Kommentar zu Schemot 26:42

ואת המשכן תעשה עשר יריעת MOREOVER THOU SHALT MAKE THE DWELLING OF TEN CURTAINS — that they should serve it as a roof and at the same thime as wall-coverings for the outside of the beards; — for the curtains hung behind them so as to cover them.

ואת המשכן תעשה, the reason why these curtains are referred to by the Torah as משכן, “a residence,” is because in the space covered by them there were the kinds of furnishings normally found in a dwelling, i.e. table, cupboard (Ark), and a lamp stand. The dwelling was designed to house the presence of G’d more commonly referred to as the Shechinah. כרובים, the curtains were made with the patterns of cherubs woven into them, as we know from the description of Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6,2) that he perceived G’d surrounded by angels described as Seraphim. We also find another description of a similar type in Kings I 22,19 where the prophet Michayah describes his vision of G’d in these words: “I saw the Lord seated on His throne with all the host of heaven standing in attendance to the right and to the left of Him.”

ואת המשכן תעשה עשר יריעות, "And you shall construct the Tabernacle out of ten strips of cloth, etc. This number is an allusion to the ten directives G'd used when creating the universe. The Torah wants to tell us that construction of the Tabernacle was as important to G'd as creation of the universe itself. Constructing the Tabernacle would also confer as much merit on the Israelites as if they had personally brought about the creation of the universe which was created by means of ten directives.

ואת המשכן, the lowest 10 curtains (the ones visible from the inside of the structure) are called משכן. The reason is that immediately below them was the Ark, i.e. they provided the home for the Ark.

ואת המשכן תעשה עשר יריעות, “you shall construct the Tabernacle out of ten curtains, etc.” The word משכן is spelled with the letter ה in front, indicating that it was a building we had heard about previously. This shows that the מקדש mentioned in 25,8 and the משכן mentioned here are one and the same thing. By rights the details of the construction of the Tabernacle should have preceded that of its furnishings; however, due to the lofty nature of the Ark the Torah decided to first mention its construction, and, having commenced with one of the interior furnishings it also listed details of the table and the Menorah. When you will examine the report of the actual construction (36,8) you will notice that Betzalel constructed the Tabernacle before he constructed the furnishings it was to house.

Thus you have four kinds [of material] together in each and every thread. . . Explanation: all were entwined [into one thick thread], for it is written, “Twined.” The ו of ותכלת has the meaning of ב . Thus the verse conveys: “Fine linen entwined with greenish blue, dark red, and crimson.” It is like the ו in ה' שלחני ורוחו (Yeshaya 48:16), which means: “Hashem sent me with His spirit.” Similarly, ה' וכלי זעמו (ibid. 13:5), which means: “Hashem with His weapons of wrath.”

Kap. 26. V. 1. ירע ,יריעת, verwandt mit כרע ,גרע, bezeichnet seiner Grundbedeutung nach eine Verringerung. Beschränkung, גרע: an Wert, כרע: an Höhe, ירע: an Beschaffenheit, daher: אל ירע בעיניך, und so in der Bedeutung יריעה, wie hier: an. Raum, eine räumliche Umschränkung. יריעה heißt daher nicht Teppich im allgemeinen, z. B. nicht auch Fußteppich, sondern speziell Zeltteppich, Zeug, das zur Um- und Abgrenzung eines Raumes gebraucht wird. — שש, wie schon zu Kap. 25, 4 bemerkt, sind die Fäden feiner Leinwand, Flachsfäden. Die Überlieferung (Joma 71 b) lehrt, dass, wie der Name שש ausspricht, jeder Faden aus sechs Fäden bestand, und so auch die der wollenen ארגמן ,תכלת und תולעת שני-Fäden jeder aus sechs Fäden bestand, חוטן שזר ,משזר — .כפול ששה finden wir auch als Wurzel von שזרא, gleichbedeutend mit שדרא, Wirbelsäule, Rückgrat (לעמת העצה übersetzt לקביל שזרתא :אונקלס Aruch liest auch an mehreren Stellen im Talmud statt . שזר .(שזרא :שדרא scheint demnach eine Gliederkette, eine gegliederte Säule, einen gegliederten Stab und hier auch: "einen gegliederten Faden bilden" zu bedeuten. Es geschieht dies durch Drehung mehrerer Fäden. Jede Windung bildet ein Glied. משור heißt daher: gedreht. (Ganz analog ist auch von שודרא :שדר, Seil, gebildet, Gittin 69 a חבל של שיער :שודרא ברקא בהמה, Raschi). Indem משזר bei שש allein steht und durch eine, im Texte durch Wiederholung des שש (Kap. 39, 27 u. 28) angedeutete Überlieferung auch auf die anderen Fäden übertragen ist, so ist wohl, wie auch die Verhandlung Joma 71 b zu ergeben scheint, jeder der vier Fadenstoffe erst für sich sechsfädig zusammengedreht und dann die vier sechsfädigen Fäden zu einem vierundzwanzigfädigen Faden zusammen verbunden worden; nicht aber wie Raschi zum Texte anzunehmen scheint, es sei von jedem der vier Stoffe erst ein Faden genommen, diese vier Fäden dann sechsmal und so zusammengedreht. Sowohl nach dem Texte, als nach der Verhandlung in Joma scheinen nicht sechsmal vierdrähtige, sondern viermal sechsdrähtige Fäden zusammen genommen worden zu sein. So scheint es auch סמ׳ג Gebote 173 verstanden zu haben. Siehe auch מל׳מ, הל׳ כלי מקדש VIII, 3 am Ende.

ואת המשכן תעשה עשר יריאות, “and as for theTabernacle itself, make it of ten strips of cloth;” here the Torah speaks of the lower coverings which serves as roof of the structure. They are the ones that are really called משכן, “Tabernacle,” not the skins that were on top and served as protective coverings. These “carpet like” strips of expensive cloth were immediately above the furnishings, the Holy Ark, Menorah, table and golden altar.

שש משזר ותכלת וארגמן ותלעת שני OF FINE TWINED LINEN AND BLUE PURPLE, AND RED PURPLE, AND CRIMSON — Thus there were four different materials in every thread, one of linen and three of wool, each of the strands of which a thread was composed being sixfold (the word is taken here in the double sense of שש “linen” and of שש “six”). Consequently the four materials intertwined into one thread gave a twenty-four-fold thread (Yoma 71b; Baraita DeMelekhet HaMishkan ch. 2).

Which is done through needlework. . . In which the image appearing on both sides is the same.

There are still other considerations behind the requirement to use such materials as twisted linen of specific colours, goats' hair, etc. It is not accidental that G'd commanded ten strips of cloth to be made of linen whereas He commanded eleven strips of cloth made of goats' hair (verse 7) to be constructed and to be placed on top of the ten inner strips of cloth. Also the commandment to join five each of the linen strips of cloth together to form one unit, or in the case of the strips of cloth made of goats' hair, to combine two units of five or six strips together, this too was not arbitrary. The reason for all this was that G'd thereby symbolically impressed the three basic letters of His Ineffable Name on these four sections of strips of cloth joined in units of 10+5+6. (י+ה+ו). G'd commanded that all of these strips of cloth be four cubits wide, regardless of whether they were made of linen or of goats' hair. The number four symbolises that G'd's name contains four letters. You will find that our sages in Shabbat 6 state that a minimum of 4 handbreadths square and ten handbreadths height is required to qualify as a private domain. This is an allusion to the four letters in the Ineffable Name of G'd adding up to the number 26. Similarly, 4 by 4 plus 10 adds up to 26, i.e י+ה+ו+ה. Seeing that the letter י is relatively holier than the other letters in G'd's name, the unit of ten strips of cloth made of linen formed the inner cover of the Tabernacle, being closest to (directly exposed to) the Holy Ark. The reason the strips had to be joined in units of five is an allusion to the thought that the first letter ה in G'd's name is always associated with the letter י. This is part of the mystique of the reading of the letter י. When you read (look at the spelling of) that letter as if it were a word, i.e. י־ו־ד, you are combining the י with the letters ו and ד, which between them make up the shape of the letter ה, although you actually read only a single letter. This is part of the mystical dimension חכמה and some of these mystical apects are alluded to in the details of the coverings of the Tabernacle. The first two letters of the word חכמה add up to 28, corresponding to the length of these various strips of cloth the Torah commands as coverings for the Tabernacle. The third letter of the word חכמה, i.e. the letter מ whose numerical value is 40, is represented by the width of 40 cubits which the two units of linen strips amount to when joined together width-wise. The fourth letter in the word חכמה, i.e. the letter ה, equals 5, which is represented by the fact that 5 such strips of cloth had to be sewn together into a unit. It also alludes to the five different kinds of kind deeds that derive from the emanation חכמה. Subsequently, G'd commanded the making of eleven strips of cloth out of goats' hair, their number (11) to complete the name of G'd, i.e. ו־ה. They were to be divided into units of five and six respectively to form an allusion to these two letters in the latter half of G'd's Ineffable Name. The combined width of these eleven strips of cloth of goats' hair, i.e. 44 cubits, are an allusion to the mystical dimension of the spelling of the Ineffable Name as words, i.e. יוד־הא־ואו־הא. When you spell the name in this fashion you obtain a total of 45. (We have already explained on Genesis 48,5 that a discrepancy of a single digit when working with numerical values is compensated for by either adding or subtracting the entire word as required in order to make up this digit, i.e. 44 plus or minus the word serving as basis of the gematria.

כרובים מעשה חשב תעשה אותם. Joma 72 b heißt es: רוקם מעשה מחט לפיכך פרצוף אחד חושב מעשה אורג לפיכך שני פרצופות, "das V. 35 genannte רקם sei Nadelarbeit, daher die Figuren nur einseitig, das hier genannte sei aber Weberarbeit, daher die Figuren beiderseitig." Durch רקימה, Sticken, wird die Figur auf einen unterliegenden Grund aufgetragen, sie erscheint daher nur auf der einen Seite. Durch חושב wird aber eine solche Weberei bezeichnet, durch welche das ganze Gewebe die Figur, und zwar also bilde, dass sie vollständig auf beiden Seiten sichtbar sei (siehe Rambam das. 15). Indem es nun ferner noch כרובים תעשה אותם heißt, so waren es nicht wohl Teppiche, auf deren Grund Cherubim erschienen, sondern die Teppiche waren nichts als zusammengewebte Cherubim, es waren eben Cherubimteppiche. Sprachlich erscheint רקם verwandt mit רגם: mit Steinen bewerfen, die Figuren erschienen aufgeworfen auf den Grund. חשב ist aber seiner Grundbedeutung nach: kombinieren, verbinden, daher auch: חֵשֶב הָאֵפֹד , die Latze, das Verbindungsstück, somit sind es ganze Figuren, die durch das Gewebe mit einander verbunden werden. Der חושב webt Figuren, und zwar ganze, beiderseitige, und verbindet sie mit einander. Die Übersetzung hätte das entsprechende technische Wort zu suchen. Wirken, wie wir es übersetzt haben, reicht wohl nicht aus.

שש משזר, a linen fabric, each yarn contained 6 threads that had been twisted, (according to Rashi) The Talmud in tractate Yuma folio 71 cites proof of this based on Biblical texts.

כרבים מעשה חשב WITH CHERUBIM, THE WORK OF AN ARTIST — Cherubim were figured on them (on the curtains) in the process of weaving them, not afterwards by embroidery which is needlework — but by weaving it on its two surfaces, one design on one side, a different design on the other; e. g., a lion on one side and an eagle on the other side, just as the silken girdles are woven which are called in old French faisee (Yoma 72b, Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 8:4).

A lion on this side and an eagle on the other side. Re”m writes: “According to [what Rashi wrote on Yoma 72b], it does not mean specifically ‘a lion on this side and an eagle on the other side.’ It just means various images. . . However, I do not know why the verse calls these various images ‘cherubim,’ if ‘cherubim’ means images of children. Onkelos translates כרובים as כרביא , [‘like children,’] and so Rashi wrote on 25:28, and so it says in Chagigah 13b.” But it seems to me that the mishkon’s drapes had only the four images of the Heavenly Chariot: man, lion, ox and eagle, [all of which are referred to as “cherubim”; see Yechezkel 10:20.] Rashi meant specifically “a lion on this side and an eagle on the other side.”

מעשה חושב, work of a weaver. The root of the word חושב shows that it requires extreme thought, i.e. skill, not just dexterity with one’s hands, but planning. When the Torah speaks of מעשה רוקם, however, this refers to needlework only, and is something less sophisticated, not requiring the kind of planning ahead that does weaving.

V.2. Die Ausdrucksweise ארבע באמה ,עשרים באמה. usw. bedarf noch einer Erklärung. Sie kommt in einem Satze mit der gewöhnlichen präpositionslosen abwechselnd vor, z. B. Kön. I. 6, 3: עשרים אמה ארכו על פני רחב הבית עשר באמה רחבו על פני הבית. Es ist gewiss ein fein nuancierter Unterschied, dessen Aufklärung erwünscht wäre.

אורך היריעה האחת, “the length of each strip of cloth, etc.;” the letter א at the beginning of the word ,האחת, has the vowel patach, whereas the second time it has the vowel segol, and the third time it occurs it again has the vowel segol. When the Torah speaks of the goats’ skins, we find the same pattern. The rule is that when the letter א in the word אחת had the vowel patach, and is followed by a word with the separating cantillation mark etnachta, the next time the word אחת occurs it has the vowel segol if the cantillation marks are either zakef katan, or sof passuk.

