Pekudei | An overview

The portion of Pekudei is the last portion in the book of Exodus, and it concludes the building of the sanctuary. The Torah details the dimensions of the Tabernacle and its vessels with great precision, not once but twice: from chapter 35 to chapter 40 (six chapters) and again from chapter 25 to chapter 31 (aside from chapter 29, which details the sanctity of Aaron and his sons). Thus the Torah repeats six chapters with the only difference between them being that at first Moses was commanded, “And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts’” (25:1) and the second time Moses is speaking to the people of Israel, “Moses said further to the whole community of Israelites…take from among you gifts” (35:4). At the time of the building they repeated all the dimensions in the same detail as in the previous six chapters.