Shevat 12 – An accounting of the precious metals…

January 21, 2024

Shevat 12, 5784; from sunset January 21, 2024, to sunset January 22, 2024

This is the name “Mosheh” (מֺשֶׁה – Moses) as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written over two thousand years ago.

We’re giving Moses the day off from his repetition of the Torah, aka “Deuteronomy,” and, instead, we’ll catch up with the children of Israel as they are finishing up what is needed to build a Tabernacle for the LORD. Today, Moses gives us an accounting of the gold (zahav), silver (kesef), and copper/bronze (nechoshet) used in its construction.

This is the number of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were numbered according to the command of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. Now Bezalel, the son of Uri the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD had commanded Moses. And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a skillful workman and a weaver in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and fine linen.

All the zahav (gold) that was used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, even the zahav (gold) of the wave offering, was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. And the kesef (silver) of those of the congregation who were numbered was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; a beka a head (that is, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary), for each one who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.

And the hundred talents of kesef (silver) were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil; one hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket. And of the 1,775 shekels, he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their tops and made bands for them.

And the nechoshet (bronze) of the wave offering was 70 talents, and 2,400 shekels. And with it he made the sockets to the doorway of the tent of meeting, and the nechoshet (copper/bronze) altar and its nechoshet (copper/bronze) grating, and all the utensils of the altar, and the sockets of the court all around and the sockets of the gate of the court, and all the pegs of the tabernacle and all the pegs of the court all around. – Exodus 38:21-31 (NAS)

As of January, 2024, the U. S. dollar amount for the precious metals used in the building of the Tabernacle comes to:

Zahav	35,278 oz.	$ 72.7 mm
Kesef	121,351 oz.	$2.8 mm
Nechoshet	5,338 lb.	$20.0 k

According to the Temple Institute, the cost of recreating the golden menorah alone was $3 million dollars. If you throw in the fine linens, animal skins, precious stones, etc., you’re looking at $80mm+ in today’s dollars. While it was a costly venture, broken down by the 603,550 men mentioned in the text, it’s only about $130 each. When we are united, great things can happen.