The King Who Called His Builder Inside the Palace

Rabbi Tanchuma opened: "There is gold and abundance of rubies, but lips of knowledge are a precious vessel" (Proverbs 20:15). In the way of the world, a man may have silver and gold and precious stones and pearls and every good desire in the world, but if there is no knowledge in him, what benefit has he? A proverb says: you have acquired knowledge, what do you lack? you lack knowledge, what have you acquired? "There is gold," in the freewill offering of the Tabernacle, as it is written, "And this is the offering you shall take from them: gold" (Exodus 25:3). "And abundance of rubies," this is the offering of the princes, "And the princes brought the onyx stones" (Exodus 35:27). "But lips of knowledge are a precious vessel," because the soul of Moses was downcast within him; he said, all of them brought their offering to the Tabernacle, but I brought nothing. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: by your life, your speech is more precious to Me than all of these. Know it, for of all of them the Speech called only to Moses, as it is said, "And He called to Moses." What is written above the matter, in the section of the Tabernacle? "As the LORD commanded Moses." A parable: to a king who commanded his servant and said, build me a palace. On everything he built, he would write upon it the name of the king. He built walls and wrote on them the king's name; he raised pillars and wrote on them the king's name; he roofed it with beams and wrote on them the king's name. In time the king entered the palace, and on everything he looked at he found his name. The king said: all this honor my servant did for me, and I am within and he is without; call him to enter inside. So too, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, make Me a Tabernacle, on everything he made he wrote, "As the LORD commanded Moses." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: all this honor Moses did for Me, and I am within and he is without; He called him to enter inside, therefore it says, "And He called to Moses." A parable: to a king who entered a province, and with him dukes and governors and generals, and the people did not know which of them was the most beloved, except the one to whom the king turns his face and speaks. So Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders, we do not know which was beloved, except the one whom the Holy One, blessed be He, calls; He called Moses and spoke with him, so we know he was the most beloved of all; therefore it says, "And He called to Moses." A parable: to a king who entered a province, with whom does he speak first, if not with the governor of the province, because he is occupied with the sustenance of the province. So Moses was occupied with the purity of Israel; he said, "This you may eat," and this you may not eat, "These you may eat of all that are in the water" (Leviticus 11:9), "And these you shall hold in abomination among the birds," "And this is unclean for you" (Leviticus 11:29); therefore it says, "And He called to Moses."