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Why did Moshe reject the women's mirrors for the Mishkan, while Hashem (ה׳) called them most precious? The women didn't use the mirrors to beautify themselves. They used them to restore gender identity—asking "Who is more beautiful, you or me?"—after Pharaoh's avodas perech forced men to do women's work and vice versa. This destruction of identity stopped procreation until the mirrors restored each spouse's sense of being male or female, enabling the birth of the nation.
Rabbi Zweig examines a fundamental question in Parshas Vayakhel: why did Moshe Rabbeinu reject the women's mirrors as unsuitable for the Mishkan, while Hashem (ה׳) declared them the most precious of all donations? This requires understanding a critical principle—Moshe's Torah (תורה) instincts are infallible, as proven by the Korach episode. When Korach challenged whether a garment entirely of techeles requires tzitzis, Moshe's answer (though Hashem never explicitly told him) had the force of Torah law. Challenging Moshe was tantamount to challenging the Shechinah. Therefore, Moshe cannot have been "wrong" about the mirrors—yet Hashem explicitly disagreed with him. The answer lies in understanding what the mirrors were actually used for. Most assume the women used mirrors to beautify themselves for their husbands—a practice that, while permitted and even obligatory, involves some element of yetzer hara. This is why Moshe rejected them as unsuitable for the Mishkan. But Rashi (רש"י)'s careful reading of the midrash reveals something entirely different. The women brought mirrors to their exhausted husbands and said, "Look in the mirror—who is more beautiful, me or you?" Then the husband took the mirror and asked his wife the same question. This strange dialogue was not about physical beauty or attraction.
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Parshas Vayakhel - the mirrors used for the kiyor
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