Drama overwhelms the book of Exodus. You’ve got burning bushes, plagues, splitting seas, Golden Calfs, and more! This is compelling stuff. But the Author seems to totally flub the ending [insert Game of Thrones joke here] with a seemingly endless list of monotonous details about the Mishkan, something we’ve already covered! Why end Exodus with this?
And if you are going to end with something very boring highly technical, why repeat the building of the Mishkan? We covered this in Chapter 26! Look, Genesis gives us two accounts of Man’s creation, which is cool. There’s some meaty philosophical implications there. But for the life of me, I can’t understand why recounting the number of sockets is worthy of emphasis.
Let’s start by answering the 2nd question: why repeat (or expand upon) the building of the Mishkan? Because though the output remains the same, the input is drastically different.
Before the Golden Calf: The building of the Mishkan before the Golden Calf was done with little enthusiasm by a small segment of the population. When describing the call for donations, it mentions the phrase “יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ”, “whose heart volunteers him” (Exodus, 25:2) just once. If there’s voluntary behavior by Bnei Yisrael, it’s not a major theme of the construction. It also describes the motivation by using the word “לב”, “heart”. There’s no mention — as there will be after The Golden Calf — of the intellectual motivations for why one would contribute.
When it comes to who is involved, it’s a fairly narrow band. There’s no mention at all of women. And the star of the show is Betzalel, with a minor character named Oholiab mentioned as a lowly sidekick. Indeed the Torah introduces the latter as follows, “הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי אִתּוֹ אֵת אָהֳלִיאָב בֶּן־אֲחִיסָמָךְ לְמַטֵּה־דָן”, “Here I have given him [Betzalel] son of Achisamach of the Tribe Dan” (Exodus 31:6). Oholiab has no agency, he’s just a gift to Betzalel. This may not seem like a big deal but consider that Betzalel is from Yehuda, the most prominent tribe, and Oholiab is from Dan, perhaps the least prominent tribe. This sort of language leans into existing tribal divisions.After the Golden Calf: After the Golden Calf, everything is different. When it comes to the level of participation, Chapter 36 alone uses “נדב” and its variants five time. The donations do not just stem from an emotional motivation of the heart, but the text repeatedly invites anyone that is “וְכׇל־חֲכַם־לֵב”, “Every wise-hearted person.” (Exodus 35:10) to contribute to the Mishkan.
This time around the Torah also repeatedly invites women to contribute. In fact, it puts them on equal footing to men, when it says “הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל־הַנָּשִׁים כֹּל נְדִיב לֵב”, “The men and the women, all whose hearts moved them” (Exodus, 35:22). Last but not least, the text frames Oholiab very differently. He gets higher billing and is described almost as a peer. G-d shows much more political astuteness. He seemingly pays attention to tribal dynamics and goes out of His way to ensure everyone feels bought in and valued.
In this light, the Mishkan is the perfect conclusion to the book of Exodus. The book starts with G-d distant from his people. G-d starts as the G-d of Avraham, Yitzkhak, and Yaacov, and then Moshe. He is a G-d of specific people at specific points of time. And He is a G-d who forces the Jewish people to go along with his emancipatory plans. Even just a few parshas prior, G-d displayed similar behaviors towards the Jewish people. No wonder Bnei Yisrael lapsed to worshipping a metal hamburger!
The Golden Calf presented a relationship reset (for now at least). The Jewish people were punished but G-d also learned. He now recognizes that to build a home amongst the people, he’ll need to tap into different motivations, different genders, and different identities. This is what allows Him to be present. At long last, He ceases to be a god of individuals, but rather the G-d of a nation.