תהיין חברת SHALL JOIN TOGETHER — They sewed them together with a needle, each five separately.

חמש היריעות תהיין חוברות, the decorative weaving patterns of these curtains should match each curtain to its counterpart. This was the difference between the curtains covering the sanctuary and those covering the Holy of Holies. Even though in both instances, the presence of such angel-like shapes woven into the material of the curtains, suggested an extra terrestrial dimension, there was a difference between the way these figures were woven into the five curtains covering the Holy of Holies and the patterns woven into the curtains covering the sanctuary. The difference alluded to the different degree of sanctity of these two sections of the Tabernacle. [I do not know the author’s source for this assertion. Possibly, he derives this from the apparently unnecessary repetition of the words חמש היריעות and חמש יריעות without the prefix letter ה the second time. Ed.]

חוברות, joined to one another with needle and thread.

חוברות אשה אל אחותה, “shall be joined to one another.” According to Rashi, the “joining” is done my means of needle and thread (not clasps or loops). It was not practical to make these coverings out of a single piece of cloth.

אשה אל אחתה ONE TO ANOTHER (lit., a woman to her sister) — This is the idiom of Biblical Hebrew — to speak thus about a thing that is of the feminine gender when it correlates it with a thing of the same kind. In the case of a thing that is masculine it uses the expression איש אל אחיו, lit., a man to his brother, as it is said, e. g. of the cherubim (Exodus 25:20) “and their faces were turned איש אל אחיו‎”.

ללאת are lacels in old French Similarly Onkelos translates it by ענובין, which has the meaning of “looping.”

מקצה בחוברת, at the edge of the fifth curtain.

V. 4. לול .לולאות bezeichnet ein Ineinanderverschlungensein. Daher לול: eine Wendeltreppe, לַיִל: die Zeit, in welcher die Umrisse der Gegenstände ununterscheidbar ineinanderfallen, die Nacht. לולאה, eine Schleife.

ועשית לולאות תכלת, you shall make loops of blue wool; G-d commanded that these carpet like coverings be made of two sections in order not to make it too heave and cumbersome to handle. The same method was followed with the carpets made of goats’ hair.

מקצה בחברת FROM THE EXTREMITY IN THE JOINING — i. e. the loops shall be made on that curtain which is the last in the section. The combination of five curtains is here termed חוברת.

וכן תעשה בשפת היריעה הקיצונה במחברה השנית— AND LIKEWISE SHALT THOU MAKE IN THE OUTERMOST EDGE OF ANOTHER CURTAIN IN THE JOINING OF THE SECOND — i. e. on that curtain which is the end-most — קיצונה is connected in meaning with קצה, end; — it is as much as to say: “at the end of the section.”

מקבילת הללאת אשה אל אחתה — Be careful that you make the loops (place them on the curtains) to one measurement: that the spaces between one loop and the other be exactly the same, and further, as their measurement is on the one so shall it be on the other, so that when you lay out one section next to the other the loops of the one shall come exactly opposite those of the other. That is what is meant by the expression מקבילות, viz., “one opposite the other”. In the Targum the translation of נֶגֶד “opposite” is לקבל (hence the term מקבילות from קבל). The curtains were twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, so when they joined five curtains together along their lengths it followed that their width was twenty cubits. The same was the case with the other section. The Tabernacle was thirty cubits in length from East to West, for it is said, (Exodus 36:23) “twenty boards for the south side (which was the long side of the Tabernacle) southward,” and the same is stated with reference to the north side; and as each board was one cubit and a half in breadth you have thirty cubits from East to West. The width of the Tabernacle from North to South was ten cubits, for it is said, (Exodus 36:27, 28) “and for the side of the dwelling westward he made six boards … and two boards … for the corners of the dwelling,” so you have ten cubits (this appears to give a breadth of twelve cubits, but each of the corner boards stood partly behind the thickness of the adjoining board that stood at right angles with it, and as the thickness was one cubit it took off a cubit on each side from the inside measurement). — I shall explain these verses each on its place. — They spread the curtains with their length over the breadth of the Tabernacle, whereby the ten middle cubits served as a roofing for the inside over the width of the Tabernacle and a cubit on each side of these ten cubits went to cover the thickness of the boards which were one cubit thick, so that there remained altogether sixteen cubits — eight hanging over on the north side and eight on the south side, covering the vertical boards which were ten cubits in height; consequently the two lowest cubits of the boards were left showing. The breadth of the curtains after having been joined together was forty cubits, twenty cubits for each section. Thirty cubits of these served as a roofing for the inside of the Tabernacle over its length, and one cubit for the thickness of the tops of the boards of the westside and one more cubit to cover the thickness of the columns in the east side — for there were no boards in the east side but there were five columns on the hooks of which the screen was spread and hung as a kind of curtain (cf. Exodus 27:10). Thus there remained eight cubits which hung on the back of the Tabernacle on the west side, leaving the two lowest cubits showing. This I have found in the Boraitha מ"ט מדות. But in Treatise Shabbat 98b it is stated that the curtains did not cover the thickness of the columns on the east side, and consequently there were nine cubits of the curtains hanging on the back of the Tabernacle. The text of this section suppports this view, since it says (v. 33) “and thou shalt hang up the partition veil under the catches;” for if it were as the Boraitha states the partition veil would have been distant from the catches one cubit to the West.

The loops of one drape [should] line up exactly opposite the loops of the other. . . The loops of one are lined up with the loops of the other, and the clasps join them together.

V. 5. קָבָל עם ,מקבילות (Kön. II. 15, 10) so viel wie נגד העם, dem Volke gegenüber, in Gegenwart, קַבֵּל, entgegennehmen, empfangen. הַקְבִיל sich zum Empfange darbieten, einem andern in gerader Richtung zugewandt sein, hier noch vollständiger, von mit einander zu verbindenden Schleifen: jede der andern zu deren Empfange zugewandt.

חמשים לולאות, fifty loops. The total amount of space for these 50 loops was three and a half cubits. How is this arrived at? When you allow a half cubit of air space to separate the 49 airspaces needed to separate one loop from the next, this amounts to twenty four and a half cubits. This leaves three and a half cubits for the boards to complete the 28 cubits in length occupied by them when fastened to one another snugly by the bolts we shall hear about still. Seeing that the eleven carpets made of goats’ hair were a total of thirty cubits in length, you were left with five and a half cubits for the loops, as those were thicker than the loops made of a mixture of wool and linen as described for the previous carpets. [There the Torah had specified that the loops were of the same materials as the carpets; seeing that for the goats’ wool carpets the material for the loops is not specified it is logical that these too were made of the same material as the carpets that they were meant to join. Ed.]

Result in the paroches being a distance of one amoh westward from the clasps. . . Explanation: the paroches divided the Holy of Holies from the [remainder of the] Ohel Moed, and stood ten amohs from the west side, equal to the length of the Holy of Holies. Thus, the distance from the paroches to the [Ohel Moed’s entrance in the] east was twenty amohs. Now, if the drapes covered the one-amoh width of the eastern pillars, and then covered another twenty amohs before reaching the paroches of the Holy of Holies, then the paroches would be one amoh distant from the clasps. This is because the clasps were in the middle of the [two groups of] drapes, on the [inner] edge of each twenty-amohs-wide group. The drapes would have to cover twenty-one amohs [before reaching the paroches].

מקבילות הלולאות, “the loops shall be opposite one another;” this is the way Rashi understands it and he is supported by the text of the Torah. The Torah writes in verse 33: ונתת את הפרכת תחת הקרסים, “you are to place (hang) the dividing curtain under the clasps;” if we follow the text of the Baraitha, the position of the dividing curtain was about one cubit beyond (westward) of these clasps. Some commentators explain and answer the difficulty in that Baraitha by saying that the pillars supporting the dividing curtain were attached to the end of the twentieth cubit of the length (interior) of the sanctuary part, as opposed to the Holy of Holies part of the Tabernacle. The dividing curtain hung facing the eastern entrance of the Tabernacle. In this way it was beneath the 50 golden clasps described as connecting the primarily blue woolen carpets. The curtain at the eastern entrance of the Tabernacle called מסך, was similarly suspended in a manner that its thickness completed the twenty cubit long sanctuary part of the Tabernacle. According to the Talmud, Shabbat folio 98, where it is stated that none of the carpets covered the pillars at the eastern end of the Tabernacle, the dividing curtain would have been hung towards the western part of the Sanctuary, or Holy of Holies respectively.

קרסי זהב CATCHES OF GOLD — Fermels in old French They put one end of them into the loops on one section and the other end into the loops on the other section and they thus joined them (these sections) together by means of them.

והיה המשכן אחד. Even though the respective level of sanctity of the two parts of the structure was not uniform, what they had in common was that both reflected the fact that the will of their Creator had been carried out. It reminds us of Isaiah describing different groups of angels calling to each other in mutual encouragement to proclaim the Holiness of G’d (Isaiah 6,3).

וחברת, by means of hooks and loops you will join these two sections containing 5 curtains each.

V. 6. קרס ,קרסים Jesaia 46, 1 u. 2 קרסו כרעו ,קרס נבו sich krümmen. Die Verwandtschaft mit גרס ,גרז ,קרץ, die alle ein gewaltsames Schneiden, Trennen und Brechen bedeuten, lässt vermuten, dass קרס eine starke Biegung fast bis zum Bruche bezeichne. Daher קרסים, stark gebogene Spangen, die die in deren Krümmung gebrachten Schleifen sehr festhalten.

והיה המשכן אחד. The ten curtains which together are called משכן now became one, i.e. entitled to that description.

Aus der Breite und Höhe der Bretter (VV. 17.—25), über .והיה המשכן אחד welche die Teppiche geworfen wurden, ergibt sich, dass der innere Raum des Heiligtums dreißig Ellen lang, zehn Ellen breit und zehn Ellen hoch war. Die Länge der Teppiche betrug achtundzwanzig Ellen, die Gesamtbreite der zehn Teppiche vierzig Ellen. Sie wurden mit ihrer Länge über die Breite des Heiligtums gelegt. Der Breite nach waren dreißig Ellen zu bedecken, zehn Ellen die Breite der Decke und zweimal zehn Ellen die Höhe der Seitenwände. Die Dicke der Seitenbretter, die eine Elle betrug, ungerechnet — nach der Ansicht des ר׳ יהודה (siehe Schabbat 98 b) schwand dieselbe oben bis zu dem Minimum einer Fingerbreite — deckten die Teppiche jederseits nur neun Ellen und es blieb die Höhe der silbernen Füße (V. 19) unbedeckt. Ging beiderseits nach ר׳ נחמיה (das.), auch noch die Dicke der Bretter ab, so hingen nur acht Ellen jederseits herab und es waren zwei Ellen nicht von den Teppichen bedeckt. Die vierzig Ellenbreite der Teppiche hatte dreißig Ellen der Deckenlänge, zehn Ellen der Hinterwandhöhe zu decken, dazu jedoch wiederum eine Elle der Dicke der hinteren Wandbretter, es blieben somit neun Ellen zur Deckung der Hinterwand, und die Höhe der silbernen Füße blieb frei. Nach ר׳ יהודה aber waren auch diese bedeckt (siehe das.).

יריעת עזים CURTAINS OF עזים — i. e. GOATS HAIR (cf. Rashi on Exodus 25:4).

לאהל על המשכן. The purpose of what was called משכן had not been to serve as a tent, but to assure that the cherubs would be surrounding the Shechinah.

לאהל על המשכן TO BE A COVERING UPON THE DWELLING — i. e. to spread them over the lower curtains (over those which had been already placed over the Tabernacle).

שלשים באמה [THE LENGTH OF ONE CURTAIN SHALL BE] THIRTY CUBITS — so that when they place them with their length over the breadth of the Tabernacle in the same way as they put the first curtains (the length of which was 28 cubits) it follows that they are in excess by one cubit on this side and one cubit on that side, thus covering one of the two cubits of the boards left showing. The lowest cubit of the boards which no curtain covered was that cubit which was inserted in the hole of the socket, for the sockets themselves were one cubit high.

וכפלת את היריעה הששית AND THOU SHALT DOUBLE THE SIXTH CURTAIN which was additional in these upper curtains over and above the lower curtains,

וחברת את חמש היריעות לבד, even within the Tabernacle there was a difference between levels of sanctity. It is reminiscent of what David said in Psalms 19,5 where the subjects are the different planetary forces and their orbits, each of them closer or further from the center, the sun. All of them represent forces created by G’d to help run an orderly universe, and all of them, in David’s own words, proclaim G’d’s handiwork; yet at the end, David reminds us that G’d appointed the sun as a “tent” to “cover” them all, i.e. their diversity.

וכפלת את היריעה השישית, so that half of it would be hanging down from the top facing the tent, whereas the other half would be trailing down behind the Tabernacle (on the ground) to a length of 2 cubits. (the overall length of the Tabernacle was 30 cubits, its height 10 cubits. The curtains under discussion were 4 cubits wide and 30 cubits long. This gives us a total area of 44 square cubits. Draping the curtains across the structure meant that the thirty cubits reached exactly down to the silver socket of the upright beams. Seeing that the entrance to the Tabernacle would not be covered, the length of the joined curtains really needed to total only 40 cubits. By allowing 2 cubits to hang down at the entrance, only 2 cubits were left to trail on the ground behind the structure (I condensed what the author explains. Ed.)

