Va-Yak-Hel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) is the Torah reading; Haftorah Reading is I Kings 7: 40-50
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California–This short Haftorah, exclusively in dry prose, mainly lists the components and furnishings of the completed Solomon’s Temple. It smacks of being a dry, though accurate, accounting record from royal archives.
The connection to the Torah reading is that it parallels the storied completion of the desert Tabernacle in Exodus, achieved and supervised by Bezalel and Oholiab. In the case of this Temple version, the achievement and supervision was by two new artisan characters (with however familiar names, i.e. Hiram and Solomon).
As in the Tabernacle furnishings, degrees of sanctity of the objects are correlated with the value of the metals used. In addition, King Solomon had the “entire House” (Temple) and its “floor” overlaid with gold. [1]
This text is mainly a list of the objects made for building and furnishing the Temple, with minimal detail as to the action involved. Commentators note that the text echoes Genesis 2:2, suggesting that the Temple-building is analogous to God’s original work of creating the world. [2]
To satisfy the required Haftorah criterion for an upbeat ending, the rabbis who reshaped this archival excerpt into a Haftorah took advantage of the verse following, i.e. Ch: 7, verse 51. It should be included in the Haftorah:
“And the task that King Solomon had done was finished…and Solomon brought the dedicated things of David his father, the silver and gold, and he placed the vessels in the treasury of the house of the Lord.”
My interpretation of this selection for a Haftorah is that the rabbis cleverly manipulated a dry archival mainly inventory record. What they achieved was the message they needed to parallel the details of the Exodus Tabernacle.
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[1] Etz Hayim, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, p. 573
[2] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, p. 464
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.