Or HaChaim on Exodus 38:28/אור החיים על שמות ל״ח:כ״ח

1 ואת האלף ושבע מאות, and of the one thousand and seven hundred, etc. This refers to the silver not described as having been used to make the sockets. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 51,5 claim that while Moses was busy enumerating what had been made out of all the gold and silver, etc., he sat down for a moment and forgot what had been made out of these 1775 shekels of silver. When he remembered, the Torah added the letter ו in the word ואת.

2According to commentators such as Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra (compare his comments on Exodus 25,3) who hold that the only silver which was contributed for the Tabernacle consisted of the half-shekel every male over twenty had to contribute (Exodus 30,13-14), the words ואת האלף ושבע מאות וחמשה ושבעים have to be explained differently. We know that the male Israelites had to contribute a half shekel each, and that the total number of males counted were 603.550 (compare Numbers 1,46). Since a "kikar" silver consists of 3.000 shekels, the figure given in our verse (as the left-over silver) corresponds exactly to that which had not been used for the 100 sockets which were each one kikar in weight. We do not find that G'd had commanded that anything other than the sockets, the hooks and the fillets had to be made of silver. The Torah did not, however, specify the size of the hooks or the fillets. Betzalel considered the number of hooks and fillets required and constructed them in sizes which used up the 1775 shekels silver remaining, making sure there was no overage. The words עשה ווים mean that he made the total remaining silver into hooks dividing them as required. He was quite certain that the remaining silver was to be used for this purpose as the fact that G'd had told him how much silver to use for the socket had made it plain to start with that there would be an overage of silver worth 1775 shekels. If G'd had told Betzalel about the size of each of these hooks beforehand, the execution of that command should have been reported as ויעש ווים. The fact that the Torah writes instead: עשה ווים is proof that he used his own initiative as to the size of these hooks.

3I do not subscribe to the theory that there was no other silver except that contributed from the count of the males above the age of twenty. How else are we to explain 35,24: "Everyone who set apart an offering of silver and copper?" That verse cannot be reconciled with Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra's comment on 25,3: "and this is the offering, etc." Every serious student will appreciate what I mean. I believe we can explain our verse in accordance with what we have written on verse 24 on the words כל הזהב, that even when such small items as hooks were made nothing went to waste, nor did the material used fail to be used up completely. The meaning of עשה ווים is that Betzalel used up everything in the making of these hooks.