The Women in the Mirror

The Baal Haturim explains the mar’os hatzavos (38:8) (the mirrors that the women donated to the mishkan) were donated by the women when they were willing to cast off the physical world and be involved in ruach hakodesh. Rashi explains the mar’os hatzavos were the mirrors that the women used in order to engage their husbands and entice them to bring children into the world in the dark times of exile in Egypt. These two ideas: first, the idea of the Baal Haturm that women were focused on spirituality to the point that they were elevated to prophecy; and second, the idea of Rashi, referring to women who had great belief in Hashem and a desire to propagate the Jewish nation even in the most trying of times, believing klal Yisrael will succeed; are definitely referring to THE Aishes Chayil (the woman of valor) whom we definitely would admire. Yet, let us see if there is a common denominator between these two explanations making them one.

Those women who cast off worldly pleasures in order to be immersed in prophecy: True, they had no need for their mirrors, but why did they donate them to the mishkan? They could have given them to other women or disposed of them as unwanted items. It seems to me that they were teaching us a lesson as to how to live our lives. All of the physical world can be used to elevate us to the point of spirituality that even those physical apparatuses are no longer mundane, but rather befitting in the service of Hashem in His abode on this world. This idea is reflected in the words of Rashi, discussing Moshe’s quandary as to whether to accept these gifts of the mirrors for possibly they are not befitting in the mishkan. Yet Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that indeed they are appropriate. Chazal are teaching us the importance of a woman’s beauty in her marriage. It is not about being vain, but an aspect of her service to Hashem. Those women who understood this were able to not only elevate the physical by making the mirrors part of the mishkan, but also they themselves were elevated to the level of having ruach hakodesh. For these women, the physical and spiritual blended into one.

The union of those women with their husbands bore fruit in angelic children—children who were raised by angels in Egypt and at Krias Yam Suf they were able to recognize and point to Hashem as their benefactor in this physical world. Indeed in these children’s world, the physical and spiritual were one.

The lesson we learn is that all of the beauty given to us and around us is here for the service of Hashem. The spheres of spirituality and physicality blend together, forming one service of Hashem.