Sanctifying the Sensual and Spinning from the Source
This week’s double Torah portion completes the Book of Shemot
(Exodus). The people generously provide materials for the Mishkan
(Sanctuary) and participate in its construction. The women are credited with
two special contributions: spinning material from wool, linen and goat hair;
and donating copper mirrors for the water basin the Kohanim (priests)
use to ritually wash their hands and feet before serving in the Mishkan.
“And every wise-hearted woman spun with her hands, and
they brought spun material: blue, purple and crimson wool and linen. And all
the women whose hearts uplifted them with wisdom spun the goat hair.” (Shemot
35:25-26)
“And he [Betzalel] made the washstand of copper and its base
of copper from the mirrors of the women who had set up the legions, who
congregated at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” (Shemot 38:8)
Rashi explains that the women owned copper mirrors to use when
they adorned themselves. Initially, Moshe (Moses) rejects the mirrors because
he feels they are made “for temptation.” G-d tells Moshe to accept the mirrors “because
through them the women set up many legions.” Rashi writes that “legions” refers
to the children the women bore in Egypt.
Writes Rabbi Dovid Frost on ou.org: “[The women use the mirrors]
to beautify themselves and entice their exhausted and demoralized husbands to
have relations with them…thereby continuing the chain of generations of the
Jewish people…The women, by means of the mirrors, sanctified the sensual by
elevating it to serve the noblest of purposes: the preservation of the Jewish
people.”
Rashi goes on to reference another use of the copper washing
basin: “its purpose was to make peace between a man and wife.” The water in the
basin is used to prove the guilt or innocence of a woman accused of infidelity.
(See Bamidbar/Numbers 5:11-31).
Regarding the women’s unique contribution of spun materials,
Rashi writes that certain women were so skilled and wise that they could spin
the goat hair while it was still attached to the goat! Sforno explains that
this ensured that the hair maintained its luster, because shearing the hair
diminishes its shine.
Rabbi Eliyahu Hoffmann on torah.org comments as to why the
task of spinning goat hair is given exclusively to women: “All the other
aspects of the Mishkan’s construction involved taking raw materials and
using them as the building blocks for the Tabernacle and its holy vessels…The
spinning of the goat hair was the only task that required the materials to be
formed, molded and infused with holiness at their very source --- straight from
the backs of the goats.”
“The mother of the house is referred to in the Holy Tongue
as akeret habayit, the ‘source’ of
the household, for it is she who brings an aura of kedusha (holiness),
love for Torah and respect for mitzvot (commandments) into the very
foundation of the Jewish home. Only the women could take responsibility for
such an essential and critical task.”
