Builders of Time and Space: Parshiyot Vayakhel–Pekudei and Parshat HaChodesh 5786

This piece was first published in Hanassi Highlights, Thursday 12 March 2026. You can also read it in Ivrit, thanks to AI, by clicking here. 

The central mitzvah of each of the two parshiyot that we read this week is puzzling in its own way.

If we were asked to choose the very first mitzvah the Jewish people should receive, it is unlikely that sanctifying the new moon would top the list. Why should this technical command about the calendar be the Torah’s opening mitzvah?

Similarly, the Torah devotes extraordinary attention to the Mishkan. Its construction is described at length, repeated again and again. Why does the Torah linger so extensively on these details?

A common theme links the two.

The command to build the Mishkan marked a profound turning point for the Jewish people. Until that moment, their experience had largely been one of witnessing miracles performed on their behalf: the plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the sea, and the miraculous sustenance of the desert. But the Mishkan required something new. It demanded initiative, craftsmanship, generosity, and creativity. The Torah repeatedly describes those whose hearts lifted them to participate—“kol asher nesa’o libo.” Through this project, a nation of former slaves became a nation of builders.

The Mishkan transformed the people from passive recipients into active participants in a sacred mission. Perhaps for the first time, they were not merely observing redemption; they were helping to shape it.

The same idea lies behind the mitzvah of Kiddush HaChodesh. Rav Soloveitchik pointed out that one of the defining differences between a slave and a free person is the relationship to time. A slave does not control time; time is imposed upon him. Only a free person is able to take responsibility for time.

In giving the Jewish people authority to sanctify the new month, the Torah effectively hands us the keys to the calendar. The festivals themselves depend on that human declaration—hence the beracha “mekadesh Yisrael vehazmanim”: first Israel, and through Israel, the sacred times.

These two mitzvot therefore define the beginning and the culmination of redemption. The Jewish people are entrusted with responsibility over both time and space—sanctifying time through the calendar and sanctifying space through the Mishkan.

Perhaps this is the deeper message of these readings. Redemption is not only something that happens to us; it is something we are called upon to build. Even after failure and setbacks—even after something as grave as the sin of the Golden Calf—the Torah reminds us that the Jewish people are capable of rising again, partnering with Hashem in shaping the world.

That calling remains with us today: to be builders—shaping the sacred spaces of our community and using the sacred time we are given to fill our lives with meaning.