By Marco Del Monte
In this week's parashah we read about the construction of the Mishkan, and among the many objects that made up the Tabernacle we find the Kior, the laver.
Kadosh Baruch Hu commands that the laver be built from a particular material: the copper mirrors that Jewish women used in Egypt. Moses wonders how it is possible to use an instrument used for beauty, for self-adornment, almost as if it were a tool to incite the impulse; how could one use such an object to create a part of the Sanctuary dedicated to washing, purification, and the preparation of the Sacred Service? Wonderful is the answer that Hashem will give to Moses: "Do not despise the mirrors," Hashem corrected him. "Thanks to this object, in Egypt the children of Israel multiplied. Jewish women used them Leshem Shamayim (for the sake of Heaven), to make themselves beautiful and continue to have children in spite of Egyptian oppression" (The Midrash Says, Shemot part II p. 182). The people survived precisely thanks to those mirrors. Another woman saved the people from extinction, Miriam the sister of Moses. Under Pharaoh's decree to put newborn males to death, Miriam's father, Amram, separated from his wife Yocheved for fear of fathering male children and automatically condemning them to a sad fate: "Your decree is more cruel than Pharaoh's!" Miriam pointed out to her father: "Pharaoh only condemns the males, whereas you are putting the females to death as well!" Thus the savior Moses was subsequently born, and we all know how that turned out. In the Talmud, woman is called Bait, home. Every day woman is celebrated, even more so on Shabbat when we introduce the Kiddush with the passage Eshet Chayil, the Woman of Valour. It is no coincidence that this Shabbat we will also read the Parashah of the half-shekel. I believe that this too can represent the female figure, that half-shekel which completes the male half-shekel, just as according to Kabbalah there is a balance between the concept of Nukba and Duchra, between the masculine and the feminine. Woman, as mother, friend, daughter, sister, wife, represents that copper mirror that reflects ourselves, that search for that half-shekel that makes us complete; it is no coincidence that the Talmud mentions "Bat Kol" (The Daughter of the Voice), the prophetic voice that comes to give us guidance from heaven, proclaiming the Divine Will. The Divine Presence itself is called in the feminine, The Shechinah! In Judaism, not just a single day is dedicated to woman, but every day!
In all this, allow me a contemporary thought for those half-shekels brutally stolen, for those copper mirrors that are shattered in the soul every day, for those Bat Kol crying out to be brought back to freedom; every day our thought and our heart is with you, may Kadosh Baruch Hu send you all the strength necessary, that which you already have in the depths of your soul, and as Rabbi Nachman wrote in allegorical form, "The Lost and Imprisoned Princess will be freed!"
#BringthemHomeNowAlive #Am Israel Chay
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.