פָּרָשַׁת פְקוּדֵי

Parshat Pekudei closes Sefer Shemot with the accounting of the Mishkan, the bigdey kehuna (priestly garments), and the day the Mishkan was raised. Moshe has the Levites, under Itamar, count everything given: the gold, the silver of the half-shekels — a hundred talents cast into the sockets — and the copper, and where each went. Then the garments of the kohanim are made, each closing with the words "as Hashem commanded Moshe": the Ephod with its onyx stones, the Choshen with its twelve stones, the blue Me'il with its bells and pomegranates, the tunics, turban, hats, breeches and sash, and the Tzitz engraved "Kodesh LaHashem." The people bring all the finished work to Moshe; he sees that they have done it exactly as Hashem commanded, and he blesses them.

On the first of Nisan of the second year, at Hashem's command, Moshe sets up the Mishkan: the boards and curtains, the Aron with the luchot behind the Parochet, the Shulchan with its bread and the Menorah with its lamps, the golden altar with its incense, the copper altar with its offerings, the laver, and the courtyard with its gate; he anoints it all and washes and dresses Aharon and his sons. Then the cloud covers the Ohel Moed and the glory of Hashem fills the Mishkan, so that even Moshe cannot enter. From then on the cloud by day and the fire by night lead the children of Yisrael on all their journeys. The book that began with a nation of slaves ends with Hashem dwelling among them. Chazak, chazak, venitchazek.