On Jewish character, Pekudea sometimes has been called the accountant's parrasha, because that's how it begins with the audited accounts of the money and materials donated to the sanctuary.

It's the Torah's way of teaching us of the need for financial transparency. But beneath the sometimes dry surface lie two extraordinary stories, one told in last week's

parish, the other the week before, teaching us something deep about the Jewish nature that it's still

true today. The first has to do with the sanctuary itself. God told Moses to ask people to make

contributions. Some brought gold, some silver, some copper.

Some gave wool or linen or animal skins.

Others contributed acacia wood, oil, spices or incense.

Some gave precious stones for the high priest's breastplate.

What was remarkable was the willingness with which they gave.

The people continued to bring free will offerings

morning after morning, so all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary

left with what they were doing and said to Moses, the people are bringing more than enough

for doing the work the Lord has commanded to be done. So Moses gave an order and they sent this

word throughout the camp. No man or woman is to

make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary. And so the people were estranged from bringing more

because what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work. They brought too much.

Moses had to tell them to stop. That is not the Israelites, as we'd become

used to seeing them, argumentative, quarrelsome, ungrateful. This is a people that longs to give.

Well, Pasha earlier, we read a very different story. The people were anxious. Moses had been up the

mountain for a long time.

Was he still alive? Had some accident happened to him? If so, how would they receive the divine

word telling them what to do and where to go? Hence their demand for a calf, essentially an oracle,

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