Another matter, “You shall craft the boards for the Tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright.” Why acacia wood? The Holy One blessed be He taught proper conduct for the generations: If a person seeks to build his house of a fruit-bearing tree, say to him: If the King of kings, to Whom everything belongs, when He said to craft the Tabernacle, He said: Bring only from a non-fruit-bearing tree; you, all the more so.
Another matter, “You shall craft the boards,” what is written before this matter? “See and craft” (Exodus 25:40).8This verse is addressed to Moses (see Exodus 25:1). Was it Moses who crafted the Tabernacle? Is it not written: “Betzalel and Oholiav and every wise-hearted man crafted”? (Exodus 36:1). Rather, it was Moses in theory and Betzalel in practice.9Moses received the instructions from God, and Betzalel carried them out. From here our Rabbis said to give reward to the one who causes the action to be performed like the one who performed it, as we find in Moses’s regard that Betzalel performed the labor of the Tabernacle, but the Holy One blessed be He ascribed to him [Moses] as though he had performed it, as it is stated: “The Tabernacle of the Lord that Moses had crafted in the wilderness” (I Chronicles 21:29).