For an explanation of the methodology of this series, see the introduction.

"All the gold that had been used for the work in all the work of the Holy; the gold of the waving was twenty nine talents, seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the holy shekel." (Ex. 38:24)

Peshat (basic meaning):

Rashi: "kikar/talent"
[Equals] sixty maneh's. The maneh of the Holy was double [the normal maneh]. Hence, the talent [mentioned here] equaled one hundred twenty [ordinary] maneh's, and the maneh was twenty-five sela's. Thus, a talent of the Holy was three thousand shekels. Therefore, [the text] counted out in detail all the shekels that were less than three thousand, since they did not amount to a talent [and thus they had to be enumerated separately].

Remez (hinted meaning):

Baal HaTurim: "all the gold"
The word "Hazahav/all the gold" can be read as if it were two words Hei Zahav [the letter "Hei" standing for the number 5] — five types of gold alluding to the 5 types of golden ornaments donated: bracelets, nose rings, ring, body ornaments, and all sorts of gold ornaments. These too corresponded to the 5 types of oppression the Jews suffered in Egypt: crushing hardness, bitterness, affliction, oppression, and hard work.

Sod (esoteric, mystical meaning):

Zohar Pekudei 224:
...the Holy One, blessed be He...applied the gold as a remedy beforehand... "All the gold that was applied for the work." What is the meaning of 'applied'? It means that here the Holy One, blessed be He saw Israel giving gold for the calf, and He applied the gold as a remedy beforehand, by putting the gold for the Tabernacle before the gold for the calf. For all the gold they had with them and about them they donated to the Tabernacle. Could you possibly imagine that they had gold when they made the calf and that they would take the gold off their ears, as it is written, "And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears"? (Ex. 32:3) He therefore took first the gold of the donation to expiate for the making.

BeRahamim LeHayyim:
Middah Kinneged Middah: Just desserts. What goes around comes around. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. There is a weird symmetry in our actions and results of our actions. Kind of like the Butterfly effect—the flapping of its wings in the US affects air currents in Asia. All that glitters is not gold, and we learned that the same thing used for holiness could also be used for negativity. We learned this lesson the hard way, with the Golden Calf. Would it be that we can remember that everything is for the good, that our job here is raise our eyes on high, up to the mountains, that is where our help will come from.

The remedy is given before the illness. Let us use preventive medicine as much as possible!

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