05 Mar PARSHAS VAYEKEL: A GOOD NAME IS BETTER THAN GOOD OIL

There is an interesting
Medrash on the pasuk
“See G-d has called
by name Betzalel son
of Uri son of Chur of
the tribe of Yehudah”
[Shemos 35:30]. The
Medrash references the pasuk in Koheles
“A good name is better than good oil”
[Koheles 7:1]. The Medrash elaborates that
the scent of good oil may precede the oil by
a mile or two at most, even if the oil has a
very powerful aroma. However, a good
name can precede a person even across
continents.
The Medrash then asks how far a person
must remove himself from contact with the
prohibition of Shatnez [the forbidden
mixture of wool and linen]. The Medrash
answers that even if a person is wearing 99
layers of clothing and none of them are
Shatnez, he still may not wear a garment
containing Shatnez as the one hundredth
layer of clothing.
What is the connection between distancing
oneself from Shatnez and the pasuk that

says, “A good name is better than good oil”?
Rav Nissan Alpert gives the following
interpretation of this Medrash (in his sefer
Limudei Nissan):
Every time the Torah introduces Betzalel, it
uses the following unique expression:
“Look, I’ve called him by this name…”
Why does the Torah give Betzalel such an
introduction? The Medrash explains that the
reason why Betzalel merited to be the
master builder of the Mishkan was not
because he had master architectural talents
or special artistic ability. Betzalel’s
uniqueness was that he — for some reason
— merited having a ‘good name’. The
Medrash then emphasizes how wonderful it
is to have a good reputation (shem tov).
G-d, in choosing someone to construct his
dwelling place on earth (the Mishkan), did
not want to be associated with anyone who
had anything less than an impeccable
reputation.
How does one obtain a good reputation?
The Medrash answers this question by
introducing the matter of Shatnez. The

Medrash is teaching that
the way a person acquires a
good name is not by merely
avoiding evil or sin, but by
avoiding even the slightest
hint of impropriety. It is not
sufficient to merely ‘play it
by the book’. A person
must distance himself to
the ultimate extent from
anything that even smacks
of impropriety.
Shatnez is a peculiar prohibition, in that the
two substances involved (wool and linen)
are completely permitted when taken
individually. Only a combination of the two
is prohibited. The Torah is teaching us that a
person merits a good name by staying away
from Shatnez. Avoiding Shatnez represents
staying away from anything that has even a
minute mixture of something improper.
Those people in our communities who have
achieved a good name are people who are
above reproach. They have removed
themselves from any taint of scandal or
impropriety. Impeccable reputations are not

achieved by playing it on the edge or
bending the rules.
We all know that certain people’s
handshakes are more reliable than other
people’s signed contracts. The reason why
is because the first group of people stay
away from ‘forbidden mixtures’. They stay
away from the slightest hint of ‘non-Kosher’
business practices. Ultimately, this is what
pays off for them in the long run. When G-d
builds a Mishkan, He does not want it built
by a person regarding whom people may
have suspicions. He wants a Betzalel — a
person above reproach, who possesses a
good name, which is superior to good oil.