Half of its width hung. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is written (v. 12), “Half of the extra drape shall overlap the back of the mishkon.” Accordingly, the other half overlapped the front of the mishkon.

V. 9. כפלת וגו׳. Die Breite der elf Ziegenhaarteppiche, welche das "Zelt" über der "Wohnung" bildeten, betrug zusammen vierundvierzig Ellen, somit eine ganze Teppichbreite, vier Ellen mehr als die Cherubimteppiche. Von dieser einen Teppichbreite sollte, der Anordnung unseres Textes zufolge, die Hälfte, somit zwei Ellen, vornüber über den Eingang geschlagen werden.

וכפלת את היריעה השישית, “you are to fold over the sixth carpet;” when the word כפל occurs without further adjective, it means: “double.” This is what Rashi meant when he wrote: “half its width was hanging and was folded over the curtain at the eastern entrance.”

אל מול פני האהל OPPOSITE THE FRONT OF THE TENT; half of its breadth (two cubits) hung down, being doubled, over the screen which was on the east side before the entrance, whereby the Tabernacle gained the appearance of a modest bride who has her face covered by a veil.

VV.11 — 13. Die Länge der Ziegenhaarteppiche deckte ebenfalls die Breite, und die Breite derselben die Länge der Wohnung. Sie waren um zwei Ellen länger als die Cherubimteppiche, fielen somit rechts und links um eine Elle tiefer herab als jene (V. 13). Ihre Gesamtbreite war um vier Ellen länger, davon waren zwei Ellen vornüber geschlagen (V. 9). Zwei Ellen fielen sie daher an der Hinterwand tiefer als die Cherubimteppiche hinab. Nach ר׳ יהודה schleppten somit zwei Ellen hinten am Boden nach, nach ר׳ נחמי׳, dessen Annahme gemäß eine Elle für die Dicke der Wandbretter abging, betrug diese Schleppe nur eine Elle. Nach beiden "glich das משכן einem auf der Straße gehenden Frauenzimmer, dessen Kleidersaum als Schleppe nachfolgt" לאשה שמהלכת בשוק ושיפוליה מהלכין אחריה (Schabbat das.).

וסרח העדף ביריעת האהל AND THE SURPLUS OF THE CURTAINS OF THE TENT over and above the lower curtains of the Tabernacle [SHALL HANG OVER etc.]. “The curtains of the אהל” were the upper ones made of goats’ hair which Scripture calls אהל, as it states about them, (v. 7) “they shall be an אהל over the dwelling.” The word אהל used in connection with them means only a covering (the word has not its usual meaning of “tent“) because they formed a cover and a screen over the lower ones. They exceeded the lower ones by one half curtain on the west side. For the other half of the eleventh curtain which was in excess of the number of the lower ones was folded over to hang in front of the tent (the Tabernacle) (cf. v. 9). There therefore remained two cubits, — the breadth of the half of it — in excess of the width of the lower curtains (it is this which is here described as חצי היריעה העדפת “the half curtain that exceeded”). This

Of the planks that remained uncovered. Rashi does not mean that the uncovered area consisted specifically of the planks. [That cannot be,] because one amoh [of the planks] was inserted into the sockets. Rather, the two uncovered amohs consisted of an amoh of the planks and an amoh of the sockets. Furthermore, only according to the Beraisa in Maseches Midos were there two amohs left uncovered. But according to the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos, [the first set of drapes] covered nine amohs at the back of the mishkon, and only the amoh of the sockets was uncovered. All views agree that the drapes of goats’ hair covered the sockets also. [Even] according to Maseches Shabbos, one amoh of the [goats’ hair] drapes must have covered an amoh of the [width of the] pillars [at the entrance], and two amohs were folded down over the screen of the entrance of the tent. Alternatively: one amoh folded down over the screen, and one amoh overlapped behind the mishkon, lying on the ground.

תסרח על אחורי המשכן, “it will overlap the rear end of the Tabernacle.” Rashi explains that it was necessary because the lowest 2 boards at the Western side of Tabernacle which had been left exposed.” Actually, there were no 2 cubits exposed, as the lowest cubit had been inserted into the silver sockets of the Tabernacle. This is in accordance with the view expressed in the Baraitha. However, according to the opinion we quoted from the Talmud, exposed parts of the boards on the outside of the Western wall of The Tabernacle had been covered by the curtains so that only the sockets had remained exposed and needed to be covered. All the scholars are agreed however, that the carpets made of goats’ hair covered the outside of the Tabernacle all the way to the ground. This was necessary already for the sake of the honour of the Presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle. The sockets of the Tabernacle to the south and the north remained exposed. Rabbi Yishmael, quoted by the Talmud, compared the Tabernacle to an elegant lady, walking in the marketplace and the train of her dress dragging behind her on the ground. If she were truly elegant, she would make sure that that train is either held up by a servant, or somehow tied to her dress so that it will not be dirtied being dragged along a dusty street. It is reasonable to assume that the corners of the curtains were attached to the fabric in a way preventing them from trailing on the ground.

תסרח על אחרי המשכן SHALL HANG OVER THE BACK OF THE TABERNACLE — to cover the two cubits of the boards that were left bare.

אחרי המשכן THE BACK OF THE TABERNACLE — i. e. the west side. This is called “the back” because the entrance was on the east side which was therefore its front. The north and the south are accordingly called the “sides” in the right and the left directions.

והאמה מזה והאמה מזה AND A CUBIT ON THE ONE SIDE AND A CUBIT ON THE OTHER SIDE — i. e. on the north and on the south,

והאמה מזה, whereas the silver sockets along the sides of the Tabernacle were left exposed by the inner curtains, they were covered by the outer curtains, these being 2 cubits longer than the inner curtains. This is the reference to the “extra cubit on either side” in our verse.

בעדף בארך יריעת האהל OF THE SURPLUS OF THE LENGTH OF THE CURTAINS OF THE TABERNACLE — i. e. which were in excess over the curtains of “the Tabernacle” (the woollen ones) by two cubits,

יהיה מרוח על צדי המשכן SHALL HANG OVER THE SIDES OF THE TABERNACLE — on the north and on the south as I have explained above. The Torah here teaches you a rule of life — that a man should take care of his artistic objects (this the Torah does by commanding that the beautiful lower curtains should be protected by coarse upper ones) (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 422).

מכסה לאהל [AND THOU SHALT MAKE] A COVERING FOR THE אהל — For that roofing of goats’ hair (which is termed אהל in this section) make still another covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and above this also a covering of Tachash skins. These uppermost covers however covered the roof only (were not hanging over the sides), their length being 30 cubits and their width 10. This is the opinion of R. Nehemia (that the goats’ skins and the layer of rams’ and Tachash skins formed two different covers one above the other); according to R. Jehudah, however, there was only one cover, half of it being of rams’ skins dyed red and half of it of Tachash skins (cf. Shabbat 28a).

ומכסה עורות תחשים מלמעלה, above the skins made into coverings out of ram skins dyed red. This is the plain meaning of the text, and at least one opinion expressed in the Talmud agrees with this. (Shabbat 28)

For the roof made of the drapes of goats’ hairs. . . I.e., the covering went over the roof but not over the sides. [Rashi says this] because even [the covering of] the eleven drapes of goats’ hair is called אהל (tent), for it is written (v. 7): “Make drapes of goats’ hair for a אהל over the mishkon.”

V. 14. Die Decke von Fellen bildete das Dach des Zeltes. Nach der Auffassung des ר׳ יהורה (Schabbat 28 a) waren es, dem Wortlaute unseres Textes gemäß, zwei Decken, die Widderdecke unten, die Tachaschdecke darüber. Nach ר׳ נהמי׳ das. war nur eine Decke, die zur Hälfte aus Widderfellen und zur Hälfte aus Tachaschfellen bestand. Dann wäre das מלמעלה des Textes aufs Ganze zu beziehen, die Decke war מלמעלה לאהל. — Ebendas. b. wird über תחש berichtet, dass es ein nur Mosche zugänglich gewesenes Tier gewesen sei, von dem es zweifelhaft bleibe, ob es zu der Gattung בהמה oder חיה טהורה gehört habe. Jedenfalls sei es ein reines Tier gewesen, wofür schon der Umstand spräche, dass es ein Horn an der Stirne gehabt. Der Name תחש dürfte auf ein Tier hinweisen, das sich durch besondere Schnelligkeit charakterisiert, von חוש, eilen, wie ותחש על מרמה רגלי (Job 31. 5).

ועשית את הקרשים AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE BOARDS — It should be said: “Thou shalt make boards” (without the definite article), the same form which is used of each of the other things (parts of the Tabernacle)! What is the force of the term, “the boards?” It speaks of those boards that already existed as being designated for that purpose. For our father Jacob had planted cedars (shittim-trees) in Egypt and when he died be bade his sons carry them up with them when they would leave Egypt. He told them that God would once command them to erect a dwelling of shittim-trees in the wilderness. “See” — added he — “that they be ready in your possession!” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 25:5). That is what the Babylonian embodied in his liturgical composition: The plant of those who had been admonished by their father Jacob grew up rapidly to become the cedars for the beams of our House (the Tabernacle), which refers to the fact that they had been admonished that they (the cedars) should be ready in their possession in advance (before they were needed).

עצי שטים עומדים. Not arranged horizontally as such boards are normally arranged in buildings of a secular nature.

ועשית את הקרשים למשכן. "You shall construct the boards for the Tabernacle." The word למשכן indicates that only the coverings qualified for the term "Tabernacle," not the boards supporting the tent.

עצי שטים עומדים. They must be standing upright, not laid on top of each other.

ועשית את הקרשים, “you are to construct the beams, etc.” The Torah really should have written ועשית קרשים, “you are to construct beams,” just as the Torah had written ועשית יריעות, not היריעות. The letter ה in front of the word קרשים, suggesting that we had heard about these beams previously seems quite unjustified. Our sages therefore found support in the letter ה for the tradition that Yaakov had already brought acacia trees to Egypt with him and had told his sons to take the trunks with them out of Egypt when the time would come as they would be needed by the Israelites in the desert.

From those that were prepared and designated. . . Our verse refers to the cedar trees as “planks” because they were designated from the very beginning to become planks. “The planks” means “the [designated] cedars.”

V. 15. קרש ,הקרשים, verwandt mit ירש ,גרש, scheint nicht Brett überhaupt, sondern insbesondere das Wandbrett zu bedeuten, welches durch "Abweisen" Nichtberechtigter einen Raum für den Berechtigten "okkupiert", in Beschlag nimmt. Durch die קרשים wird dem משכן ein entsprechender Raum "eingeräumt" — עצי שטים עומדים. Nach Joma 72 a: עומדים שעומרין דרך גדילתן: sie waren in ihrer natürlichen Richtung aufzustellen, das Wurzelende unten, das Gipfelende oben. Sie hatten also selbst als Bretter den Baumcharakter beizubehalten. דבר אחר שמעמידין את צפוין, sie sind die Träger des goldenen Überzugs, obgleich mit Gold überlegt, bleibt bei ihnen der Holzcharakter, wie auch bei der Tischplatte (siehe oben) vorherrschend (תוספו׳ daselbst). דבר אחר עומדים שמא תאמר אבר סברן ובטל סכויין ת׳ל עומדים שעומדין לעולם ולעולמים: sie sind für immer "bleibend", wenn auch ihre Hoffnung und Aussicht verloren scheint.

עצי שטים עומדים, “made of acacia wood standing upright.” One interpretation of the word עומדים, is that they were taken from trees which up to that time had been standing rooted in the earth, i.e. they had not had time to dry out or to begin to rot. An alternate explanation for the word עומדים would be that the boards remained in their prime condition forever.

עצי שטים עומדים, “made of acacia wood, upright.” The reason why he Torah added the word: “upright,” was to forbid planks that had already fallen off the tree after the branch having been sawed off.

עצי שטים עמדים OF SHITTIM-WOOD STANDING UP — Estantivs in old French; Engl, perpendicular. — This means that the length of the boards shall be placed perpendicular in the walls of the Tabernacle and that you shall not make the walls of the boards placed horizontally so that the breadth of the boards should be along the height of the walls, one board upon the other.

עצי שטים עומדים, "of acacia wood, standing up." Our sages in Yuma 72 say that they were standing up the way they grew. Apparently they derived this from the fact that the Torah did not write the word עומדים prior to the words "acacia wood" but afterwards. Alternatively, the word עומדים, "standing up" could have been written after the word למשכן. Had the Torah written the word in that order I would have considered it as part of the directive, i.e. that these boards were not to be used lying down. As it is, the word only describes the condition of the boards, i.e. that they were in the same position as when they still grew in the earth.

The moral-ethical significance of the word קרשים becomes evident if one transposes two letters of the word so that it reads קשרים, "forming connections." By means of these boards the celestial forces and the terrestrial forces were to unite. The need for them to be ten cubits high alludes to the number ten which is essential whenever matters of sanctity are at issue.

When the Torah requires that the width of these boards be one and a half cubits, this is an allusion to the way we celebrate the redemption from Egypt by eating both a whole מצה and a half מצה; the former symbolises freedom, the latter slavery. This is the mystical dimension of the letter ה and the letter ד. Passover reminds us of both our status as slaves and our new-found status as free men.

