‘Va’yakhel Moshe’: Creating one congregation

Rav Shlomo said: If you love someone, never ignore him. When you love someone and ignore him, it means they don’t exist. And that really hurts.”

“Va’yakhel Moshe et kol adat B’nei Yisrael, vayomer aleihem: Eileh ha’devarim asher tzivah Hashem la’asot otam.” (“And Moshe gathered together the entire congregation of Israel, and said to them: these are the things that G-d commanded us to do.”)

Va’yakhel is an unusual word. Why does the Torah tell me that Moshe gathered the entire Jewish people together to tell them something? Why not just use the normal phrase va’yedaber Moshe -and Moshe spoke?

Furthermore, Moshe refers to these words that Hashem (G-d) gave us. So what are these words that are so all important, that everything stops, and Moshe gathers together the entire Jewish people to hear?

Six days shall labor be done, and on the seventh day, it will be for you holy, a Shabbat of rest for Hashem.

Shabbat? Why are we discussing Shabbat again? We already received the mitzvah of Shabbat in the Ten Commandments just a few weeks (and two portions) ago. (Not to mention the verses exhorting us to celebrate Shabbat in last week’s portion as well.)

Rashi (Exodus 35:1), points out that this gathering of the Jewish people occurs on the day after Yom Kippur. Jewish tradition teaches us that it was on Yom Kippur that we were given a second set of tablets, to replace the first set broken by Moshe in response to the Golden Calf.

Perhaps we need to see this week’s portion against the backdrop of the sin of the Golden Calf, in the previous portion, Ki Tissah. Somehow, it seems, after the sin of the Golden Calf, the Jewish people needed to be gathered together, and they needed to hear, once again, about Shabbat. How is Shabbat the antidote for the sin of the Golden Calf?

How, after such a horrible mistake, do you start over?