Pekudei

The portion opens with the accounting of the tabernacle — the reckonings drawn up at Moses' command under Itamar son of Aaron. The gold of the offering came to twenty-nine talents; the silver, a hundred talents and more, from the half-shekel of each of the 603,550 men counted — the hundred talents cast into the hundred sockets that hold up the sanctuary; the bronze went to the entrance sockets, the altar and its grating, and the courtyard.

The priestly garments are made as commanded: the ephod with its gold thread cut and twisted into the blue, purple, and scarlet; the two engraved shoulder stones; the breastpiece with its four rows of stones bound by a blue cord; the robe of blue with bells and pomegranates around its hem; the tunics, turban, sash — and the plate of pure gold engraved "Holy to the LORD." Then all the work is finished; the people bring every piece to Moses, and he sees that they have done it just as the LORD commanded — and Moses blesses them.

On the first day of the first month of the second year, at God's word, Moses erects the tabernacle: sockets, boards, bars, pillars; the ark with the testimony placed inside and screened by the veil; the table with its bread, the menorah with its lamps, the golden altar with its incense, the altar of burnt offering, the laver — each put in place and anointed, with Aaron and his sons washed and dressed. When Moses finishes the work, the cloud covers the tent of meeting and the glory of the LORD fills the tabernacle, so that Moses himself cannot enter. And so it remains for all their journeys: when the cloud lifts they set out, and the cloud of the LORD is over the tabernacle by day, with fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.