Vayakhel – Pekudei
Onkelos translates the word Pekudei as “Minyanei,” meaning “counting” and this is indeed what makes up the second half of our parsha – Moshe giving an accounting of the building of the Mishkan.
It is interesting that the parsha (Pekudei) uses the root pakad – peh-kuf-dalet for counting and not the more common word safar – samech-peh-resh. We find the root pakad in a “counting” sense also with the half shekel (Shemot 30:13), and with the numerous censuses conducted in the desert (for example Bamidbar 1:3).
The first time we find the root pakad in the Torah, however, is with Sarah (Bereishit 21:1) when she gave birth to Yitzchak. The Targum Yerushalmi there translates the word pakad as “made a miracle.” What can “making a miracle” possibly have to do with counting?
Counting can be a potentially dangerous thing. The Gemara (Ta’anit 8b) says that someone who weighs/measures/counts something will never see any blessing from that thing, because blessing only rests on something that is undefined/unseen.
Does that mean that someone who takes stock of their store at the end of the year and counts their merchandise, or someone who counts and analyzes their investments on the stock exchange, or someone who counts and keeps track of how much money they have in the bank … will never see HaKadosh Baruch Hu‘s blessing in any of these things? Must we not take stock, keep track of our assets … not count anything?
The Maharsha explains that when somebody counts/defines/quantifies something, they arouse and expose that thing to “ayin hara,” the evil eye. For example, the media frequently publishes salaries of different top earners, like bank managers, department heads in the civil service, mayors, deans of universities, managers of hospitals, etc. and without exception this arouses antagonism from the public (that is the purpose of publishing it in the first place). What? The bank manager didn’t work hard and excel and their job to reach that salary bracket? Does a top neurosurgeon who excels not deserve to be compensated for their talent? The problem is when it is flaunted in public, it arouses jealousy. This is what the Maharsha means. According to the Maharsha, one should not disclose their income to anyone except for their spouse. It is nobody else’s business and only bad things will come from making it public.
The Iyun Yaakov explains the Gemara in a different way. When someone quantifies a thing, it becomes more difficult for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to add blessing to that thing. If someone precisely quantifies something, then the only way for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to increase that thing is by a miracle. HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not like performing overt miracles for everybody to see (except in very specific circumstances). HaKadosh Baruch Hu prefers that this world is run according to the rules of nature and not by miracles.
The Akeidat Yitzchak says that the most important blessings in this world are not associated with things that are definitive, like possessions or wealth. True blessing only resides in spiritual things that cannot be quantified – like love, prayer, chesed, etc.
We know for a fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu frowns on counting people! When someone counts people (without a directive from HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself), bad things happen. This is why when you want to check if you have a minyan in shul, you don’t count 1, 2, 3, etc. but instead recite a pasuk that has 10 words, like “Hoshia et amecha uvarech et nachalatecha ur’em venas’em ad ha’olam” (Tehillim 28:9). HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not want us to quantify ourselves. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe to do a census of Am Yisrael in the Midbar, Moshe used half shekels – counting the coins instead of the people. When David HaMelech did a head count census he was severely punished (Divrei HaYamim I, 21:1-17).
If that is the case, why did Moshe do an audit on the Mishkan in our parsha and count every last thing? If counting is so bad, then Moshe perhaps should not have done this?
The answer is – it depends on who is doing the counting.
If the counting is done by HaKadosh Baruch Hu then that is obviously not a negative thing. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a directive to count then that is not a negative thing.
The only time that counting is a negative thing, is when we do it of our own initiative, without a directive from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Unless HaKadosh Baruch Hu specifically told us to count something, we should refrain from counting it. Nothing good will come from counting it.
Hang on, the accounting of the Mishkan was Moshe’s own initiative, HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn’t command him to do it. So, why is this a good thing? (We see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu in fact complimented Moshe for doing so).
Regarding OPM (other peoples’ money), public funds, the opposite is true. We must obsess with counting that, with preserving total transparency to be above reproach, as Moshe did in our parsha.
As for our own finances, obviously we should keep track of our finances, to know how much money we have in the bank – in order to pay bills, to give tzedakah, etc. However, a person should not be obsessive with their assets, their worldly possessions. A person must value their possessions that were earned honestly (Rashi, Bereishit 32:25) and must have a general picture of their finances, but not obsess with them. We must leave some “elbow room” for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give us blessing without performing miracles.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Why did Moshe gather Am Yisrael and tell them the halachot of Shabbat before he summarized the building of the Mishkan? (Shemot 35:1-3)
Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: How old was Betzalel when he was appointed to build the Mishkan? 13-years-old (Tosfot, Sanhedrin 69a).