Reply To: Short & Sweet

Pekudei: Wrought like Copper

The Medrash tells us that the three metals used for the Mishkan symbolize the three Avos. Avraham and Yitzchak are represented by gold and silver, just as these precious metals need to be purified, so too were they purified by the test Akeidah.

More difficult to understand is what the Medrash says about Yaakov. He is compared to copper, since at the end of the time Yaakov spent with Lavan he remarks נחשתי, which literally means “I learned.” Since that word is similar to נחשת, copper, the Medrash says Yaakov is represented by copper. How are we to understand this?

R’ Dovid Kagan explains that while gold and silver are purified in a great fire, copper is different. Copper has no moment when it emerges as a new metal; instead it must be wrought slowly and steadily, day in and day out, for it to become something.

Avraham and Yitzchak went through momentous tests that purified them. Yaakov, on the other hand, was changed by no single moment. Yaakov was shaped by the daily grind of life. Yaakov spent 22 years with Lavan, yet managed to remain unaffected by him.

There are times our lives are shaped by the big decisions we make when we know we are at a crossroads. But more often, who we are is shaped by what we do, slowly, steadily, day and day out.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום