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Why did Moshe reject the women's mirrors for the Mishkan, calling them instruments of the yetzer hara, while Hashem (ה׳) declared them most holy? The mirrors weren't makeup tools to entice husbands, but rather instruments to restore the men's sense of themselves as men after Egypt's avodas perach had them doing women's work. This distinction—reminding men of their identity versus arousing desire—was the crux of the disagreement.
Rabbi Zweig addresses the dispute between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem (ה׳) regarding the mirrors (maraos atzrovos) that the women brought for the Mishkan. Moshe rejected these mirrors because he viewed them as instruments made for the yetzer hara—tools used by women to make themselves attractive to their husbands. Hashem, however, declared these mirrors to be the most kadosh (holy) of all the donations. The shiur carefully analyzes Rashi (רש"י)'s commentary on this episode, which initially appears to confirm Moshe's view by describing the mirrors as "makeup mirrors" used when women would apply their makeup. However, a closer reading of Rashi reveals something much deeper. Rashi relates that when the husbands were exhausted from avodas perach (backbreaking labor), the women would bring them food and drink, then take out the mirrors. Each woman would look at herself together with her husband in the mirror and say, "I'm nicer than you. I'm more beautiful than you." Through this process, the husbands would come to desire their wives, and children would be born.
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Parshas Vayakhel - The Mirrors of the Women
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