The total number of boards, i.e. 48, alludes to the mystical dimension of Isaiah 54,12: ושמתי כדכד שמשותיך, "I will make your "windows" [inlets for spiritual input from the celestial spheres, Ed.] of rubies." The word כדכד=48.

The mystical meaning of the sockets, i.e. אדנים, is self-explanatory by the fact that their very name alludes to G'd the Master. Perhaps we can best phrase this as "when The Master (G'd) is your foundation (read socket), then the Tabernacle has a chance to fulfil its purpose." The reason that these sockets number 100 is that the square root of 100 is ten, and we have already mentioned that the number 10 appears whenever spiritual values are involved. The number 100 is also the tenth in a graduated levels of "steps" in Kabbalistic literature.

עשר אמות ארך הקדש TEN CUBITS SHALL BE THE LENGTH OF A BOARD — This tells us that the height of the Tabernacle was ten cubits (since the boards were standing vertically).

ואמה וחצי האמה רחב AND A CUBIT AND A HALF SHALL BE THE BREADTH — This teaches us that the length of the Tabernacle corresponding to the twenty boards which were on the north and on the south was 30 cubits from east to west.

שתי ידות לקרש האחד TWO TENONS THERE SHALL BE IN ONE BOARD — They cut out the lower part of the boards in the middle to a height of one cubit leaving one fourth of its width on the one side and one fourth of it on the other side. These pieces on each side of the boards were the ידות, the tenons. Thus the part cut out was one half of the breadth of the board (¾ cubit) in its centre. Now these tenons they fixed into the sockets which were made hollow. The sockets were one cubit in height and they lay in a line forty of them, one close against the other. The tenons of the boards that were fixed into the sockets were then cut away on three sides, the depth of the portions thus cut away being equal to the thickness of the rim of the sockets, so that when the boards were fixed in the sockets the wood of the board would cover the entire top of the socket. For if this were not so (if the tenons were not cut away on their outside edge) there would have been a space between one board and the next equal to the thickness of the rims of two sockets which would have separated them. That is what is meant when it says, (v. 24) “and they shall be coupled together beneath” — that they should cut away the sides of the tenons in order that the boards should join closely one to the other.

TWO TENONS SHALL THERE BE IN EACH BOARD. Rashi wrote: “He cut out the lower part of the board in the middle to a height of one cubit, and he left one quarter of its width on the one side and one quarter of it on the other side. These [pieces on each side] are the yadoth (the tenons). The part cut out between the tenons was one half of the breadth of the board, and these tenons they fixed into the sockets which were hollowed out. The sockets were one cubit in height, forty of them fitting closely one to the other. The tenons of the boards which were fixed into the sockets were cut away on three sides, the width of the portions cut away being equal to the thickness of the rim of the sockets, so that when the boards [were fitted into the sockets, the wood of the board] would cover the entire top of the socket. For if this were not so [if the same thickness were not cut away from the tenons], there would have been a space between one board and the other equal to the thickness of the rims of the two sockets which would have separated them. This is what is meant when it is said, And they shall be coupled together beneath,¹⁹⁷Verse 24. meaning, that they should cut away the sides of the tenons so that the boards should fit closely one to the other.” So I found the language of the Rabbi.
But I wonder! If the part cut away in the middle was half of the breadth of the board [as Rashi has it] — measuring four and a half handbreadths¹⁹⁸The whole breadth of the board was a cubit and a half (Verse 16) which are nine handbreadths, and a half thereof is four and a half. — it follows that the thickness of the rim of each socket must be the same as a fourth of the breadth of the board, which is two handbreadths and a thumb, in order that the thickness [of the rims] of the two sockets should cover the part cut away in the middle, which is half of the breadth of the board, and thus there would be no space between one socket and the other. But if so, if you cut away the boards¹⁹⁹“The boards.” In Mizrachi quoting Ramban: “the tenons.” This is correct. The Hebrew text before us also means the same, except that the term “boards” is here used in a general sense. on three sides in that way, there would be nothing left [for the tenons], since the rims of the sockets were alike on all sides! Moreover, the Rabbi [Rashi] brought proof further on in Verse 20, stating: “Thus it is taught in the Mishnah of ‘The structure of the Tabernacle:' The order of arranging the boards for making the Tabernacle was as follows: He made the sockets hollow and cut away from²⁰⁰The text in Rashi states v’choreitz (and he cuts away) — “and he cuts away a quarter on one side and a quarter on the other side.” Ramban will then ask: if in addition to these two quarters which he cuts away at the sides he also cuts away in the middle half of the width of the board — then there is nothing left for the tenons! Mizrachi answers that Rashi’s understanding of the Beraitha was that the expression “a quarter on one side etc.” does not refer to the cutting away but to what is “left” at the sides of the board as tenons. The translation would then be: “and he cuts the board at the bottom, [leaving] a quarter on one side and a quarter on the other.” To understand the text of Ramban though requires the first translation as above. the board at the bottom a quarter of its width on one side and a quarter on the other, and the cut-away portion in the middle totalled one half of its width. Thus they made for each board two tenons like two rungs of a ladder, and these they fixed into the two sockets.” But if one takes this Beraitha too in its ordinary sense, it would result in something exceedingly astonishing. For if he cuts away from the board a quarter on each side, and in the middle he cuts away half of the breadth of the board, then the whole bottom part [to the height of a cubit] is cut away, and nothing is left of it at all [to serve as a tenon]! In my opinion, however, this Beraitha did not specify the size of the amount cut away, since the Torah also gave no measurements for the thickness of the rims of the sockets. Therefore what the Rabbis [in this Beraitha] said is that he cut away a quarter of the total amount of the board on one side in order to cover one rim of the socket, and another quarter he cut away on the other side; and in the middle of the board he cut away half of the total amount cut away from the whole board, in order to cover the rims of the two sockets.
But according to all opinions it still needs to be clarified further, because the Tabernacle at the bottom to the height of a cubit was not wide ten cubits,²⁰¹That is to say, Scripture states that the height of each board was to be ten cubits (Verse 16). But because of the cutting away at the bottom to the height of a cubit for the tenons, its size was reduced to nine cubits high, as it lay on top of the sockets! since the thickness of the two sockets, one on each side, reduced its size! Perhaps there is no objection to that. And in the words of Rashi we read: “He cut away from the thickness of the tenons inside, out of the board which was a cubit thick, according to the thickness of the rims of the sockets”. This is correct, but it is not mentioned in the Beraitha.

שתי ידות לקרש האחד, the boards were incised in the bottom cubit in order to accommodate the hollow dual sockets that these tenons would fit into.

שתי ידות לקרש האחד, “two tenons per beam.” Nachmanides, in commenting on the baraitha (Shabbat 98) quoted by Rashi, according to which each of these tenons had been left exposed after a quarter of its width had been removed on either side, so that the combined width of the two parallel tenons would be zero, and there would not have remained any part of the tenon to insert into the silver sockets. one cannot understand the baraitha at face value. There was no specific measurement prescribed for the lowest cubit of the beams to be made to fit into the silver sockets. The meaning of the word רביע in the baraitha, is that enough of the sides of both tenons had to be shaved off to enable them to fit inside the silver sockets, but at the same time forming a continuous line, flush with the outside of these sockets. The same amount of wood had to be shaved off in between the two tenons, seeing that each beam was fitted into two sockets. Personally, I think that apart from the baraitha, there is no problem, seeing that the words רביע מכאן ורביע מכאן, “a quarter from one side and a quarter from the other side,” do not refer to the thickness of the beams, but to the thickness of the hollow walls of the silver sockets. Seeing that the thickness of these was minimal, the baraitha describes this as רביע to describe an insignificant amount.

Were cut out on three of their sides. . . 1. The side [of the mishkon’s] interior. 2. The side [of the mishkon’s] exterior. [These are both sides] of the planks’ thickness. 3. The side of the planks’ width, [facing the adjacent plank. Rashi is not counting the hollow between the pegs].

V. 17. שלב ,משלבות, wahrscheinlich verwandt mit שלף herausziehen: aussprossen, hervorgehen lassen, wie die Sprossen einer Leiter. Die Bretter waren unten zu zwei Zapfen, die in die zu diesem Ende hohlen Füße gingen, entsprechend ausgeschnitten.

.שתי ידוה לקרש אחד, “two square pegs, rung like, for each plank.” Each peg was indented from all four sides so that the “lips” of the plank could fit over each side and be level front and back. When Rashi wrote (on Shabbat 98) that the pegs were cut out on three sides, he meant that these cut outs faced front and two sides of the next adjoining plank, the one in the middle not being called a “cut out of the peg,” but “a cut out of the plank.”

משלבת means made like the rungs (שליבה) of a ladder and separated from each other and planed at their ends in order that they could be inserted into the hollow of the sockets like a rung which is fixed in the hole in the ladder’s uprights.

משולבות, parallel to one another. There were also incisions around the bottom cubit of each board.

משלבות אשה אל אחותה, “parallel to one another.” Rashi explains that the two tenons at the bottom of each beam were parallel and matching one another, the Torah mentioning that they were not one protruding further than the other from their respective outer parameters, i.e 6x9. tefachim. Nachmanides explains the word שליבה, as “projection,” as the tenons of the rungs of the ladder which fit into the mortise of the sides of the ladder’s frame. The adjoining beam would have a similarly shaped projection so that they could dovetail into one another and make a solid joint. Each beam at the top would have two such projections.

Their cut away sections should be exactly alike. . . This refers to the three cut sides of the pegs [see previous entry], without [additional] cuts being made in the planks [themselves, as the Ramban suggests]. Therefore it is the pegs, not the planks, that are “parallel to each other.”

MESHULAVOTH ISHAH EL ACHOTHAH’ (SET IN ORDER ONE TO ANOTHER). “Meshulavoth means made like shlivoth (rungs of) a ladder. One to another, this means that they should correspond exactly one to the other, and should be separated from each other, and so planed at their ends that they may be inserted into the hollow of the sockets, just like a rung enters the holes of a ladder’s uprights; further, that the portions cut away [from the boards] in their fronts and backs should be alike, one identical to the other, in order that there should not be two tenons, one of which extends towards the front and the other towards the back in relation to the thickness of the board which was one cubit.” This is Rashi’s language.²⁰²It should be noted that the version of Rashi here in Ramban is somewhat different in the order of the phrases from the standard editions of Rashi.
Thus according to Rashi the word meshulavoth refers back to the tenons, that they be planed at their ends so that they enter the hollow of the sockets, and ishah el achothah (one to the other) refers only to the boards, that they be fitted close together. But the Hebrew word krashim (boards) is masculine, and therefore it should have rather said ish el achiv [“one to the other” — in the masculine form]!²⁰³And not ishah el achothah — which is in the feminine form. Perhaps [Rashi] will interpret ishah el achothah as meaning that the shlivoth [literally: “the rungs” but here referring to the yadoth, the tenons — a feminine form] correspond exactly one with the other, and the thickness of wood cut away from each of the tenons be exactly alike, for in that way the boards will fit closely together. Now the tenons were not planed in a sloping fashion, for the hollow of the sockets was alike in each of them; they were cut only on their sides in order that the boards fit closely one to another.
But in the Beraitha on the work of the Tabernacle I found the following text: “Two sanin (‘pegs’) [as explained further] projected from the boards, two from each of them, fitting into corresponding holes, for it is said, meshulavoth ishah el achothah. These are the words of Rabbi Nechemyah. For Rabbi Nechemyah says: It should not have said meshulavoth; what does Scripture teach us then by using that word? It is to teach us that he make them like the rungs of an Egyptian ladder.” Now the meaning of the word sanin is similar to the device they make in chests to tighten and hold the boards together, a sort of wooden peg, somewhat like that which we have been taught in the Mishnah of Keilim:²⁰⁴Keilim 10:6. “If [two boards] were fastened together with sanin (pegs) or joints they need not be plastered in the middle.”²⁰⁵Since the pegs or joints hold the boards together tightly they need not be plastered in the middle to afford protection from corpse uncleanness. In the Talmud²⁰⁶Baba Metzia 117a. they likewise speak of “reeds and sanin.” Accordingly it would appear that Scripture is telling us that he is to make a projection on the side of the board, like a sort of “male shafts,”²⁰⁷Succah 12b. and on the opposite side of the board next to it he is to make a corresponding cavity into which the arrow-head is set. The same he is to do on the other board, thus dovetailing each board twice [one on each side]. Meshulavoth ishah el achothah is thus a reference to these shlivoth (pegs) themselves [and not to the tenons as Rashi has it], and is here properly in the feminine form [ishah el achothah, because of the word shlivah which is feminine]. And so did the Sages make mention of this term in the feminine: “The shlivah (rundle) slipped from under him;”²⁰⁸Makkoth 7b. “In a ladder it depends on the material of shlivothav (its steps).”²⁰⁹Shabbath 60a. And if the steps are of metal the whole ladder is susceptible to uncleanness. And even though we find the plural of this word in the masculine form — between ‘hashlabim’ (the stays)²¹⁰I Kings 7:28. — it is like nashim (women) and pilagshim (concubines) whose plural form is in the masculine.

