Summary of the Parasha

Moses gathers the whole people (Vayakhel). He first recalls Shabbat and the prohibition of lighting a fire on it, then passes on the call for gifts for the Mishkan: precious metals, skins, fabrics, wood, oil and spices. Men and women give so eagerly that the collection has to be stopped. The princes of the tribes, who planned to complete whatever was missing at the end, find themselves overtaken; they finally bring the precious stones for the Ephod and the Choshen.

The Torah recalls the appointment of Betzalel and Oholiav, and this time describes the actual making of the Mishkan: the curtains, the boards, then the Ark of the Covenant, the table, the Menorah, the incense altar, the altar of burnt offerings and the copper basin. Rashi teaches that the ark is called “the ark of Betzalel” because he put his whole soul into it.

Summary of the Haftara

“Vayishlach HaMelech Shlomo” (“King Solomon sent”)
Text in I Kings 7:13–26 for Sephardim, 7:40–50 for Ashkenazim

King Solomon brings Hiram from Tyre, the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and a master of bronze work. He casts the two great pillars at the Temple’s entrance, Yachin and Boaz, and the bronze Sea, an immense basin resting on twelve oxen facing the four directions. In the Ashkenazi reading, Hiram completes the bronze vessels, and Solomon has the golden ones made: the altar, the table and ten Menorot.

Parasha-Haftara Connection

Betzalel builds the Mishkan in the desert, Hiram works on the Temple in Jerusalem: two craftsmen filled with wisdom, serving the same house for the Divine Presence. The portable sanctuary of the desert foreshadows the permanent Temple in the land of Israel.

Special Shabbat

Vayakhel is often read together with Pekudei. The Shabbat that falls around it may be Shabbat Shekalim (recalling the half-shekel) or Shabbat HaChodesh, with its own haftara: see the Pekudei page.