The Gaon Yaakov, brought in the Chidushei Geonim (Shema Betzeil . . .) on the Ein Yaakov to Berakhot 55a
The Gemara (Berakhot 55a) presents the following conversation between Moshe and Betzalel:
When G-d told Moshe to tell Betzalel to make the Mishkan (structure), Aron (ark) and rest of the vessels, Moshe switched the order and said, “Make the Aron, vessels, and Mishkan.”
Betzalel replied, “Moshe Rabbeinu, it is the way of the world to first make a house and then to place within it vessels. You tell me to make the Aron and vessels before making the structure. These vessels that I make, where will I place them? Perhaps G-d told you that I should make the Mishkan and then the Aron and vessels?”
Said Moshe, “Were you perhaps in the shadow of G-d (betzeil Ei-l, a play on words using the name Betzalel) and knew what he was saying?”
There are several striking difficulties with this passage.
1. Why did Moshe switch the order from what G-d instructed him?
2. What was the “argument” between Moshe and Betzalel concerning the proper order?
In order to answer these questions we must understand the nature of the vessels of the Mishkan. They were not merely physical, but rather physical with a spiritual interior, much as a person has a body and a soul. The work of making the Mishkan is referred to by the Torah as “Maaseh charash vechosheiv,” a work of physical craftsmanship, charash, and inner content, chosheiv. A refined Divine Light that animated the vessels of the Mishkan was introduced into it by Betzalel and his unique group of craftsmen.
All of the aspects of the Mishkan had this combination of the physical and the spiritual, but not all in the same proportions. The courtyard beams were predominantly physical; the beams of the Mishkan itself slightly more refined; the vessels’ physicality was even more ethereal; and the Aron, though it had a physical side, was of a very lofty nature, almost bordering on the spiritual.
Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to give over the instructions of the Mishkan “as he was shown on the mountain.” To Moshe, who had so refined himself to the degree that he was more angelic than human, the Aron was the first item of the list. It was the most spiritual of the vessels and Moshe viewed its spirituality. Moshe would never have the question Betzalel had, “Where will I put these vessels?” for Moshe Rabbeinu saw them as essentially spiritual entities that would not be limited by physical space.
Betzalel, however, who was to make the Mishkan as a combination of the physical and the spiritual, was first conscious of the physical side of the vessels. His task was to take the inner spiritual content of the vessels and introduce it into a physical exterior. The order of construction would have to be first structure and then contents, for these vessels were limited by physicality.
Moshe did not switch G-d’s message (question 1 above) but transmitted it accurately from his own perspective. He and Betzalel had no argument about the order the Mishkan was to be made, but each came to it from their own perspective, Moshe from the spritual and Betzalel as the one who was to insert the spiritual essence into the physical.
