Vayakhel/Pekudei 5772

This week we read two parshiyot, Vayakhel and Pekudei. Vayakhel means “assembled”, as in Moshe assembles the whole community in a single entity.  Pekudei means “accounts”, an idea that emphasizes the value of the individual over the whole, i.e., every individual “counts” as a single entity.

What can we learn from the juxtaposition of these two parshiot?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe asks: What is more important: a team mentality where every person belongs to a whole, giant community which is greater than its constituent parts? Or, is it more important to stress the worth of the individual, how each person is created by G-d, utterly unique, with individual talents and abilities?

When the two parshiyot come together, Torah gives us the spiritual potential to harmonize these two opposing dynamics – group and individual.

Explains the Rebbe: Each of us must be aware of the surrounding world and must view it as an organic whole. No one of us, no matter how great our capabilities, can successfully function entirely on our own.  However, when we see ourselves as an element within a greater picture, a whole which is greater than its parts, our individual importance is enhanced rather than diminished: our personal identity becomes fused with the larger unity in which we share.

In Pekudei, Moshe takes an accounting of the elements of the Sanctuary, the place where G-d’s presence rests.  Our Sages tell us that when G-d causes His presence to dwell amidst our people as a whole, He also invests Himself within the midst of every individual. Every person thus becomes a Sanctuary in microcosm. By developing our own potentials to the utmost, shouldering all the responsibility we have been given, and yet joining together with others for this higher purpose, we reveal G-dliness in our own lives and spread awareness of G-d in the world at large.

As parents, we must nurture the individual potentials of our children, while at the same time teaching our children that they are part of a greater Jewish community. We must encourage our children to use their skills and talents to benefit the community-at-large, and make them mindful of their responsibility as members of a community.