I only had enough space in this article to convey a simple idea. For an elaboration on the ideas here, check out the 3/17/23 shiur I gave (on YouTube or my Machshavah Lab podcast) with the same title.
The Torah content for the rest of Adar has been sponsored by my friend and chavrusa Zack, with the following dedicatory message: When asked, "Who is a leader you greatly admire?" my grandfather z”l immediately comes to mind. Each person who entered his presence was brought closer to a better version of themselves. This was due to his staunch belief in people and his uncompromising values. Knowledge is similar — it is indiscriminate and uncompromising in its power to help us become our best selves. Thank you Rabbi Schneeweiss for spreading knowledge, and may the memory of my grandfather, Naftali ben Tzvi, be a blessing.
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Vayakhel: The Meaning of the Mirror Donation
Hidden among the numerous pesukim detailing the construction of the Mishkan is a cryptic pasuk about the origin of the materials used to fashion the kiyor (laver): “He made a bronze laver and its bronze base from the mirrors of the women who gathered at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Shemos 38:8). Rashi (ibid.) explains the history and significance of this donation based on a midrash (Tanchuma Pikudei 9) which fills us in on the backstory:
The Jewish women possessed mirrors which they looked at when they adorned themselves. Even these did they not hesitate to donate to the Mishkan. Moshe was about to reject them since they were made for the yetzer ha’ra, but Ha’Kadosh Baruch Hu said to him, “Accept them, for these are dearer to Me than all the other contributions, because through them the women reared those huge hosts in Egypt!” For when their husbands were exhausted from the crushing labor, they would bring them food and drink and induce them to eat. They would take the mirrors, and each gazed at herself in her mirror together with her husband, saying endearingly to him, “See? I am more beautiful than you!” thereby awakening [their husbands’] desire. They coupled with them, became pregnant, and gave birth there, at it is said, "I awakened your love under the apple-tree" (Shir ha’Shirim 8:5). This is the meaning of “the mirrors of the tzoveos (women who reared the hosts).”
Rabbeinu Avraham ben ha’Rambam (Shemos 38:8) provides two alternative explanations, which are related:
[According to one explanation, this is referring to] the women who engage in service of Hashem, who abandoned their homes and committed themselves to the service of Hashem - just as the soldiers abandon their residences and travel to the location of their battle. A second explanation: [the women who] wage a spiritual war with their instinctual desires, turning all the attention of their soul to focus on God and His service. This second explanation suffices for the first one since it is the objective of the first one. And once they reached the level of separation [from their desires], they broke their mirrors – for they no longer needed them – and they brought them as an offering. [In doing so,] they transformed implements which were designed for the attainment of lust and earthly enjoyment into religious implements which were designed for the service of God (exalted is He).
Unlike Rashi, who attributes the significance of the mirrors to the historical role they played in the formation of the Jewish nation, R’ Avraham focuses on the level of perfection reached by the women who donated them. Imagine a woman – or a man – today who no longer cared about their own appearance and had transcended the need to look at themselves in a mirror! The question is: What are the implications of these two explanations?
These two explanations reflect two different strategies for dealing with the yetzer ha’ra. Rashi references the basic level: channeling one’s instinctual drives towards nobler ends. We mention this idea in the Shema: “You shall love Hashem, your God, with all your heart (levavechah)” (Devarim 6:5) which Chazal interpret to mean “with both your inclinations [the yetzer ha’tov and the yetzer ha’ra]” (Berachos 54a). The Jewish women in Egypt were immersed in Egyptian culture, which elevated beauty and sexuality to the level of a primary value. Nevertheless, when they saw the plight of the Jewish people, they took their obsession with beauty and channeled it into Torah values: p’ru u’revu (procreation) and building up the Jewish nation. And when it came time to make contributions to the Mishkan, these women were willing to give up their precious mirrors for a higher purpose, even if they remained attached to their Egyptian values. R’ Avraham’s view references the higher level: “going to war” with the yetzer ha’ra and changing your values to the point where you no longer crave what the yetzer ha’ra demands.
Both strategies express the very essence of avodah: the subordination of one’s instinctual drives to Hashem’s value system. Avodah begins with a recognition that this higher value system exists, and that the life of instinctual desire runs contrary to that. At first, the most one can do is reroute those desires. Eventually, it becomes possible to sublimate them entirely. For this reason, it is appropriate that the kiyor – which is used to initiate the day of avodah – was made from materials that embodied the fundamental character of avodah.
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