The Torah tells us in our parsha: "He made the basin of copper and its pedestal of copper, with the mirrors of the women who congregated at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting."



Rashi teaches us from this verse that the daughters of Israel had in their possession copper mirrors, which they would use to beautify themselves, and that even these mirrors they did not withhold as their contribution toward the Mishkan. But Moshe rejected them, for he claimed that they were used for accomplishing the work of the Evil Inclination. HaShem said to him, accept them, because they are the dearest to Me of all the contributions.



Out of all the gifts that the Jewish people ran to contribute for the Mishkan - so much so that the Jewish people had to be held back from giving, for the Mishkan treasury overflowed - these copper mirrors were by far the dearest to HaShem. There were surely many items of gold and silver contributed, as well as fine linen and silk, but still, HaShem held these plain copper mirrors to be the best and dearest contributions to the Mishkan.



Rashi explains that by means of these mirrors, women established many legions of offspring in Egypt. When their husbands would come home from the exhausting work forced on them by the Egyptians, the women would bring them food and drink and feed them. They would then take out the mirrors, and each one would view herself with her husband and entice him with words, saying: "I am handsomer than you." By these means, they would bring their husbands to desire and would have relations with them, conceive and give birth. It was from these mirrors that the basin was made.



We see from this the greatness of the women in that generation, a generation that was downtrodden, beaten and abused. The Jewish men, slaves to the kingdom of Egypt, had lost all hope of redemption. We find that Amram, father of Moshe, upon hearing of Pharaoh's decree to kill all the male newborns, got up and said: "Why bring children into the world, only to have them killed?" And so, he divorced his wife. All the men of that generation also divorced their wives. Miriam, the daughter of Amram, came and told him: "Father, your decree is worse than Pharaoh's, for Pharaoh is wicked, and it's doubtful if his decree will be fulfilled. But you are righteous and your decree will surely be fulfilled. Moreover, Pharaoh decreed against the males, but you have decreed against both males and females." Amram was encouraged and took back his wife, and all the Jews in that generation also took back their wives.



While the men had given up hope, the women continued the fight, with faith that the redemption would come, no matter how dark or how far off it seemed. It was the copper mirrors that represented this great faith in HaShem, and their spirit not to give in. Of course these mirrors would be cherished more than anything else by HaShem.



And so, it comes as no surprise that our parsha tells us, "And the men came with the women," teaching us that it was the women who were the main contributors to the Mishkan and that they had to schlep along their husbands. It was because of the great faith of the women, the midrash teaches us, that they, unlike the men, did not willingly contribute to the Golden Calf. Moreover, we learn that in the incident of the sin of the ten spies, men of little faith, the women continued to believe in the goodness of the Land. Therefore, the decree not to enter the Land was not made against them, and all of the women did enter the Land in the end.



The Talmud teaches us that a person should be extra careful with the afternoon prayer. Why? When one starts to see the sun beginning to set and darkness is soon to envelop him, he becomes frightened, so an added strengthening is needed on his part. King David has already told us: "Your goodness [is] in the day, and Your faith in the night." When one enters the night, it is precisely there, in the darkness, that one's faith is tested.



Today, too, in our hard times, with darkening skies on the horizon, our faith is tested daily - with a government that wants to destroy Jewish homes and cause the Jew to wander once again, as if we are still in exile and not back home, and to be carried out by our own people. When bombs go off in the middle of the country, killing Jews, and all the government can do is say we won't retaliate this time, but will give them another chance; when daily blood libels are spouted about the good Jews trying to defend and settle the Land, and they are treated as if they are the criminals; when all who have eyes and want to see can perceive the coming catastrophe to which all of the nonsensical agreements with the Arabs are leading us - then, it is a time to draw from our faith, as the Jewish women before us, that even in the darkest of times when all seems to be lost, one must not give up, but continue to fight the good fight.



Just as we were redeemed from Egypt through the faith of the righteous women, so, too, today - with true faith only in HaShem - we will be redeemed.