–40:38. This is our 22nd Torah portion in the annual reading cycle and our final Exodus study. The transition between the instructions for the tabernacle and its actual construction marks one of the most repetitive sequences in the Torah. While Exodus Chapters 25–31 provide the divine blueprint, Chapters 35–40 record the execution of that plan. Nearly every detail of the sanctuary, from the gold cherubim to the blue thread of the curtains, appears twice. For a reader moving through the book of Exodus, this repetition is painful. After the high drama of the golden calf and Moses’s intercession on the mountain, the narrative momentum seems to grind to a halt. The text descends into a dense, technical completion report that mirrors the previous instructions almost word-for-word.
Scholars offer several theories to explain why the Bible includes two versions of such technical text so close together. One theory is that different writer groups composed these sections at different times. One source focused on the command while another focused on the fulfillment, and a later editor wove them together. From a literary perspective, the repetition creates a sandwich structure. By placing the story of the golden calf in Chapter 32 between the two long descriptions of the tabernacle, the text demonstrates that the Great Sin did not cancel the divine plan. The repetition is narrative proof that God’s desire to dwell among the people remained unchanged despite their failure.
While the two sections appear identical at first glance, subtle shifts in the text reveal a change in the relationship between God and Israel. In the first section, the “you shall make” instructions proceed from the inside out, beginning with the ark of the covenant, which is the most holy object. In the second section, the “they made” account follows a human construction logic, building the outer structure and curtains before moving to the furniture. This shift highlights the transition from a solitary divine vision on a mountain to a communal project in the camp. The text emphasizes that “everyone whose heart was stirred” brought offerings, proving that the tabernacle was not just a divine idea, but a reality built by human hands.
This repetitive literary style also accords with architectural records found in the ancient Near East, particularly in Egypt. In several Egyptian building inscriptions, a pharaoh receives specific instructions or a vision for a temple, and the text later repeats those exact specifications to confirm the project was finished. For example, the building accounts of Thutmose III and Ramses II often employ this mirrored structure. By using this “command and fulfillment” format, the author of Exodus demonstrates that the construction of the tabernacle was a legitimate, official, and sacred act of statecraft. The repetition is a legal testimony that the earthly structure matches the heavenly pattern in every detail.
Sabbath
Before the people gathered to hold a collection of precious materials and commission artisans, Moses reminded them of the commandment to observe a Sabbath rest. Chapter 35 begins: “Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, ‘These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.’”
It may strike the reader as a bit odd that Moses expounded on Shabbat right before he launched into a litany of work orders for the whole community. As they built their house of worship, he established the moral code and divine calendar that would guide the upstart nation. In practical terms, the institution of Shabbat outlasted the Tent of Meeting or the future temples. As the Zionist writer Ahad Ha’am famously said, “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.”
At Sinai, the Israelites were commanded to “remember the Sabbath,” indicating that Sabbath observance was already known as one of the truths of their forefathers’ religion. They were familiar with the concept, even as slaves. Before the command was etched on the stone tablets, six weeks out of Egypt, they were instructed to gather a double portion of manna on Friday so as not to desecrate the seventh day. This is the Bible’s nonchalant way of first introducing functional prohibitions to protect the day of rest.
The Sabbath also shaped Israel into a more humane nation than its contemporaries. Its moral laws continued to evolve regarding human rights. But from the start, Sabbath extended to slaves, foreigners in its midst, and work animals. Sabbath foreshadowed the jubilee humanity sought. According to the rabbis, the seventh day provided a glimpse of the world to come, where we are all free from the struggle of life and free to worship on a higher order.
As the Israelites grew as a nation, the Sabbath was one of the main ways God set them apart from the surrounding peoples and forged a fraternal bond of difference. The Major Prophet Ezekiel, in a word from the Lord, writes, “I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and me, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Ezekiel lived out the end of his prophetic career in exile, where keeping the Sabbath came at a price. When Nehemiah and Ezra returned to the covenanted land and rebuilt their holy city and house of worship, they understood that the Sabbath had to be reinforced. They were relentless protectors of the Sabbath laws. Nehemiah went so far as to close the city gates to prevent outside commerce. That meant every Sabbath, the city of God’s people withdrew from the world.
Today, with no standing temple in Jerusalem, the Sabbath table has assumed an even greater sanctity. The Sabbath candles, bread, wine, and ritual washing all represent the elements that once were a part of the holy sanctuary. The Sabbath table has become a form of the altar in the temple. The rabbis say that the Sabbath is the temple in time rather than space. And therefore, every Jew, on Sabbath, is likened to a priest entering the Holy of Holies.
One cannot speak of the meaning of Sabbath in the Jewish experience without referencing the late Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s book, The Sabbath. What C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity is to our own faith, Heschel’s The Sabbath is to Jewish people. Every line of that transformative book is worthy of quoting, and it would be an injustice for anyone watching this not to share a few of the many.
Heschel wrote:
The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week, we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath, we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.
Heschel adds:
Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else.
And lastly, Heschel writes:
He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will survive without the help of man.
Christian Sabbath
The idea that the Sabbath is not merely a Jewish ritual, but a foundational principle of the universe begins in the first pages of the Bible. In the creation account, the seventh day is the only part of the world that God calls “holy.” Genesis 2 records that God finished his work and then rested, blessing and sanctifying the day.
Because the Sabbath event happens long before the call of Abraham or the Exodus from Egypt, many Christians believe that the Sabbath is a “creation ordinance,” a command from God that applies to all of humanity, not just for one specific nation. Jesus’s own words in the Gospel of Mark support this view. He tells the Pharisees: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). By using the Greek word for “man” (anthropos), he suggests that the day of rest was designed for the benefit of the entire human race.
The question of whether Christians should observe the seventh-day Sabbath has been a point of debate since the first century. The early church was composed primarily of Jewish believers who continued to keep the Sabbath while also meeting on the first day of the week to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Over time, as more Gentiles joined the faith, the focus shifted almost entirely to Sunday, which was called “the Lord’s Day.”
The writings of the apostle Paul reflect this transition. In his letter to the Colossians, he argues that the Sabbath was a “shadow” of things to come, while the “substance” belongs to Christ: Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16–17)
For many Christians, this means that the legal requirements of the Sabbath—the specific prohibitions against work—were fulfilled in Jesus. They believe that Christ provides a “spiritual rest” that believers enter into every day. Even if a Christian does not feel legally bound by the Mosaic Law, many find that the creation principle of the Sabbath is essential for human flourishing. Just as the Israelites needed a rhythm of rest to remain human in a world of toil, Christians find that setting aside a “temple in time” is life-giving for their personal spiritual lives and family liturgy.
I hear more about Christians who are discovering the principles of the Sabbath for themselves and finding a lot of joy in it.
I would love to hear from listeners about what that looks like to you. I am happy to share the practices my family has been observing to honor the Sabbath for the past twenty years.