Parashah of the week: Vayakhel-Pekudei

When the Temple still stood in Jerusalem, the Cohanim had to wash themselves at a copper basin before they could begin performing their duties. According to the Midrash, the basin was made from copper mirrors that were responsible for Israel’s survival in Egypt (Tanchuma, Pekudei 9:1).

You see, one of the ways Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites was by forbidding men and women to live together — the goal being to separate spouses and prevent reproduction. But while the men were out labouring in the fields making bricks, the women would fish in the Nile and prepare picnics along the riverbank for their wary husbands.

Once their husbands had eaten a bit, the women would take out their mirrors and playfully tease their spouses by looking at their reflection and saying “I am more beautiful than you.”

The men, responding to their wives’ flirtations, would say, “No, I am more beautiful than you!” Through these exchanges, the women were able to awaken their exhausted husbands’ desires in order to procreate — despite Pharaoh’s efforts to prevent them from doing so.