“And B’tzalel the son of Uri the son of Chur of the Tribe of Yehudah did all that G-d had commanded Moshe” (Sh’mos 38:22). There’s a missing link in this chain of command; since G-d commanded Moshe, who then commanded B’tzalel, the verse should have said “and B’tzalel did all that Moshe had commanded him.” Based on this, Chazal (B’rasishis Rabbah 1:14 and Yerushalmi Pey’ah 1:1) tell us that B’tzalel did even “things he did not hear from his teacher Moshe.” Nevertheless, it was “consistent with what was said to Moshe at Sinai.” What was it that B’tzalel figured out on his own (and had to figure out on his own) because Moshe didn’t teach it to him, despite Moshe having been commanded about it by G-d? And why didn’t Moshe relate these details to B’tzalel in the first place?

Rashi quotes this Midrash, and, in our editions, continues by paraphrasing the Talmud (B’rachos 55a), which says that Moshe had commanded B’tzalel about the vessels of the Mishkan before teaching him about the Mishkan itself. B’tzalel realized that the structure (the Mishkan) must be built before its contents (the vessels), and asked Moshe whether G-d had really told him to build the Mishkan first. Moshe responded that G-d had indeed told him to make the Mishkan first. At first glance, then, it would seem that this was what was meant when the Midrash refers to something that B’tzalel did “as G-d had commanded” even though he hadn’t heard about it from Moshe.

There are many issues raised by many commentators on this Aggada, but discussing here would detract from the questions raised above. Early printed editions of Rashi do not include the discussion about whether to make the Mishkan or its vessels first, and according to Rabbi Shmuel Yehoshua Gold, z”l (Iyunim B’Rashi), it does not appear in any manuscript of Rashi either. It first appears in Eliezer Toledano’s edition of Rashi; most subsequent editions of Rashi, which were based on an edition based on Toledano’s, included it as well. [None of the commentaries on Rashi who came before Toledano’s edition reference this part of Rashi; almost all who came after it do. Whatever motivation/justification Toledano had for adding words that weren’t Rashi’s, doing so did lead subsequent commentaries to share their thoughts on the numerous difficulties with this Talmudic Aggada.] Maharai (T’rumas HaDeshen’s commentary on Chumash) quotes the first part of Rashi (the only part that existed at the time), and says that Rashi cannot be referring to whether the Mishkan or its vessels should be made first, as that wouldn’t qualify as something that “his teacher didn’t tell him.” In a footnote, the publisher (M’or Shmuel) says it can’t be what Rashi meant because Moshe did in fact “tell him,” but told it to him in the wrong order. I would think it can’t be considered something that Moshe didn’t tell him because in the end Moshe did tell him (after B’tzalel asked about it). The bottom line, though, is that when the Torah says “B’tzalel did everything that G-d had commanded Moshe,” meaning even things that Moshe never told him, it can’t be referring to whether the Mishkan or its vessels should be made first.

Ramban quotes the Yerushalmi/Midrash Rabbah too (without attributing it to Rashi), and references his earlier comments (36:8) that Moshe didn’t teach B’tzalel all of the details (see also Kli Yakar). For example, Moshe told him to make ten curtains for the covering, with two sections of five curtains each, and they (B’tzalel and his helpers) understood on their own that they should make “50 loops and 50 golden clasps” (36:12) in order to connect the two sections. The verse is therefore telling us that even though Moshe didn’t share all the details of the construction with B’tzalel, the finished product, down to every detail, was exactly the way G-d had commanded Moshe. (He says that although they were made in a different order than Moshe was commanded, the finished product was exactly the same.) This does address what it was that B’tzalel didn’t hear from Moshe, but it doesn’t explain why Moshe didn’t share all the details with B’tzalel in the first place. It seems strange that G-d would tell Moshe to do things in a specific way, yet Moshe would leave out some of the details. Additionally, the Talmudic discussion regarding the order things were made in is based on the premise that Moshe told B’tzalel what he was commanded in Parashas T’rumah (i.e. the vessels then the Mishkan), and then comparing it with how B’tzalel made them in Parashas Vayakhel (i.e. the Mishkan then the vessels, although in both cases the courtyard and the priestly garments followed both). If Moshe taught B’tzalel Parashas T’rumah, then he was taught all the details; if he didn’t, why assume Moshe used the order in Parashas T’rumah as opposed to the order in Parashas Ki Sisa (31:7-11), where the Mishkan came first?

