Parashas Vayakhel

The Parasha is basically a repetition of the details of the Mishkan which we've been learning for the last few weeks. Even Rashi has very little to say about the Parasha, since he's already explained all the details which are gone over again this week. The question is why do we need to have two Parashas (also next week's) which are adding almost nothing new.
I venture to answer that the reason is, that we simply need to know all these details really well. There are certain things in life which you just have to know. Even though the spread of calculators has dealt a huge blow to peoples' knowledge of arithmetic, there are still very few people who don't know that two plus two equals four. Similarly, we're required to know what were the Kalei Hechatser and all the other parts of the Mishkan. It can be quite difficult to relate to the Mishkan, as we are far removed from such things, but if you spend some time on Shabbas looking at how the Mishkan was constructed I think you'll enjoy it's beauty quite a lot.

Good Shabbas

Rabbi Pesach Black