Hashem tells Moshe to command the Jewish People to supply pure olive oil for the Menorah in the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). He also tells Moshe to organize the making of the Bigdei Kehuna (priestly garments): A breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, a sash, a forehead-plate, and linen trousers. Upon their completion, Moshe is to perform a ceremony for seven days to consecrate Aharon and his sons. This includes offering sacrifices, dressing Aharon and his sons in their res ective garments, and anointing Aharon with oil.

Hashem commands that every morning and afternoon a sheep be offered on the Altar in the Mishkan. This offering should be accompanied by a meal-offering and libations of wine and oil. Hashem commands that another Altar for incense be built from acacia wood and covered with gold. Aharon and his descendants should burn incense on this Altar each day.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

The End of Art

“…for beauty and splendor” (28:2)

Although AI is still very much in its infancy, it seems clear that the basic skills of drawing and painting, of music, and much more, are becoming redundant.

Why spend five years in art school when you can create a Turner or a Dutch Master with a few computer commands? Why labor over music theory when you can generate a Beethoven symphony with AI?

As technical skills in fields like music, art, and engineering become less relevant, the importance of language, the ability to communicate increases significantly. The major skill set for AI will be explaining to a computer what it is you want.

AI will be about words.

AI will require a sophistication of language, an understanding of exactly what it is you want, and the ability to define that in a way which leaves no ambiguity.

The whole world is made up of words. You cannot see them. “For everything exists through Your word.” Says the blessing. The word for ‘thing’ in Hebrew has the same word as the word for “word.”

The Gemara in Bava Basra says that someone who never saw the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, that Herod built, never saw a beautiful building in his life. The ‘davar Hashem,’ the word of Hashem, was never more manifest than in the Beit HaMikdash. There were never garments as beautiful and splendid as the vestments of the Kohen. Each vestment was an expression of a unique spiritual reality. Each garment represented a ‘word’ of Hashem.