When every piece of the sanctuary had been assembled and inspected, Moshe surveyed the whole and saw that the people had done exactly what the God of Israel had commanded. Then he said words that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 39:43 preserves in their full Aramaic weight: "May the Shekinah of the Lord dwell within the work of your hands!"
A blessing, not a thank-you
Moshe did not say, "Good work." He did not say, "You obeyed." He uttered a blessing — a berakhah — asking that the Shekinah, the dwelling presence of the God of Israel, settle inside the objects the Israelites had made. Wood, goat hair, silver clasps, woven curtains. Every piece had been touched by human hands. Moshe's blessing asked that every piece be touched again, from above.
Why this moment?
The ancient rabbis wondered why the blessing came here and not at Sinai. The meturgeman gives the answer by the structure of his translation. Sinai was revelation given from above. The Mishkan was revelation built from below. For the first time, human hands had produced something fit to be the seat of the divine presence. Moshe's blessing acknowledged the inversion. The God of Israel had given the instructions. Israel had provided the gold, the labor, the weavers' skill, the willing hearts. Now Moshe stood between them and said: may what you made become what He inhabits.
Later tradition would adopt Moshe's line as a blessing for any new beginning — a new home, a new synagogue, a new study hall. "May the Shekinah dwell within the work of your hands." It is said over doorposts, over Torah scrolls, over freshly completed buildings. The meturgeman's Aramaic planted a phrase in Jewish memory that has never stopped blooming.
The survey before the blessing
Moshe first surveyed the work (Exodus 39:43). He looked carefully. Only then did he bless. The sequence matters. Inspection first, blessing after. The ancient storytellers read this as a lesson: praise that comes before examination is flattery. Praise that comes after examination is truth.
The takeaway: human work can become a dwelling place for divine presence, but only after honest inspection and sincere blessing.