D’var Torah: Tetzaveh 2026/5786 תצוה

Ezra Preiss, Grade 8

Imagine you are in an arcade. What is your go-to game? Is it skee-ball, pop-a-shot, or whack-a-mole? Personally, I always go to the claw machine. I like it for two reasons. The first is that my mom always says that they are rigged, and that I should never play one because I’ll walk away disappointed. I usually don’t. More importantly, I love all of the moving parts and I want to understand everything about them.

When I was 11, I had the opportunity to create a carnival activity for Hanukkah. I chose to go over-the-top and build my own claw machine. I constructed a wooden box that would sit atop a table, and my dad and I designed a mechanism and a handle that would move the claw around horizontally. We got an electric claw to wire up to a pulley, and made a small box in the front of the machine for all of the electronics. I borrowed my siblings’ old toys to put inside, and just like that, it was complete. I love working on ambitious projects where I get to be creative and use my building and engineering skills. 

We are in the section of the Torah where we learn about the building of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary for Bnei Yisrael in the wilderness. It was a huge undertaking with a lot of specific details. It was the kind of project I would really like.

God chose Bezalel ben Uri as the leader of the project. Bezalel wasn’t a specialist, who worked on just one area. He did everything! שמות ל״א lists all of his talents: 

לַחְשֹׁ֖ב מַחֲשָׁבֹ֑ת לַעֲשׂ֛וֹת בַּזָּהָ֥ב וּבַכֶּ֖סֶף וּבַנְּחֹֽשֶׁת׃

וּבַחֲרֹ֥שֶׁת אֶ֛בֶן לְמַלֹּ֖את וּבַחֲרֹ֣שֶׁת עֵ֑ץ לַעֲשׂ֖וֹת בְּכׇל־מְלָאכָֽה׃

to make designs for work in gold, silver, and copper,

to cut stones for setting and to carve wood—to work in every kind of craft.

You might picture Bezalel as a fully-grown adult. But the Talmud says he was just 13! I think that’s pretty cool, especially because today is my 13th Hebrew birthday. 

Bezalel must have been really amazing to be chosen for this role. As someone who loves building things, I have a bunch of questions about him and his team: How did he gain all his skills - was he born with them? Was he specially trained? Who was on his team, and where did they get their skills? Where did they find the supplies they needed - all the woods, metals, and animal skins? Which aspects of the design came straight from Hashem, and which parts did the human team get to create?

And possibly my biggest question of all: Was Bezalel mainly a messenger of God, an artist, or an engineer? A messenger of God carries out the tasks God has given them. An artist’s job is to use their creativity to make beautiful things. An engineer is similar to an artist, but they focus on function and efficiency, more than beauty (although their end results can be beautiful). 

Now, I don’t know if Bezalel considered himself an engineer, but if he did, I bet he heard what engineers hear all the time: “Can you make it faster, cheaper, and still perfect”?

In Exodus 31, where Bezalel is introduced, God says “וָאֲמַלֵּ֥א אֹת֖וֹ ר֣וּחַ אֱ-לֹהִ֑ים” - “I have filled him with a divine spirit”. What does that mean? Does it mean God gave him artistic talents? Technical skills? Did God create him as an artistic savant from birth, or did God install the skills in him just temporarily?

In order to answer this question, there’s something else we need to try to understand first: how much creative freedom did Bezalel and his team have? Were they following a detailed plan that came directly from Hashem, or did they just receive general guidelines that they were allowed to interpret?

On the one hand, Bezalel might have had little to no creative liberty when building the Mishkan, but merely followed the specs that Hashem, the Divine architect, gave him. That’s what it sounds like based on Exodus 25:40, where Hashem tells Moshe:

וּרְאֵה וַעֲשֵׂה בְּתַבְנִיתָם אֲשֶׁר⁠־אַתָּה מׇרְאֶה בָּהָר׃

And see and make according to their pattern which you were shown on the mountain. So, it sounds like Hashem told the plans to Moshe, and then Moshe relayed the information down to Bezlalel and his team.

The Midrash elaborates that Hashem revealed detailed designs of the Mishkan and its vessels to Moshe first. Shemot Rabbah 15:20, describes Hashem showing Moshe a "vision" of the Menorah made of fire – וזאת המנורה. This was because the menorah - designed by God, the artist - was so intricate that Moshe couldn’t even picture it without God’s help.

On the other hand, perhaps God gave general instructions, and Bezalel and his team had room to use their own artistic vision. And maybe it was a little of both. Like the Menorah had to be done a certain way, but other things were left to their creative interpretation.

If Bezalel’s job was to carry out God’s exact plan, then it sounds like his role was to be a messenger of God, more so than an artist or an engineer. In that case, he might not have needed special skills or artistic vision. 

This matches up with the opinion of the Rogatchover Gaon  - one of the greatest Talmud scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He taught that Bezalel’s skills were a gift that God placed in him just temporarily. And after the Mishkan was completed, Bezalel lost all his skills and knowledge. What gave the Rogatchover this idea? He learned it from the Gemara in Eruvin 16, which says that Ohaliav, who was Bezalel’s assistant, taught his own son to be an artisan. It doesn’t say that Bezalel taught his own children. The Rogachover infers from this that Bezalel didn’t have skills to pass down; Hashem gave him the skills just for a time, the way we install and uninstall an iPhone app. 

And now another possibility: perhaps we should think of Bezalel as an engineer, not only as a messenger of God. Again, an engineer is a person who uses scientific and mathematical principles to design, build, and improve things. They might receive a plan from a project manager, or even a detailed blueprint, but they will need to bring their own skills and experience to the task - the more skills, the better. 

According to Ibn Ezra - (great name by the way) - a Bible commentator and Jewish philosopher from the 12th century - Bezalel was filled with “all wisdom and mathematics, measurements and valuations, and astronomy, knowledge of history, and the secret of the soul.” Not only that - but: “הָיָה לוֹ יִתְרוֹן עַל כָּל אַנְשֵׁי דּוֹרוֹ” - these skills were greater than those of anyone else in his generation. It sounds like Ibn Ezra is describing an engineer! 

Or was Bezalel primarily an artist? An artist’s goal, as I mentioned before, is to make things beautiful, while an engineer prioritizes efficiency and functionality. 

I think Bezalel’s name gives us a hint about him being both an artist and engineer. Bezalel means “in the shadow of God”, and it reminds us that Hashem created humanity בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱ-לֹהִ֔ים - “in God’s image.” Since God doesn’t have an image or form, the special gift Hashem gave to all humans - being that every person is a mini-reflection of God - is to be a world designer. God is the creator of the world, so as images of God we should also try to be creators. God created a world that is both functional and beautiful and so too human beings (at their best) are both engineers and artists. Certainly, Bezalel, which means shadow of God, and alludes to Tzelem Elokim, had the best of both. The Mishkan was functional and also a glorious work of art. 

Personally, I understand Bezalel as an engineer and an artist who was also a messenger of God, and whom God chose because of the talent he was born with, and maybe also the talent he learned from earlier generations of his family. 

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I love working on projects and making them both functional and beautiful. I aspire to be like Bezalel, and combine a little bit of generational knowledge and a little bit of knowledge gained from experience, and maybe also some qualities I was born with, that are part of who I am.