Chizkuni quotes Rashi’s noting that the Torah says B’tzalel did what G-d had commanded Moshe rather than what Moshe had commanded him, and adds an example of what Moshe didn’t tell B’tzalel (yet he did anyway): “the covering of the tops of the pillars.” Earlier (36:38) he says the same thing, but based on the verse he is commenting on it is clear that he means the gold covering and decoration of the five pillars that supported the screen at the entrance of the Mishkan. In the original commandment (26:37) it says that these pillars should be covered with gold, without specifying that it means only the tops and some decorative gold; Moshe never told B’tzalel which part was to be covered in gold and which part should be decorated with gold, yet it was done “as G-d had commanded Moshe.” The same can be said of the pillars surrounding the courtyard; the commandment says they are to be “decorated with silver” (27:10-11 and 17), yet B’tzalel not only decorated them with silver, but covered their tops with silver as well (38:17 and 19). [This is likely why Chizkuni says “for example,” as the gold covering the pillars of the Mishkan’s entrance weren’t the only thing that B’tzalel did that was “consistent with what was said to Moshe at Sinai” despite “not hearing about it from his teacher.”] However, we would still need to understand why Moshe didn’t tell B’tzalel how to cover and decorate these pillars.

In his discussion about what Rashi couldn’t have been referring to when he says that B’tzalel did  what G-d commanded Moshe even though Moshe hadn’t relayed it to him, Maharai suggests that Moshe purposely didn’t tell B’tzalel everything because he wanted to put the finishing touches on the Mishkan himself. Nevertheless, B’tzalel figured out what else was needed, and did it before Moshe had a chance to. Although Maharai doesn’t tell us what it was that Moshe didn’t tell B’tzalel about, it could have been how to cover and decorate the pillars. [Since the commandment for the pillars of the entranceway was to “cover them with gold,” which is the same wording as other pillars (26:32) and beams (26:29), and for these the “covering” was complete (36:36 and 36:34), not just their “tops, plus their decorations,” the discrepancy regarding these pillars can’t be attributed to Moshe wanting B’tzalel to leave them unfinished. Nevertheless, it could apply to the pillars of the courtyard.]

There’s a bigger issue with Chizkuni’s approach, though; since the commandments in Parashas T’rumah were what “G-d spoke to Moshe” (25:1), how could the lack of specificity (or the discrepancy between what it says in Parashas T’rumah and what it says in Parashas Vayakhel) be based on Moshe not telling B’tzalel what G-d had commanded him? Wasn’t it G-d Himself who didn’t mention the “tops of the pillars” being covered (or their decorations)?

In his explanation of the Aggada that appears in our editions of Rashi, Rabbi Yehonasan Eibeschitz (Chidushay Rebbi Yehonasan on B’rachos 55a, Tiferes Yehonasan on Sh’mos 25:9 and Y’aras D’vash 1:2; see also Chidushay Gaonim, one of the commentaries on Ain Yaakov, who quotes similar approaches) says that Moshe was shown a vision of the completed Mishkan and its vessels, a vision referred to several times throughout the commandments to build the Mishkan (25:9, 25:9, 26:30, 27:8). This vision  explicitly included both the Mishkan and to its vessels, and sometimes including the expression “and so shall you do” (25:9 and 27:8). If included in the commandment to build the Mishkan and its vessels was the requirement to recreate what he had seen in this vision, then the silver and gold decorations of the pillars (and that it was their tops that were covered in gold) were included in what was commanded to Moshe even though they weren’t included in the words of the commandment. Therefore, when Moshe repeated only the words of the commandment to B’tzalel, he wasn’t telling him everything. Yet, “B’tzalel did all that G-d had commanded Moshe,” despite Moshe not completing the picture (pardon the pun) by adding the details he had seen in the vision.

There are other possibilities as to what Moshe was commanded that B’tzalel didn’t hear from Moshe. For example, there is much discussion about how the pillars of the courtyard were situated, with several approaches suggested by the commentators (see page 3 of http://www.aishdas.org/ta/5765/vayakhel.pdf). All of the approaches fit within the guidelines of the commandment, so which one did G-d have in mind? If Moshe was shown a vision of the layout, this was the one he was “commanded,” even if other layouts were consistent with the words of the commandment. It can therefore be suggested that even though the words Moshe repeated to B’tzalel contained numerous possibilities, B’tzalel chose the one that matched what Moshe saw on Mt. Sinai; it was “commanded to Moshe,” but wasn’t specifically relayed to B’tzalel. Similarly, there are multiple possibilities regarding how the Mishkan’s covering lay (including the overlap at its front and back ends, see page 6 of http://www.aishdas.org/ta/5768/terumah.pdf); covering the Mishkan the way G-d intended it even though the words of the commandment could be interpreted differently could also qualify as something that “B’tzalel did as G-d commanded Moshe” if Moshe didn’t specify which of the possibilities matched the vision he saw.

Would whether the branches of the Menorah were curved or straight qualify? There are many “disputes” about numerous details of the Mishkan, but some (i.e. the size of the altar and the height of the courtyard’s curtains, see Z’vachim 59b) required Moshe to tell B’tzalel that things were not as they seem (if they weren’t). Nevertheless, if Moshe didn’t see the need to delineate all the possibilities for every detail (and tell B’tzalel which one G-d meant), there would be things that B’tzalel had to figure out on his own even if Moshe repeated every word of G-d’s commandments to him. The Torah therefore tells us that “B’tzalel did everything as G-d had commanded Moshe,” as the final product matched what Moshe had seen on Mt. Sinai, despite some details not being relayed.