1And Moses assembled all of the congregation of the children of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that YHWH commanded, to do them:
2Six days work shall be done, and in the seventh day you shall have a holy thing, a Sabbath, a ceasing to YHWH. Anyone who does work in shall be put to death.
35:2. Sabbath. The Tabernacle commands end with the Sabbath (Exod 31:12–17), and Moses’ repetition of them here begins with the Sabbath. What is the connection between the Sabbath and the Tabernacle? Recall that the creation of the world in Genesis 1 also ends with the Sabbath. There I discussed the role of the Sabbath as a sanctification of time, as opposed to the creation of things in space. Now again, as Israel begins to construct the Tabernacle, the most holy space on earth, they are reminded of the importance of the sanctification of time as well.
35:2. put to death. When God tells Moses to give this commandment to the people, He commands him to say that anyone who works on the Sabbath shall be “put to death”—using the Hebrew emphatic form môt yûm
t (31:14,15). But Moses just says “put to death” (yûmt)—leaving out the emphatic particle môt. That is, Moses softens the wording of the commandment. The convicted person might not feel any different to know that he is just being put to death, and not being put to death! But it is as if Moses cannot bring himself to pronounce the powerful, fearful condemnation.
3You shall not burn a fire in all of your homes on the Sabbath day.”
35:3. You shall not burn a fire. The classical commentators ask why fire is singled out from all the things forbidden on the Sabbath. But, even more essentially, we may ask how Moses comes to be mentioning fire at all. He appears to be giving the people the commandment that God had instructed him to give regarding working six days and ceasing on the seventh (31:15) almost verbatim. But then he adds the part about fire, which was not in God’s instruction. Fire has not been associated with the Sabbath until now. Why does Moses add it? What has happened between the instruction and Moses’ fulfillment of it? Fire has been mentioned twice since then: Aaron has claimed that the golden calf came out of a fire, and Moses has destroyed the calf with fire (32:20,24). The prohibition of fire on the Sabbath may thus be understood as a reminder of the golden calf rebellion. (An interesting comparison is the prohibition of playing musical instruments on the Sabbath, which was instituted as a memorial of the destruction of the Temple.) Moreover, it is a reminder that the Sabbath is not just about work and rest. There are things that one does not do on the Sabbath even if one can do them without the effort associated with work, such as lighting a fire. And there are things that one does do on the Sabbath, not just because it is permitted but because it is a spiritual joy, such as singing Sabbath songs. The Sabbath is about separation and sanctification of time. It is about peace and respite, about family, and about community.
4And Moses said to all of the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing that YHWH commanded, saying,
5‘Take a donation for YHWH from among you. Everyone whose heart is moved shall bring it, YHWH’s donation: gold and silver and bronze
6and blue and purple and crimson and linen and goats’ hair
7and rams’ skins dyed red and leather skins and acacia wood
8and oil for lighting and spices for the anointing oil and for the incense fragrances
9and onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.
10And let everyone wise of heart among you come and make everything that YHWH has commanded:
11the Tabernacle, its tent and its cover and its clasps and its frames, its bars, its columns and its bases,
12the ark and its poles, the atonement dais and the covering pavilion,
13the table and its poles and all of its equipment and the show bread
14and the menorah for lighting and its equipment and its lamps and the oil for lighting
15and the incense altar and its poles and the anointing oil and the incense fragrances and the entrance cover for the Tabernacle’s entrance,
16the altar of burnt offering and the bronze grate that it has, its poles and all of its equipment, the basin and its stand,
17the courtyard’s hangings, its columns and its bases and the cover of the courtyard’s gate,
18the Tabernacle’s pegs and the courtyard’s pegs and their cords,
19the fabric clothes for ministering in the Holy, the holy clothes for Aaron the priest, and his sons’ clothes for functioning as priests’.”
20And all of the congregation of the children of Israel went out from in front of Moses.
21And everyone whose heart inspired him came, and everyone whose spirit moved him brought a contribution for YHWH for the work of the Tent of Meeting and for all of its construction and for the holy clothes.
22And the men came together with the women. All whose hearts moved them had brought brooches and earrings and rings and ornaments, every kind of gold item. And every man who brought an elevation offering of gold to YHWH
35:22. the men came together with the women. Given that the Torah usually either focuses on men alone or else uses the masculine plural to refer to all Israelites as a group, this passage stands out for referring repeatedly to both females and males (35:29; 36:6). The Hebrew uses an atypical term: literally, “the men came upon the women.” The variety of reactions to this is revealing. Ibn Ezra treats it entirely as an issue of grammar, pointing out that the word for “upon” (Hebrew ‘al) often means “with.” Rashi interprets it in women’s favor: he derives the implication that “the men came upon the women” means that the men came right after the women. Sforno’s view is less favorable regarding women’s status: he interprets the phrase to mean that the women’s husbands had to accompany them and agree to their donations or else they would not be accepted. Ramban, similarly to Rashi, understands the donation of jewelry to apply more to women than to men, and so the women come first, and then they brought those men who happened to have some jewelry. In the commentary k
lî yqr, the atypical term is tied back to the fact that the women did not give their jewelry for making the golden calf while the men did. But, on any of these readings, the central point is that the women and men are equally enthusiastic in support of the sacred place, they make their gifts together, and their donations are equally welcome.
23and every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet and linen and goats’ hair and rams’ skins dyed red and leather skins had brought them.
24Everyone making a donation of silver and bronze had brought YHWH’s donation. And everyone with whom was found acacia wood for all the work of the construction had brought it.
25And every woman who was wise of heart with her hands had spun, and they brought yarn, the blue and the purple, the scarlet and the linen.
26And all the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom had spun the goats’ hair.
27And the chieftains had brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate
28and the spice and the oil for lighting and for the anointing oil and for the incense fragrances.
29Every man and woman whose heart moved them to bring for all the work that YHWH had commanded to do by the hand of Moses: the children of Israel brought a contribution for YHWH.
35:29. whose heart moved them to bring. This puns (twice) on the names of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu: 
… 
(ndab … lhbî’) and 
… 
(h
bî’û … ndbh). (See also 35:21,23; 36:3.)
30And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, YHWH has called Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah by name,
31and He has filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge and in every kind of work
32and to form conceptions to make in gold and in silver and in bronze
33and in cutting stone for setting and in cutting wood, for making every kind of conceived work.
34And He has put it in his heart to instruct: he and Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
35He has filled them with wisdom of heart to do all the work of the cutter and the designer and the embroiderer in the blue and in the purple, in the scarlet and in the linen and the weaver: those who do every kind of work and form conceptions.
