Parashat Pekudei — Accounts (reckonings)

פְקוּדֵי

Torah portion 23 of 54 · Book of Exodus · pronounced peh-koo-DAY

Pekudei (פְקוּדֵי) means "accounts (reckonings)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.

Next read: March 13, 2027 · then March 25, 2028 (combined as Vayakhel-Pekudei)

The Readings

What Happens in Pekudei

These are the accounts — pekudei — of the mishkan, the dwelling of the Testimony, as they were counted at the commandment of Moshe, by the hand of Itamar son of Aharon the priest. The Torah closes Exodus with an audit. Twenty-nine talents of gold; a hundred talents of silver from the half-shekels of 603,550 men, cast into the hundred sockets that hold up the sanctuary — the house of God literally standing on the ransom of every counted soul; seventy talents of bronze for sockets, altar, and laver. Moshe, who could have been questioned by no one, publishes the ledger anyway: transparency in holy things is itself holiness, and tradition draws from here that leaders must be above suspicion even when above reproach.

The priestly garments are then finished — the ephod, the breastplate with its twelve engraved stones, the blue robe with bells and pomegranates, the tunics, the turban, and the gold plate engraved HOLY TO YHVH — and through the chapter a phrase tolls like a bell, again and again: as YHVH commanded Moshe. Eighteen times in the closing chapters the obedience is certified. Thus all the work of the mishkan was finished, and the children of Yisrael did according to all that YHVH commanded Moshe; so they did. The completed work is brought piece by piece to Moshe — the echo of creation is deliberate: and Moshe saw all the work, and behold, they had done it as YHVH commanded — and Moshe blessed them, as God once saw all that He had made and blessed it.

Then, on the first day of the first month of the second year — new year, new beginning — the mishkan is raised. Moshe sets the sockets, boards, and bars; spreads the tent; places the Testimony in the ark and the kapporet above it; hangs the veil; arranges the table's bread, lights the lamps, burns the incense, offers on the bronze altar, fills the laver; and erects the courtyard around it all. So Moshe finished the work. And then the whole point of the book arrives: the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of YHVH filled the mishkan — so completely that Moshe himself was not able to enter. The God who redeemed Israel out of Egypt now dwells in the middle of their camp. And the book ends looking down the road: when the cloud lifted, they journeyed; when it did not lift, they waited — for the cloud of YHVH was on the mishkan by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Yisrael, throughout all their journeys.

Main Themes

Faithful accounting of sacred resources As YHVH commanded Moshe — obedience in every detail Work completed and blessed The glory filling the dwelling God's presence guiding every journey

Key Events

· The accounting of the materials

· The priestly garments completed

· The finished work inspected and blessed

· The mishkan erected on the first of Nisan

· The cloud covers and the glory fills the mishkan

· The cloud and fire lead Israel's journeys

Key People

Moshe Itamar Betzalel Oholiav Aharon

Key Verses

← Parashat Vayakhel  ·  Parashat Vayikra →

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