אשה אל אחותה, parallel to one another. Rashi understands this as applying to the thickness of each plank which was one cubit (60 cm. approx). He arrived at this conclusion by basing himself on the two planks at the northwestern end of the Holy of Holies and the southwestern corner. [If his opinion would not be correct, we could not account for the measurements given by the Torah for the overall length and width of the Tabernacle. Ed.]

אשה אל אחתה ONE TO THE OTHER — i. e. the tenons should correspond exactly one to the other; the meaning is that the portions cut away from the fronts and backs shall be precisely equal, one portion cut away having the same measurement as another portion cut away in order that of two tenons one should not diverge from a straight line towards the front and the other diverge towards the outside (the back) in reference to the thickness of the board which was one cubit. The Targum renders ידות by צירין, pivots, because they resembled, in one respect, the pivots of a door which are inserted in the hole in the threshold.

The other is pulled more to the outside in relation to the thickness of the plank. . . For if so, the planks would not line up straight but would stand slanted.

KEIDMAH MIZRACHAH’ (ON THE EAST SIDE EASTWARD).²¹¹Further, 27:13. — At this point Ramban begins to explain the significance of the Hebrew terms for “east, west etc.,” which are mentioned in connection with the arrangement of the boards. The word kedem (east) is not found in connection with the boards, as the Tabernacle on that side had only a curtain. Hence Ramban chose a verse from the following chapter which mentions kedem, and then he will revert to the theme of the boards, and explain the terms negbah, teimanah (the south side, southward) mentioned here in the following Verse 18. The reason for this expression is that the Sacred Language calls the east kedem, just as it is said, And ye shall measure without the city for the side of ‘keidmah’ (east) two thousand cubits,²¹²Numbers 35:5. and calls the west achor (back), just as it is said, Behold, I go ‘kedem’ (forward), but He is not there, v’achor (and backward), but I cannot perceive Him.²¹³Job 23:8. Similarly: As far as ‘ha’achron’ (the hinder) sea,²¹⁴Deuteronomy 34:2. which means the western sea. Both [kedem and achor] are borrowed terms, as the Sacred Language adopts these substitute forms from the standpoint of a person who turns to the light of the sun [thus calling the east panim, “face,” because his face is turned eastward to the rising sun, and the west achor, “back,” because his back is then to the west]. Similarly it says, and they went l’achor (backward) and not ‘l’panim’ (forward).²¹⁵Jeremiah 7:24. According to Ramban the sense of the verse is: they went away from the light [the word of G-d] and did not go towards it. And the south is called negev (dry, parched) because the land is dried up on account of the heat. At times Scripture mentions the borrowed term and then explains it by name. Thus it says keidmah, a term which is borrowed, and explains it by saying mizrachah (eastward),²¹¹Further, 27:13. — At this point Ramban begins to explain the significance of the Hebrew terms for “east, west etc.,” which are mentioned in connection with the arrangement of the boards. The word kedem (east) is not found in connection with the boards, as the Tabernacle on that side had only a curtain. Hence Ramban chose a verse from the following chapter which mentions kedem, and then he will revert to the theme of the boards, and explain the terms negbah, teimanah (the south side, southward) mentioned here in the following Verse 18. which is the name itself. Similarly, it says negbah, which is the borrowed name, and explains it by its proper name — teimanah (southward).²¹⁶Verse 18 (here in Chapter 26 before us). See above Note 211. And the west is called by the substitute name yam [which also means “sea”] because the language adopted it from the standpoint of the people living in the Land of Israel to whom the Great Sea is on the west. The north on the other hand has no by-name, and is so called tzaphon [which means “hidden”] because the sun never appears on that side. The south is called darom, just as it is said, The wind goeth toward ‘darom’ (the south), and turneth about into the north.²¹⁷Ecclesiastes 1:6. It is really a double word [dor rum — “it abides in the height,” a reference to the sun that always reaches its greatest height on that side], with one letter reish missing because of the combination of two similar letters: dor rum, which means that the sun [always] moves at its highest point on that side. The south is also called yamin [which means “right”] and the north is called smol [meaning “left”] with reference to a man who turns eastward [to face the light of the rising sun, in which case his right hand is to the south, and his left to the north], as I have mentioned.
The secret of these names is known from the mystic speculations on the Chariot on high [i.e. the vision of Ezekiel of the Divine Chariot]. Likewise, [the secret of] the name for the west which is yam (sea) is known from that which the Rabbis have said:²¹⁸Baba Bathra 25a. “The Divine Glory is in the west,” for the yam alludes to “the wisdom of Solomon,” just as the Rabbis have said in the Midrash:²¹⁹The exact source is unknown to me. See, however, in my Hebrew commentary p. 468, Note 52 for a similar thought in Yerushalmi Shekalim VI, 1. “Yam always signifies Torah, as it is said, and broader than ‘yam’ (the sea).”²²⁰Job 11:9. I intend to mention this in the section of V’zoth Habrachah²²¹Deuteronomy 33:1. on the verse, possess thou ‘yam’ (the sea) and the south,²²²Ibid., Verse 23. if my Creator will bless me to reach there.

לפאת נגבה תימנה ON THE SOUTH SIDE SOUTHWARD — The word פאה here has not the meaning of “corner” (as e. g., Leviticus 19:9, פאת שדך) but the whole side is called פאה, as the Targum has it: לרוח עבר דרומא.

V. 18. נגב heißt die Südseite wohl, weil die Sonnenstrahlen senkrecht "stechend" (verwandt mit נקב) aufs Haupt treffen. תימן von ימין, rechts, ebenfalls Benennung des Süden, weil, zum Sonnenaufgang gewandt, die Südseite zur Rechten liegt. Vielleicht ist hier auch diese Bezeichnung beigefügt, weil das "Angesicht", die Vorderseite des Stiftzeltes, immer nach Osten gewandt, somit die Südseite rechts war.

שני אדנם תחת הקרש האחד, “two sockets under one (each) plank.” The dimensions of each of these sockets were one cubit in length matching the thickness of each plank and their width was three quarters of a cubit so that two together were the width of each plank, one as a half cubits. Each socket was hollowed out so that it could accommodate the pegs described in detail above. The author proceeds to give further details which in the absence of an illustration are not easy for the reader to follow. [This editor hopes to supply illustrations at the end of the last volume of this Torah commentary. Ed.] There is no unanimity on some of these details, but seeing that regardless of whose opinion is right there will not be another Tabernacle in the future, the dispute will never be resolved satisfactorily.

ולירכתי AND FOR THE BACKPART — This is a term for “end”, as the Targum renders it, ולסיפי, “for the ends.” Because the entrance was on the east the east-side is called the front and the west-side the back. And this is why it is described here by a word denoting end, because the front is the head (the beginning) of a thing.

ולירכתי המשכן תעשה ששה קרשים. Seeing that each board was one and a half cubits wide, this would cover nine cubits in width. This left one half cubit at the north west corner and at the south west corner unaccounted for, seeing the width of the Tabernacle was ten cubits. The area left exposed would be taken up by the boards arranged in the east-westerly (long) sides of the Tabernacle, the last half cubit of each filling these two voids. This left the inside dimensions of the Tabernacle ten cubits wide with the problematic corners being enclosed in the manner we described. The view from the outside of the Tabernacle would show 90 degree corners without any indentations whatsoever.

תעשה ששה קרשים THOU SHALT MAKE SIX BOARDS — thus you have 9 cubits in the breadth.

ושני קרשים תעשה למקצעת AND TWO BOARDS SHALT THOU MAKE FOR THE CORNERS — one for the north-west corner and one for the south-west corner. All the eight boards were set in a row, only that the entire width of these two did not show in the interior of the Tabernacle, but only a half cubit on the one side and a half cubit on the other side could be seen in the interior, thus making up the breadth to ten cubits. The remaining cubit of one board and the remaining cubit of the other board came against the cubit thickness of the boards of the Tabernacle on the north and the south sides, so that the outside should be even.

Against the amoh thickness of the northern and southern mishkon planks. [Rashi knows this] because [the dimensions of the mishkon] is derived from the Beis Hamikdash, whose width (twenty amohs) was one-third of its length (sixty amohs). So too with the mishkon: its width [ten amohs] was one-third of its length (thirty amohs).

ויהיו AND THEY SHALL BE — all the boards shall be —תאמים COUPLED TOGETHER with each other, מלמטה BENEATH, so that the thickness of the edges of two adjacent sockets should not form a space between them, keeping them apart. That is what I meant when I explained (v. 17) that the pivot-like tenons of a board should be cut away on all sides, in order that the breadth of the board shall project at the sides beyond the tenons of the boards that it may cover the rim of the socket. In like manner was the adjacent board treated. The result was that they coupled together (stood one close against the other). Each end-board in the western row was cut away along its width into its thickness over against the portion cut away from the adjacent boards of the northern and southern wall, so that the sockets standing between should not part them (the end-board and that standing next to it on the north side or south side).

AND THEY SHALL BE COUPLED TOGETHER ABOVE THE HEAD OF IT UNTO THE ONE RING. According to Rashi’s interpretation this verse goes back to explain that all the boards should be coupled together beneath, where the boards were cut away on their sides, and they all should be coupled together about the head of it, meaning “of each board.” Or it may be that rosho (the head of it) refers to the top of the Tabernacle. Similarly, [according to Rashi] the expression unto the one ring means of each of the boards. Likewise he explained, thus shall it be for them both,²²³In the second half of Verse 24 (before us). for the two end boards [for the board at the end of the north side and for the adjacent board in the western wall].
But if this is so, I do not know why Scripture does not explicitly tell us about these rings, saying “and you shall make twenty gold rings” [instead of saying, unto the one ring, which means of each board], seeing that it mentions the cut which he is to make in all the boards.²²⁴Verse 17. Moreover, how could Scripture say unto the one ring with the definite article [when it has not mentioned it previously]? Perhaps because it is the customary manner with all houses made of boards to attach them at the top with one ring, Scripture shortened the explanation and said the ring — meaning the one which is known to him and customary. Similarly it said of the bars, and thou shalt make their rings of gold for places for the bolts,²²⁵Verse 29. which means the customary [rings] being known to them. A similar case is the expression, their hooks shall be of gold.²²⁶Verse 37.
I have found in the Beraitha on the work of the Tabernacle [the following text]: “He cut away the board at the top, a fingerbreadth on one side and a fingerbreadth on the other side, and he placed them [i.e., the two adjacent boards] inside one gold ring in order that they should not move apart from each other, for it is said, And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto the one ring. Now it need not have said, unto the one ring; and what does it teach us by saying it? It is to teach us that this is the place where the bolts were inserted.” Accordingly, the verse stating: and they shall be coupled together above the head of it, refers to the head of the board where it was cut away until the place of the upper ring of the bolts, for the incision in the board was to extend as far as the place of the ring. Now Scripture was not particular [concerning these upper parts of the boards] how they should be attached, whether with rings of silver or gold, fixed ones or moveable, or with connecting rods. But the Beraitha states that Moses made rings for that purpose. However, in line with the plain meaning of Scripture this verse refers only to the endboards.

אל הטבעת האחת, to the ring at the thickest point of the board forming the corner post. [we referred to this in verse 23 where these two boards are described as serving with one cubit in a westerly direction, completing the length of the structure and with the half cubit constituting its thickness closing the gap left on either side of the six boards forming the western wall of the Tabernacle. (compare Rash’bam there) Ed.] The bolts (bars) running alongside the walls were also inserted both in the lower level and the higher level (above the center bar) through the rings attached to these corner boards at the south-west and south-east of the Tabernacle respectively, ensuring that the structure was solid.

ויחדיו יהיו תמים אל ראשו, “and together shall they match at the top.” To the ring which linked two beams each together after an incision the thickness of the ring was grooved near the outer rim of each beam. Nachmanides adds that he does not understand why the Torah did not mention that there were a total number of 20 such golden rings just as there were 20 beams, and why the making of these grooves to accommodate the rings was not mentioned either. Perhaps, the expression אל הטבעת האחת, “into the one ring, with the definitive article ה in front of the word טבעת, ring, is a reference to the accepted method of builders to fit adjoining beams with such rings. The Torah uses a similar definite article when describing the bolts, בריחים, when it speaks about הבריח התיכון, “the central bolt.” Normally, seeing that we had not heard about such a bolt before, it would not qualify for the description: “the central bold.” The fact that people were familiar with how such structures were joined together, especially, portable ones such as the Tabernacle, enabled the Torah to condense its description of the details. The baraitha in Shabbat quoted above appears to understand the rings mentioned here as the ones affixed to the sides of the beams, the ones through which the בדים, staves were inserted to insure that the beams did not move in any direction. The same applies to the manner in which the hooks of the curtains in the courtyard of the Tabernacle are described, where we also would not be able to account for the use of the definitive article ה otherwise. [compare 27,10] According to this interpretation the Torah would not have mentioned the bolts affixed to the exterior sides of the beams at all.

