Parshat Pekudei

As our parsha closes sefer Shemot with a final accounting of the Mishkan construction and with its final assembly, so too, does our haftarah review the final assembly of the Beit Hamikdash with the placement of the holy aron into the Kodesh Kodashim. With that act, Hashem’s Shechina enters the holy Temple through a cloud that fills the Beit Hamikdash and prevents the Kohanim from carrying out the avodah—the sacrificial rite. This wonder mirrors that which the Kohanim experienced upon the completion of the Mishkan—a cloud filling the Tabernacle and preventing the Kohanim from entering—as our parsha depicts in its final pesukim.

Understandably, the personalities that are highlighted in each story reflect the 490 years that separated the events, with each story focusing upon the leaders of their respective undertakings. In the parsha, we read the name of Moshe some 12 times and, in our haftarah, we find the name of Shlomo mentioned seven times.

Interestingly, we find another name that repeats in the haftarah, one that is found almost as often as that of King Shlomo … the name of David HaMelech, which is somewhat puzzling. Certainly we know that David had hoped to build the Beit Hamikdash and we also know that Hashem promised that the task would be accomplished by his son. In fact, both facts are mentioned by Shlomo in our haftarah. But why was it that David’s name is found six times in these few verses? Why was that so important?

I direct you to the opening of our haftarah—the final verse of the seventh perek of Melachim Aleph—that serves as an introduction to the haftarah. When all of the work for the Beit Hamikdash was completed, Shlomo brought the gold, silver and utensils that David had sanctified, and had placed in the treasury of “Beit Hashem.” The treasury of the “House of Hashem?” There was no House of Hashem in David’s lifetime?! There was only a tent! What is the text referring to?

At the very outset of the “David saga,” we read of his defeat of Goliath, in which we read a seemingly minor detail. We are told that, after his victory, David took the weapons of Goliath and brought them to Yerushalayim and placed them in the treasuries of the House of Hashem (eventually, since Yerushalayim had not yet been conquered). Similarly, following his many military victories, we read how David took the precious booty, the gold, the silver and the copper vessels, brought them to Yerushalayim and consecrated them to Hashem (Shmuel Beis, 8: 7, 10-12). And if any more proof is necessary, I turn your attention to Divrei Hayamim Aleph, 29: 1-4, where David himself enumerates the wealth he gathered and consecrated to the yet-to-be-built Beit Hamikdash.

There could not be a discussion of the completion of the Temple construction without a recognition of King David. We had to realize that David didn’t simply “want” to build the Beit Hamikdash—he yearned for it, he prayed for it and even dedicated a perek in Tehillim to his ache and longing (perek 132).

But wanting was not enough… He also gathered all that he could for a building he would never see (Divrei Hayamim I, 22-29). Is there any question then—as to why we begin every morning service with “Mizmor shir chanukat habayit… l’David,” the prayer that David composed for the eventual dedication of the Beit Hamikdash that he would never attend?! And, is there any question now, why we find his name so often in our haftarah?!

Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.