2 “Tell the sons of Israel to raise for me [i.e., for my name’s sake] an offering [a tithe]. From every man whose heart prompts him you shall raise my offering [Three offerings are referred to here: the offering of a half-shekel for a head, of which the sockets were made; the offering of the altar, a half-shekel for a head, for the communal offering funds; and the offering of the tabernacle, an individual gift. (The thirteen articles mentioned below were needed either for the work of the tabernacle or for the priestly garments)].
Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 1:1
To raise for me an offering (Exo 25:2). May it please our masters to teach us: What did they do with the surplus offering? Thus did our masters teach us: They fashioned with it the hammered gold overlay for the Holy of Holies. You find that the Holy One, blessed be he, chose two offerings: the offering (set aside) for the building of the tabernacle and the priestly offering. The priestly offering (was given to them) in order that they become students of the law. R. Yannai said: Any priest who is not a student of the law, it is permitted to eat the offering on his grave.
Rashi’s Commentary
To raise for me—“Me” means to the glory of my name (Midrash Tanchuma, Truman 1).
Offering—Heb. תְּרוּמָה, something set apart (cf. Onkelos). The meaning is: let them set apart from their possessions an offering for me.
For if the willingness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, and not according to what he does not have. 2CO 8:12
3 This is the offering which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze [all voluntary gifts, except silver, a half-shekel for each individual (additional offerings of silver were used for making the ministering vessels)];
4 blue, purple [wool colored with a dye named אַרְגָּמָן] and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;
Rashi’s Commentary
שֵׁשׁ—This is what we call linen (Yevamot 4b).
וְעִזִים is goat hair; therefore Onkelos translates it by וּמְעַזֵּי which denotes something that comes from the goats—not the goats themselves, for the Aramaic translation of עִזִים is עִזַּיָּא.
It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. REV 19:8
5 ram skins dyed red [after tanning] and porpoise skins; acacia wood. [Jacob foresaw that they would build a tabernacle in the desert (where there is no wood). Accordingly, he brought cedars to Egypt, planted them and bade his sons take them when they left Egypt.]
Rashi’s Commentary
Dyed red—They were dyed red after having been tanned.
Acacia wood—But from where did they get this in the wilderness? Rabbi Tanchuma explained it thus: Our father Jacob foresaw by the gift of the Holy Spirit that Israel would once build a tabernacle in the wilderness: he therefore brought cedars to Egypt and planted them there, and bade his children take these with them when they would leave Egypt (Midrash Tanchuma Terumah 9; cf. Bereishit Rabbah and Rashi on Exo 26:15).
6 Oil for the light [pure olive oil to make the flame ascend continuously]; spices for the anointing oil [used to anoint the vessels of the tabernacle itself, to sanctify it] and for the burning [the rising of a smoke column] of the incense [which was burned every evening and morning];
Rashi’s Commentary
Oil for the light—Clear olive-oil . . . to make the flame ascend continually.
7 [two] onyx stones [for the ephod (28:6)] and stones for setting [the golden settings in the breastpiece], for the ephod and for the breastpiece [respectively].
Rashi’s Commentary
Setting—Because they made for them settings in gold—a kind of indentation—and they put the stone there (in it) to fill the indentation, they were called “stones for setting.” The spot where the indentation is (i.e. the hollow spot) is called מִשְׁבֶּצֶת “setting.”
8 Let them make a sanctuary [“a house of holiness”] for me, and I will dwell among them.
Rashi’s Commentary
Let them make a sanctuary for me—Let them make to the glory of my name (cf. Rashi on v. 2) a place of holiness.
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live in them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.” 2CO 6:16
The Ark
10 “They shall make an ark [without legs] of acacia wood—two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
Rashi’s Commentary
They shall make an ark—It is so called because it had the appearance of boxes which people make without feet—in the shape of a chest which is called escrin in old French which rests on its bottom.
. . . which had the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which were the golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant . . . HEB 9:4
11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold; from inside and from outside you shall overlay it [Bezalel made three arks: two of gold and one of wood, each having four walls and a base, and open from above. He placed the wooden one in a golden one, and a golden one in the wooden one and covered the top with gold so that it was found to be covered with gold “from inside and from outside”], and you shall make a golden molding around it [he made the outer ark higher than the inner so that it projected above the ark cover and formed a molding around, symbolizing the “crown of the law”].
Rashi’s Commentary
From inside and from outside you shall overlay it—Bezalel made three arks, two of gold and one of wood, each having four walls (sides) and a bottom, being, however, open at the top. He put the wooden ark into the larger golden one and the smaller golden one into that of wood and covered its upper rim (that of the wooden ark) with gold; consequently it can be said that the wooden ark was overlaid with gold from inside and from outside (Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1; Yoma 72b).
15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it.
Rashi’s Commentary
They shall not be removed from it for ever (cf. Yoma 72a).
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This work, “OFFERING Part 1 Offerings for the Tabernacle and the Ark (Exo 25),” is a derivative of:
[“Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 1:1”] (https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.25.2?lang=bi&aliyot=0&p2=Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Terumah.1.1&lang2=bi) trans. Samuel A. Berman.
[“Pentateuch with Rashi's Commentary on Exodus”] (https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Exodus?lang=bi) by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, used under Public Domain.
[“The Rashi Chumash on Exodus 25”] (https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.25?ven=The_Rashi_chumash_by_Rabbi_Shraga_Silverstein&lang=en&aliyot=0) by [Rabbi Shraga Silverstein,] (https://www.sefaria.org/shraga-silverstein) used under [CC BY 3.0.] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
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