The northern and southern sides. . . This is different from the preceding. The other planks were cut away in their width, for beauty’s sake, i.e., so that the sides of the sockets and of the sides of the planks would be even, and not jut out past one another. But for these [corner] planks it was an absolute necessity that they be [cut away] in their width, because it says: “Coupled together on the bottom.” (Re”m)

V. 24. תמים ,תואמים. Nach ר׳ יהודה (Schabbat 98 b) waren die Bretter unten eine Elle dick und nahmen allmählich an Dicke ab, sodass sie oben nur eine Fingerbreite an Dicke hatten. Dies wird hier besonders von den Winkelbrettern ausgesagt, dass sie unten תואמים: genau den Brettern der Hinter- und Seitenwand sich anschlossen, und תמים: in entsprechender Weise bis nach oben abnahmen. Die Breite der Wohnung war zehn Ellen, durch die sechs Bretter der Hinterwand waren nur neun Ellen geschlossen, es blieb also noch jederseits eine Lücke von 1/2 Elle und die Dicke der Seitenwände zu decken. Da die Winkelbretter wie alle übrigen 1 1/2 Elle breit, die Bretter überhaupt und so auch die Seitenwände unten eine Elle dick waren, so deckten die 1 1/2 Ellen der ganzen Breite der Winkelbretter unten die 1/2 Elle Lücke der Hinterwand und die Dicke der Seitenwände. Diese Dicke schwand aber bis zu einer Fingerbreite und musste daher demgemäß auch die Breite der Winkelbretter entsprechend abgeschnitten werden, דשפי להו כי תורין, sie erhielten die Form von Bergen, deren eine Seite senkrecht und die andere schräg hinangeht. Demzufolge drückte das תמים für die Winkelbretter eine zwiefache Kürzung in die Breite und Dicke aus. Nach ר׳ נחמיה blieb sich aber die Dicke der Bretter in der ganzen Höhe gleich und das תמים hieße nicht "abnehmend", sondern stellte die Forderung, daß die Bretter "ganz", aus einem Stücke, nicht zusammengesetzt sein sollen. — טבעת. Es ist zweifelhaft, ob nur jederseits das Winkelbrett mit dem ihm anstoßenden Seitenbrett oben durch einen Ring zusammengehalten wurden, oder diese Verbindung durch Ringe bei allen Brettern stattfand.

ויהיו תואמים מלמטה, “they shall be matching at the bottom” Rashi writes as follows on this phrase; “all the planks shall be flush at the bottom, so that the thickness of the edges of the two sockets should not form a gap to distance them from one another” (the planks). The corner planks of the southwestern part of the Tabernacle as well as the one at the northeastern corner had to be worked in such a way that they did not protrude into the interior space of the Tabernacle. According to our author, the words: “northern and southern,” belong further down in his commentary, and he meant to say that the top of the corner plank in the western row was inserted into the ring. When Rashi wrote that the ring was in the thickness of the plank, he means: in the thickness of the western plank. When you give this some thought, you will realise that that ring was also inserted at the same time into the top of the plank at a ninety degree angle to it.
אל הטבעת האחד, “into the one ring.” According to Rashi, every plank was cut away a little at the top along its width, two cuts on its two sides to contain the thickness of a ring.

ויחדו יהיו תמים AND THEY SHALL BE COUPLED TOGETHER — תמים has the same meaning here as תאמים in the phrase immedialely preceding.

Whether they were fixed. . . I.e., whether the rings were fixed to one of the planks which were joined together by the rings. Nachalas Yaakov writes: This is as opposed to the rings into which the bars were inserted, as mentioned in v. 29. Those rings were fixed, as it says in Shabbos 98.

על ראשו ABOVE THE HEAD OF IT — i. e. of each board.

The top of the corner plank. . . Explanation: the one-amoh [thickness of] the last plank [on the northern wall] meets up with the width of the [western wall’s] northernmost plank. And so on the south. Therefore, the ring placed in the thickness of the last plank on the northern wall was inserted into the top of the [northern] corner plank of the western side. And similarly for the southern wall.

אל הטבעת האחת INTO ONE RING — Each board had on the top two semi-circular incisions, one on each end of its breadth, tallying with the thickness of the ring which was to be inserted into it. They passed it (the board) into the same ring into which the next board had been passed (see illustration); Thus it (one board) joined close to the board next to it. I do not know however whether these rings were fixed to the boards or whether they were loose (not screwed down). In the case of the end-board the ring was inserted into the incisions made in the thickness of the north and south board respectively, and the top of the board which was in the west row adjacent to it was passed into it also. Thus the two pairs of walls (the western with the southern and northern respectively) were held together.

The plank at the end of the northern side. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is written יהיה , which is an extra word. Perforce, the phrase of “So must it be done with the two planks” is a separate phrase, and teaches: just as all the planks have two cut-outs on top, for the rings, so shall it be with the two end planks — i.e., the end plank of the northern side, and the adjacent plank of the western side. Similarly, the phrase of “Which are at the corners” is a separate phrase, and teaches that the same is done with both corners: the north-west corner, and the south-west corner. In this manner, all the planks are joined with each other.

כן יהיה לשניהם THUS SHALL IT BE FOR THEM BOTH — for the two end-boards; e. g., for the board at the end of the north side and for the adjacent board in the western wall; and thus shall it be at both corners.

והיו שמנה קרשים AND THEY SHALL BE EIGHT BOARDS — These are the same boards mentioned above (vv. 22—23): “Thou shalt make six boards” … “and two boards shalt thou make for the corners”; consequently there were eight boards in the western row. The following is stated in that Mishna (paragraph) in the Boraitha dealing with “The structure of the Tabernacle” which treats of the method of arranging the boards of the Tabernacle: they made the sockets hollow, and cut away the board at the bottom, a quarter of its width being left on one side and a quarter on the other side, the portion cut away in the middle being one half its width. Thus they made for it (the board) two tenons like two חמוקין — I think the correct reading is, “like two חווקין” i. e. like two rungs of a ladder set at some distance one from the other. These were planed down so as to fix into the hollow of the socket just as a rung which is fixed into the hole in the ladder’s upright. This is the meaning of משלבות, viz., made like a rung (שליבה). They fixed them (the two tenons) into the two sockets as it says, (v. 19) “two sockets [under one board for its two tenons] and two sockets [under another board for its two tenons]”. They cut out the board at the top a finger breadth on this side and a finger breadth on that side and put them (two semicircular projecting pieces on two adjacent boards) into one golden ring in order that they (the boards) should not fall apart, as it says, “and they shall be coupled together beneath, [and they shall be coupled together above].” Thus the Mishna; its explanation I have set forth above following the order of the verses.

והיו שמונה קרשים, “there shall be eight beams, etc.” Two of the eight beams overlapped with the beams forming the long sides of the Tabernacle, one at the southern end and one at the northern end. There were therefore six beams left which formed the western wall without any part of them serving as extensions of the long walls. This is what was meant by verse 22 ולירכתי המשכן תעשה ששה קרשים, “and for the end of the Tabernacle you are to construct 6 beams. This verse reveals a mystical dimension. Seeing that the Shechinah which is situated in the west is composed of 6 extremities, the west is referred to as ים in order to allude to this fact. The west is known as ים, “ocean” because the ocean is a collection point for all the waters just as the Shechinah is a collection point for all the directions of the globe from the farthest extremities.
The order of the four geographical directions of the world in the celestial entourage, מרכבה, are: the three patriarchs of the world (Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov), and David. South ranks first as Avraham was the first of the patriarchs, and it is written of him that Avraham journeyed southwards to the land of the south (Genesis 20,1). This is followed by north, as Yitzchak made a supreme effort at the time he was bound on the altar. This is followed by east seeing it is written of Yaakov that the sun shone for him (Genesis 32,32), and his son Joseph has also been compared to the sun (Genesis 37,9). Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 84,11) have said quoting Yaakov: “who told this one (Joseph) that my name is “sun?” West is the סוף, the end; it is the harp on which David played which used to play all by itself on occasion (Berachot 3). This direction was called ים, i.e. the sea known as ים האחרון, the westernmost sea. In order to allude to these four great men the directions of the earth have been identified with these people through their names.

The planks were cut out at the bottom. . . Explanation: The bottom of the plank was cut out in a way that left intact one-quarter of the [width of the] plank on one side, and the same on the other side. And the cut-out part in the middle was one-half of the [width of the] plank. [Then, the one-quarters on the sides were partially cut out, to form the pegs]. For otherwise, [if Rashi meant to cut away one-quarter of the plank on each side, and also to cut away one-half in the middle,] nothing would remain from the width of the plank. And what then does Rashi mean by, “Thereby forming two pegs that were similar to two legs”?

בריחים are BOLTS, as the Targum translates it: עברין; in old French esparres.

בריחים חמשה, there would be five rings attached to each of the boards (planks) from the outside in order to slip the bolts or bars through them. In addition, in order to accommodate the בריח התיכון, the central bolt, each plank had to be hollowed where the hole was drilled to insert the central bolt therein.. As a result of all this the silver sockets at the bottom, the outside and interior bolts higher up and the clasps joining the planks together at the top, made for a solid structure once it had been assembled. According to the plain meaning of the text there were actually three bolts which qualify for the description בריח התיכון, “the central bolt.” One of them ran from north to south, and the other two ran from east to west parallel to each other on the two long walls of the Tabernacle. Seen in such a way, the Tabernacle was kept solid by the manner in which the corner planks were fitted to each other. This was achieved by the fact that the central bolts entered holes drilled from two directions in these two corner planks. According to the view of our sages (Shabbat 98) there was only one “central” bolt, and it described two turns when negotiating the two 90 degree turns at the northwest and southwest corners of the structure.

Each section being one fourth. . . [You might ask:] Why did Rashi divide it into three sections, [and say, “Placed at three equidistant places”]? He could have divided it [more simply]: from the top of the plank to the top bar is like from the top bar to the middle bar. And from the middle bar to the bottom bar is like from the bottom bar to the bottom of the plank — thus dividing it into four sections. [The answer is:] Both sides of the top bar are equal. From the top of the plank to the top bar is like from top bar to the middle bar. Therefore, these sides are considered as belonging to the top bar. Similarly, both sides of the middle bar are equal. From the middle bar to the top bar is like from the middle bar to the bottom bar. Therefore, these sides are considered as belonging to the middle bar. Similarly, the sides of the bottom bar are equal. From it to the middle bar is like from it to the bottom. Therefore, they are considered as belonging to it. That is why Rashi divided into three sections and not four. (Re”m)

ועשית בריחים, “you shall make bolts;” according to Rashi, these bolts were to be attached to the outside of the planks in three rows spread over the height of ten cubits which was their height. Seeing that the Torah had spoken of 5 plus five plus five bolts, Rashi means that they were not each as long as the entire combined length of the planks in each direction, but were inserted through the rings holding the bolts from each end, being 15 cubits long each. There were therefore 4 bolts along the upper half of the long wall, and 4 bolts along the lower part of that wall, and 4 bolts along the western wall (which was 12 cubits wide on the outside.) The bolt in the middle, described as הבריח התיכון, “the bolt running centrally all around was long enough to traverse the holes drilled in each plank so that it could go in at the eastern end of the northern wall and come out at the eastern end of the southern wall, (describing a u shaped path.) Since the latter was about 70 cubits plus long, it was equivalent to three of the other bolts. We have examples of how to fasten sections of parchment to one another in a Torah scroll, where the length of the section from top to bottom is sewn at intervals of approximately one third from the top three times, or when the land of Israel is divided into three parts for the purpose of where to position the cities of refuge for people who had killed unintentionally and were afraid of a family member of the deceased wishing to kill him as an act of retribution. (Compare Talmud, Megillah folio 19, or Makkot 9)

חמשה לקרשי צלע המשכן FIVE FOR THE BOARDS OF THE ONE SIDE OF THE TABERNACLE — The five were really only three, but the upper and the lower bolts were each composed of two pieces, the one reaching to the middle of the wall from one side and the other reaching to the middle of the wall from the other side, the one passing through the outermost ring from one side and the other passing through the outermost ring from the other side, until, passing through all the intermediate rings, they met one against each other. Thus the upper and lower bolts were two which were made up of four. As to the middle bolt its length was equal to that of the entire wall passing from one end of the wall to the other end, for it is said, “And the middle bolt etc. shall reach from extremity to extremity.” This was therefore in one piece, and so we have the five of which this passage speaks. For the upper and lower bolts had rings on the boards into which were to be inserted two rings for each board. The bolts were משלשים i. e. placed at three equidistant points along the ten cubits that formed the height of the board, thus dividing the height into four equal portions, — one portion extending from the upper ring to the top of the board, another from the lower ring to the bottom, each portion being a quarter of the board’s height, and the other two portions were between the rings (from one ring to the central bolt and from there to the other ring). This was done in order that all the rings in one row should be exactly opposite one another so that the bolt could be easily inserted. The middle bolt, however, had no rings, but the) wards were grooved right through their thickness and it (the middle bolt) passed through them by way of these grooves which were exactly opposite one another (all in one straight line). This is the meaning of what is stated, “[and the middle bolt] in the midst of the boards.” The upper two and the lower two bolts on the north and south side were each 15 cubits long, whilst the middle bolt was 30 cubits long. That is what Scripture means by saying of this bolt that it shall reach “from extremity to extremity” — from east to west. Of the five bolts on the west side the length of the two upper and the two lower ones was each six cubits whilst the middle one hade its length twelve cubits corresponding to the aggregate width of the eight boards (each of which was one cubit and a half). This is how it is explained in the Boraitha treating of the construction of the Tabernacle.

