Summary of the Parasha

Pekudei (“the accounts”) closes the book of Exodus. The Torah gives an account of the materials donated for the Mishkan, the gold, silver and copper, and recalls the making of the garments of Aaron and his sons. The people bring the finished work to Moses, who blesses them.

On the 1st of Nisan, the first day of the first month, Moses sets up the Mishkan: he puts in place the ark, the table, the Menorah, the altars and the basin, and anoints the vessels and the Kohanim. The book ends on a magnificent image: the cloud covers the Tent of Meeting, the Glory of God fills the Mishkan, and from now on it leads Israel through every stage of the journey in the desert.

Summary of the Haftara

“Vaya’as Chiram” (“And Hiram made”)
Text in I Kings 7:40–50 for Sephardim, 7:51–8:21 for Ashkenazim

In the Sephardi reading, Hiram finishes the bronze vessels and Solomon has the golden vessels of the Temple made. In the Ashkenazi reading, the Temple is complete: Solomon brings up the Ark of the Covenant, which holds only the two stone tablets, and places it in the Holy of Holies. As the Kohanim come out, the cloud fills the House of God, and Solomon blesses the people.

Parasha-Haftara Connection

Both texts end the same way: when the work is complete, the cloud of the Divine Presence comes to fill the sanctuary. In the desert as in Jerusalem, human work becomes a dwelling place for God.

Special Shabbat: HaChodesh

In 5783, Vayakhel-Pekudei was Shabbat HaChodesh, the Shabbat before the month of Nisan, the month of the Exodus and the birth of the people of Israel. We read “This month shall be for you the first of months” (Exodus 12) with the laws of the first Pesach offering. The haftara (Ezekiel 45–46) describes the offerings of the 1st of Nisan and of Pesach in the Third Temple. In both cases, a new era begins: the Exodus from Egypt, then the end of the last exile.