In the synagogue the Torah is read aloud in a fixed annual cycle of fifty-four weekly portions (parashiyot), one each Shabbat morning, with certain adjacent portions doubled in ordinary years so the sequence fits the calendar. Each portion is named for a distinctive word near its opening and is paired with a haftarah, a reading from the Prophets. The cycle closes and restarts on Simchat Torah. Pekudei ('Accounts', Exodus 38:21-40:38) gives the accounting of the materials used, the making of the priestly garments, and the erection of the completed Tabernacle, upon which the cloud of God's presence descends. As the close of Exodus, its reading ends with the cry of chazak.
Pekudei's detailed accounting of the exact quantities of gold, silver and bronze used in the Tabernacle's construction (Exodus 38:24-31) is read by rabbinic commentary as Moses' voluntary transparency regarding communal funds, a tradition, elaborated in the midrash, holding that Moses rendered this public accounting specifically to forestall any suspicion that he had personally profited from the people's donations, later cited as an early model for the principle that those who administer communal charity must be able to account for it openly. The cloud of God's presence filling the completed Tabernacle so densely that even Moses could not enter (Exodus 40:34-35) closes the book of Exodus on a note commentators read as fulfilling, in visible form, the promise made at Sinai that God would dwell among the people.