VV. 28 u. 29. תיכון ,והברית התיכון heißt in der Regel das Mittlere, nicht das Innere, so האשמורת התיכונה (Richter 7, 19), daher die Beifügung בתוך הקרשים, Die anderen vier Riegel jederseits liefen an der Oberfläche der Bretter durch goldene Ringe und unter einer goldenen Überhäusung. Der mittlere Riegel lief aber unsichtbar im Innern der zu diesem Ende durchbohrten Bretter, und während die anderen Riegel nur jederseits bis zur Mitte reichten, zwei oben und zwei unten, ging der mittlere und innere Riegel מן הקצה אל הקצה von einem Ende der Wand zum andern, also durch alle zehn Bretter. Ja, nach Schabbat 98 b war nur ein mittlerer und innerer Riegel, der wunderbarer Weise in einem Stücke durch die beiden Seitenwände und die Hinterwand ging und so die ganze Wohnung wahrhaft als Einheit zusammenhielt.

בתוך הקרשים, within the planks. Seeing that the other bolts were fastened to the golden outside of the planks and therefore were visible to the eye, the centre bolt which was fastened to the wood underneath the golden overlay, and therefore invisible to the naked eye, was described as “inside the planks.”

בתים לבריחם FOR PLACES FOR THE BOLTS — The rings which you shall make on them (the boards) shall serve as receptacles into which the bolts shall be inserted.

ואת טבעותיהם, it is customary for bolts to be inserted through rings unless the Torah would explain that it was not so, as in the case of the central bolt which was not fastened to the outside of the boards at all but inside of them as explained in verse 28.

He fastened them near the rings. . . Explanation: the cane sections did not cover the rings, but reached from ring to ring. Therefore, each plank needed one [set of] half canes [above and below], since each plank had two rings.

וצפית את הבריחם זהב AND THOU SHALT OVERLAY THE BOLTS WITH GOLD —This does not mean that the gold should be attached to the bolts for there was no overlay on them, but on the boards there were fixed a kind of two gold staples something like the two longitudinal sections of a hollow cane. These were fixed close to each ring on both sides of it. The length of the two staples filled up the space along the width of the board, one extending from the ring in this direction, the other from it (the ring) again in the other direction. Thus the bolts appeared to be covered with gold when they were lying on the boards. These bolts formed a projection on the walls outside. Thus neither the rings nor the staples were visible within the interior of the Tabernacle, but the entire surface of the wall within was unbroken.

והקמת את המשכן AND THOU SHALT SET UP THE TABERNACLE — after it is completed set it up. ...

והקמתה את המשכן, "And you shall erect the Tabernacle, etc." According to Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, Moses was to relay these instructions to the people described earlier as חכמי לב. Rabbi ibn Ezra considered the totality of the commandment to construct (and erect) the Tabernacle and concluded that just as all the directives which had been given to Moses in direct speech did not mean that Moses personally was to carry them out, so this commandment too was addressed to the people who were to perform the work of construction. I do not agree with Rabbi ibn Ezra's premise. All the directives given to Moses in direct speech meant that only he himself was to carry them out unless G'd repeated the instructions and said specifically that others should execute the directive. In those instances the reason G'd addressed Moses himself in the first instance was that inasmuch as Moses would delegate the work he himself would receive credit for it as if he himself had perfomed all the details personally. Although in our portion the directive about all the details of the building of the Tabernacle were addressed to Moses, the Torah repeats them in פרשת כי תשא when Betzalel, Oholiov, and all the חכמי לב, men of understanding heart, were put in charge of supervising the execution of all these plans. In 31,6 the Torah specifically charges these people with carrying out "all that I have commanded you (Moses)." This is the Torah's way of making clear that Moses personally was not involved in the construction of any of these parts. Seeing that G'd's instructions to Moses to erect the Tabernacle were not repeated, however, means that only he himself was charged with that task. In fact it was Moses who personally erected the Tabernacle as we know from 40,18 where the Torah reports Moses as personally erecting the Tabernacle. This is what our sages say in Shemot Rabbah 52. Any other interpretation is to be disregarded.

After it is completed, erect it! I.e., this is a command to Moshe to erect the mishkon himself. [Alternatively,] the Nachalas Yaakov (citing Sifri) says it means: When all the work of the mishkon and all its vessels is completed, erect it at one time. Do not erect each part as it is completed, rather, [erect it] all at once.

V. 30 והקמת וגו׳, siehe zu V. 6.

הראית בהר This must be translated: WHICH THOU WILT before then HAVE BEEN SHOWN IN THE MOUTAIN — (The verb is future perfect). For later on I shall instruct thee and show thee the way to erect it.

Before this. . . Meaning: before it is erected. Hashem had not yet shown it to Moshe, so properly speaking it should say, “. . .According to its rules as will be shown to you on the mountain.” Nevertheless, the verse is in the past tense form because when the mishkon will be erected, He will already have shown it to Moshe on the mountain.

פרכת is a term denoting a partition; in the language of the Sages (in Rabbinical Hebrew) פרגוד is something which separates the king from the people (Berakhot 18b).

פרכת, according to the context this was a divider between the two interior sections.

V. 31.פרך ,פרכת, — verwandt mit פרק: trennen, wovon פרק: Glied und מפרקת der Nacken, das Genick, — heißt ebenfalls brechen, daher:פרך Kraft und Widerstand brechende Strenge. פרכת, daher: Scheidung, Scheidevorhang, ein Vorhang, durch welchen Räume "gegliedert", abgeteilt werden, jedoch andererseits noch, wie die Glieder eines Ganzen, im Zusammenhang bleiben. Diese Bestimmung als הבדלה, Scheidung, ist V. 33 ausdrücklich ausgesprochen. Kap. 29, 34 wird es auch פרכת המסך genannt, so auch Kap. 40. 3 וסכת על הארן את הפרכת und V. 21 וישם את פרכת המסך ויסך על ארון העדות, somit hat der Scheidevorhang zugleich eine "deckende", schützende Bestimmung. Daher (Sukka 7 b) die Bestimmung: דניכוף ביה פורתא דמחזי כסכך, dass das פרכת nicht nur perpendikulär niederhing, und somit מחיצה, eine Scheidewand bildete, sondern zugleich mit dem oberen Teile eine horizontale Neigung nach innen machte und so gleichzeitig als Dachung für den inneren Raum, den Raum des Zeugnisses, erschien.

תכלת וארגמן BLUE PURPLE, AND RED PURPLE — every material was intertwined in each strand by six threads (Yoma 71b).

מעשה חושב, the work of an artisan known as a weaver. This is similar to the word אורג in verse 27,9, which, according to Rashi, means embroiderer. The difference is that weaving is part of the cloth, whereas embroidering is decorating the cloth with pictures, etc., on top of the cloth. The work is done with a needle.

מעשה חשב THE WORK OF AN ARTIST — I have already explained (v. 9) that this is a weaving on the two surfaces, the designs on the two sides not being similar to one another.

כרבים CHERUBIM — i. e. he shall make on it figures of different creatures.

ארבעה עמודי FOUR COLUMNS inserted into four sockets. Hooks were fixed upon them, bent upward, upon each of which to hang a pole round which the top of the partition veil was wrappped. The hooks are the ווים mentioned in the text, for they were made in the form of the letter וי"ו. The partition veil was ten cubits long corresponding to the breadth of the Tabernacle and ten cubits wide as was the height of the boards. It was hung at one-third of the length of the Tabernacle from the western side so that from it there should be inward (i. e. to that side) ten cubits and from it outward (to the entrance) twenty cubits. It follows therefore that the Holy of Holies was ten by ten cubits, and this agrees with what is said, (v. 33) “and thou shalt hang up the partition veil under the catches” that coupled the two sections of the curtaining of the Tabernacle together. For the breadth of one section was twenty cubits and when it was laid over the top of the Tabernacle from the entrance to the west, its end with the catches came at two-thirds of the length of the Tabernacle (20 cubits), exactly where we have stated that the veil was hanging. The second section covered the other third of the length of the Tabornacle (10 cubits) and what was left over (10 cubits) hung behind to cover the boards (which were 10 cubits in height; cf. Rashi on v. 5).

וויהם, something such as a fork supported by pillars at the bottom. They were attached in such a way that the edge of the dividing curtain could be inserted in them from above.

The paroches was ten amohs long. . . Re”m writes: I do not know why Rashi places its length along the mishkon’s width, and its width along the mishkon’s height. Why not the other way around, with its width to the mishkon’s width, and its length to [the planks’] length? Furthermore, how can the paroches have a long side and a wide side, when it is square? I do not know the place [of Rashi’s source]. Nachalas Yaakov answers: It seems to me that the long side of the images on the paroches was along the mishkon’s width. The direction of the images determines what Rashi calls “length.”

על ארבעה עמודי שטים, “on four pillars made of acacia wood.” These pillars were freestanding, across the width of the Tabernacle they did not bother anyone seeing that only the High Priest one day of the year, the Day of Atonement would walk past them four times. The five pillars at the eastern entrance of the Tabernacle, however, were positioned differently, two each near the northern and southern side, and the fifth in the centre, so that there was plenty of room to walk on either side of the pillar in the middle, as the priests would enter and leave the Sanctuary frequently. If all these pillars had been spaced at equal distances from one another this would have been inconvenient for the priests. An alternate interpretation, (source unknown) the reason why there were only four pillars supporting the dividing curtain, whereas there were five such pillars supporting the curtain at the entrance of the Tabernacle, is that they were positioned between the planks of the Tabernacle on either side, so that these planks could be used as additional supports for the staves from which the curtain was suspended. These staves rested (also) on top of the plank to the north and south side respectively, so that actually the dividing curtain was supported by six pillars. The curtain at the entrance did not have parts of the planks supporting it. [According to the opinion that the dividing curtain was actually a double curtain so that the High Priest had to walk between it, it would have been much heavier, and therefore in need of stronger support. Ed.] The two outer pillars at the entrance, actually functioned as if an addition to the planks, but not joined to them. Our author prefers the first interpretation. Our author queries that if that interpretation were correct what was the purpose of the pillars that Rashi speaks about? The planks would have been sufficient to support the staves for the curtain.

AND THOU SHALT BRING IN THITHER WITHIN THE VEIL THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY. He did not now command Moses to do it in this particular order, to hang up the veil under the clasps and only afterwards to bring in the ark inside the veil, for the commandment now does not refer to the erection of the Tabernacle but to the making thereof. Similarly, And thou shalt put the ark-cover upon the ark of the Testimony in the most holy place,²²⁷Verse 34. does not mean that he is to put the ark-cover upon the ark of the Testimony when the ark has already been brought into the Holy of Holies [screened by the veil].²²⁸On the contrary, at the charge for the erection of the Tabernacle it is said, And thou shalt put therein the ark of the Testimony (further 40:3), and then thou shalt screan the ark with the veil (ibid.). It is so explained in the Tur based upon Ramban’s words further on. But the purport of the verse is to command Moses to hang up the veil under the clasps in order that the ark be there within the veil, and the veil will thus divide between the holy place and the most holy. Similarly He says, And thou shalt put the ark-cover upon the ark of the Testimony in the most holy place,²²⁷Verse 34. in order to inform us that the ark-cover with its cherubim on the ark should all be there in the Holy of Holies mentioned, which means within the veil. But when He came to command the erection of the Tabernacle He said, And thou shalt put therein the ark of the Testimony, and afterwards, thou shalt screen the ark with the veil.²²⁹Further, 40:3. Similarly, at the actual construction it is said, and he put the ark-cover above the ark. And he brought the ark into the Tabernacle, and afterwards, he set up the veil of the screen.²³⁰Ibid., 20-21.
Tetzaveh

ונתתה את הפרכת…והבאת שמה מבית לפרכת, "You shall hang up the curtain…and bring it within the curtain, etc." This appears to teach that the dividing curtain was to be hung prior to the Holy Ark being brought inside the Holy of Holies. In 40,3 G'd said to Moses: "You shall place the ark of testimony there and you shall cover the ark with the curtain." This appears to mean that the ark was already inside the Holy of Holies when the curtain would separate it from the Sanctuary proper. Moses also appears to have acted in accordance with the instructions in chapter 40 seeing that we read in 40,20: "And he took and put the testimony in the ark and set the staves on the ark and put the ark cover above, upon the ark."

ונתתה את הפרכת תחת הקרשים, under the golden clasps. They were attached at the end of the 20 cubits of the curtains which had been spread out over the entrance of the Tabernacle. The length of the Tabernacle was 30 cubits so that the location of these clasps joining two sections of curtain totaling 40 cubits would be exactly 20 cubits from the entrance, at the point where the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies would be divided. From this point westward till the rear wall of the Tabernacle there would be ten cubits, the other 10 cubits of these curtains hanging down behind the western wall. [We must not forget that the curtains were sewn together lengthwise, whereas they were draped across the interior of the Tabernacle width-wise. Ed.]

והבאת שמה מבית לפרוכת את ארון העדות, “and you shall bring there, beyond the dividing curtain, the ark housing the Tablets of Testimony.” Moses was not commanded at this time to do this, i.e. to place the dividing curtain underneath the golden clasps, קרסים, and only subsequently to bring the Ark into the Holy of Holies, beyond where the dividing curtain had been hung. This is not the time and place when the Torah would issue directives for matters other than the ones that concerned the construction of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. In light of this, also the words ונתת את הכפורת על ארון העדות בקודש הקדשים, (verse 34) “you are to place the lid on the ark of Testimony in the Holy of Holies,” are not to be understood as to the order in which the Tabernacle would be assembled. On the contrary, when the directives for assembling the Tabernacle were issued, the Torah specifically directs that the lid be placed on the Ark only after it had already been placed in the Holy of Holies. (Exodus 40,3) This is also repeated when the assembly of the dividing curtain is described in 39,33-38 clearly shows that the furnishings were installed in the Tabernacle before the respective curtains were hung. Therefore, the meaning of the words in our verse is that it is mandatory to arrange for the dividing curtain to be beneath the clasps holding it in place so that at all times the Holy Ark would be within the Holy of Holies. The sole function of the dividing curtain was to separate two domains of differing degrees of holiness, i.e. the Sanctuary, היכל, and the קדשי קדשים, the Holy of Holies. It was important for us to know that the lid of the Ark, כפורת, with its cherubs mounted on it, the source from which G’d’s voice would address Moses, be completely within this Holy of Holies all times.

והבדילה הפרוכת לכם בין הקדש ובין קדש הקדשים , “and the dividing curtain shall separate for you between the Holy and between the Holy of Holies.” The Ark and the kapporet were beyond the dividing curtain in the Holy of Holies. During the period of the second Temple, the אבן השתיה, the stone covering the “navel of the earth” (Yuma 45) stood there in its place in the westernmost part of the Sanctuary. Beyond the dividing curtain but in front of the Ark (during most of the years of the first Temple) was kept the bottle of manna which had been filled by Aaron in the desert. They also kept a bottle of the anointing oil there as well as the staff of Aaron which had sprouted almonds after the suppression of the revolt of Korach (compare Yuma 37). The author claims that the garments of the High Priest were also stored there. The other furnishings of the tabernacle/Temple such as the table, the lampstand, and the golden altar, were kept in front of the dividing curtain in the part known as היכל. The table stood in the north, the lampstand in the south, and the golden altar of incense was between the two, slightly closer to the entrance of the Tabernacle (Yuma 33).

V. 33. תחת הקרסים. Die zehn Cherubimteppiche der Wohnung waren, wie oben VV. 3—6 beschrieben, je fünf und fünf zu einer Teppichverbindung vereinigt, die sodann durch Schleifen und Spangen mit einander verbunden wurden. Die Cherubimteppichwohnung bestand daher aus zwei mit einander verbundenen Hälften, jede Hälfte maß in der Breite zwanzig Ellen. Die hintere, westliche Hälfte, hatte nach ר׳ יהודה die zehn Ellen Höhe der Hinterwand (nach ר׳ נחמיה neun Ellen der Hinterwand, eine Elle der Bretterdicke) und zehn Ellen des westlichen Teils der Wohnung zu decken. Auf der Grenzlinie dieser westlichsten zehn Ellen befanden sich somit die קרסים, und indem unter diesen Verbindungsspangen der Scheidevorhang niederging, teilte derselbe die Wohnung in einen inneren westlichen Raum von zehn Ellen Länge, Breite und Höhe, den Raum des קדש הקדשים, und einen ostwärts davor liegenden Raum von zwanzig Ellen Länge, zehn Ellen Breite und ebenso vieler Höhe, den Raum des קדש. — Bedeutsam heißt es והבדילה הפרכת לכם, und wird damit die Scheidung nicht sowohl als eine absolute, als vielmehr als eine uns zum Bewusstsein zu bringende und uns gegenüber aufrecht zu haltende hervorgehoben. Nicht zu übersehen ist ferner, dass

Apparently we must resolve this contradiction by understanding our verse here as meaning that the curtain should be completed before the ark was to be placed inside the Holy of Holies. The curtain was not to be hung, however, before Moses had placed the ark of testimony inside the square provided for the Holy of Holies. In our verse no mention is made at all of the ark being introduced into the Holy of Holies. Our verse deals only with the eventual function of the dividing curtain, namely to separate the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. This is why there was no need to speak about the order in which these furnishings were arranged inside the Tabernacle.

V. 34. das Aufhängen des Scheidevorhangs früher erwähnt wird, vor dem Legen des Cherubimdeckels auf die Zeugnislade, diese Scheidung somit den כפרה und seinen ganzen bedeutsamen Inhalt bedingt. Bei der Ausführung Kap. 40, 20 u. 21 wird die mit dem כפרת bedeckte Lade erst in das משכן gebracht und dann die deckende Scheidewand gezogen.

ושמת את השלחן AND THOU SHALT PUT THE TABLE [WITHOUT THE PARTITION VEIL] — The table was in the north, distant from the north wall two cubits and a half. The candelabrum was in the south, distant from the south wall two cubits and a half. The golden altar was opposite the space which was between the table and candelabrum drawn back slightly towards the east (cf. Rashi on Exodus 30:6). All these three were placed in that part which extended from one-half the length of the Tabcrnacle (not including the Holy of Holies) inward. How so? The length of the Tabernacle from the entrance to the partition veil was 20 cubits, and the altar, the table and the candelabrum were distant from the entrance in a western direction 10 cubits(Yoma 33b).

ושמת את השלחן מחוץ לפרכת, after the Ark had been placed inside the Tabernacle. Betzalel arranged that the dividing curtain would be between the Holy of Holies containing the Ark and the other furnishings, i.e. the Table and the Menorah. The Table would be on the right side and the Menorah on the left [viewed from the perspective of someone entering the sanctuary. Ed.] Proverbs 3,16 refers to this when writing אורך ימים בימינה בשמאולה עושר וכבוד, “length of days is in her right hand, in her left hands riches and honour.”

V. 35. Der Raum des קדש vor dem פרכת, zwanzig Ellen lang und zehn Ellen breit, zerfiel seiner Bestimmung nach ebenfalls in zwei Räume von zehn Kubikellen. Innerhalb der westlichen zehn Ellen standen Tisch und Leuchter und zwar an der Nordseite, 2 1/2 Ellen von der Seitenwand und innerhalb der vordern fünf Ellen der Tisch, und ebenso ihm gegenüber an der Südseite der Leuchter. Zwischen beiden in der Mitte, vorgerückt, auf der westlichen Grenzlinie der vorderen östlichen zehn Ellen, stand der goldene Rauchaltar, dessen Herstellung erst Kap. 30, 1 ff. angeordnet ist. (Siehe Joma 33a und Jalkut פקודי).

ושמת את השולחן, “you shall place the table, etc.;” in the middle; seeing that the Torah had written that the candlestick should be positioned opposite the table, the golden altar had to be positioned in the centre of the Sanctuary part of the Tabernacle. Both the Candlestick and the table were slightly to the north and south of the centre and at the same time further west, closer to the dividing curtain. Compare Talmud Yuma folio 33.

ואת המנורה נוכח השולחן, “and the candlestick was facing the table.” This was in order to illuminate the surface of the table. This has been spelled out in Numbers 8,2.

על צלע המשכן תימנה, “on the southern side of the Tabernacle near the southern wall.” Light always emanates from the south, as does the light of the sun whose orbit proceeds in a southerly direction after it rises in the morning.

ועשית מסך AND THOU SHALT MAKE A SCREEN — a curtain which formed a protecting screen in front of the entrance. the word מסך being of the same meaning as the verb in (Job 1. 10) “Hast Thou not hedged (שכת) him about?” It is an expression denoting protecting.

מסך לפתח האהל, a place where there is no curtain, i.e. only half a curtain of 2 cubits which has been folded over hangs down from above.

V. 36. Während das פרכת ganz so wie die Cherubimteppiche מעשה חשב ,כרובים war, war der Vorhang vor dem Eingang des Zeltes zwar von denselben Farben und Stoffen, aber nicht כרובים und nur מעשה רקם (siehe zu V. 1).

מעשה רקם THE WORK OF AN EMBROIDERER — The designs were made on it by needle-work; as were the figures on one side so were the figures on the other side.

מסך, the construction of this word which means “screen” relative to the word מסיך, “something which screens,” (verbal mode), is similar to the word מגין, “something which protects,” to the word מגן (noun) “shield.” As a result of this consideration, even when this noun is used in the construct mode when we would expect the vowel kametz to be replaced by a chataf patach, i.e. masach, it does not change as the noun is really a derivative of the verb. This is not so in nouns such as דבר, or בקר, where the construct mode changes the vowel kametz to devar and bekar, respectively, seeing that both these words are nouns in their own right, are not derivatives of verbs. Examples are found in Numbers 4,25, as well as in Samuel II 1,21. Compare also Numbers 7,88 as well as Deuteronomy 15,2.

Das .משכן

רקם — This word is the name of the workman (an embroiderer), not the name of the trade (embroidery). The Targum therefore should be עובד צַיָּר “work of an embroiderer,” not עובד צִיּוּר “work of embroidery.” The size of the screen was the same as the size of the partition veil, viz., 10 cubits by 10 cubits.

Vergegenwärtigen wir uns die, nach den in diesem Kapitel VV. 1-—37 gegebenen Anordnungen, um die in dem vorigen Kapitel beschriebenen "Geräte" hergestellte "Wohnung" so erblicken wir, vor dem Eingange, in Osten, stehend, im westlichsten Hintergrund, dem Allerheiligsten, die Zeugnislade, vor ihr, im heiligen Raume, zur Nordseite, den Tisch, ihm gegenüber zur Südseite den Leuchter, שולחן ארון מנורה, alle drei umstanden von auf silbernen Füßen ruhenden, goldbekleideten und durch schittimholz-goldene Riegel sichtbar und unsichtbar innig vereinten Schittimstämmen gedeckt und umgeben von weiß-doppelrot-blauen Cherubim-Teppichen, die im Norden, Westen und Süden unsichtbar hinter die Schittimwände niederwallen, sichtbar nur in der Höhe die Decke bilden, und vor der Lade, zwischen ihr und dem Tisch und Leuchter, scheidend und schützend niedersteigen.

Wie spricht sich dies alles im Zusammenhang mit der bereits von den "Geräten" gewonnenen Bedeutung aus?

Zuerst diese "Geräte" selber, שולחן ,ארון und מנורה, in der Beziehung, die sie zu einander durch die ihnen angewiesene Stellung gewinnen. Es ist der ארון, der rechts die Lampe und links den Tisch gewährt, es ist das Gottesgesetz, das, als "תורה" (von הרה) als "Lebenskeim" mit ewig fortschreitendem Wachsen und ewig goldreiner Festigkeit zur Erfüllung und Wahrung aufgenommen, mit seiner Rechten, also in erster Linie, den ewigen Lichtbaum des Geistes erzeugt, gleichzeitig aber mit seiner Linken den auf dem Grunde der Reinheit gewonnenen, von den Stützen des Rechtes getragenen, sich in Bruderliebe bewährenden, zum göttlichen Wohlgefallen sich vollendenden Tisch des Wohlstandes deckt, — ארך ימים בימינה בשמאלה עשר וכבוד. —

Wo aber, was im Menschen an "Holz und Gold", an Entwicklungsfähigkeit und Festigkeit vorhanden ist, sich hingibt, um ארון der תורה zu werden, um das göttliche Gesetz, den Willen Gottes für die Menschen- und Volksbestimmung, als befruchtenden Lebenskeim in sich aufzunehmen; wo alles, was im Menschen an Entwicklungsfähigkeit und Festigkeit vorhanden ist, sich um diesen Lebenskeim als zu befruchtenden und zu entfaltenden Stoff mit rückhaltloser Hingebung schließt und daraus, und daraus allein den Baum des Geistes in der Mannigfaltigkeit seiner Einheit und in der Einheit seiner Mannigfaltigkeit zu Gott emporblühen, darauf und darauf allein den Tisch des Wohlstandes mit allen schützenden und beglückenden Genien der Reinheit, des Rechts und der Liebe zum göttlichen Wohlgefallen erbaut werden lassen will; wo so, was im Menschen an Entwicklungsfähigkeit und Festigkeit vorhanden ist, sich mit dem Ewigen und Göttlichen zu einem מקדש, zu einer Stätte des Heiligen, d. i. zu einer Stätte des Göttlichen und Ewigen auf Erden vermählen will: da läßt Gott die Cherubim seiner שכינה niedersteigen, den Kreis, der sich Ihm zum מקדש gestalten will, in umschränkender Auserwählung (יריעות) schützend und fördernd zu umgeben, in diesem besonderen Schutz und dieser besonderen Förderung seine besondere Gegenwart zu bekunden, und ein in Reinheit wurzelndes, aus Reinheit emporsprießendes, auf Reinheit stehendes, unsterbliches Fortblühen im Innern mit goldener Festigkeit nach außen verbindendes, in alle Vielheit einheitlich zusammenhaltendes Volksleben zu erzeugen, das, als die "goldumkleideten Zedernstämme auf silbernen Füßen", eben den irdischen Kreis bildet, der ewig das "Holz und das Gold" darbietet, aus welchem sich der "Tisch und der Leuchter und die Lade" zur Aufnahme des "Gesetzes" gestaltet, das dort als das Herz dieses lebendigen, von der Erde zum Himmel und von dem Himmel zur Erde sich ewig vollziehenden Kreislaufes ruht.

Es sind aber die Cherubim, die die Gottesgegenwart im Menschenkreise ankündigen, שש משזר תכלת וארגמן ותולעת שני sie tragen denselben Stoff und dieselben Farben entgegen, aus denen das in der hohenpriesterlichen Kleidung sich verkündende Ideal der Menschenvollendung sich gestaltet (siehe zu Kap. 28). Denn es ist eben in Gewährung, Schirmung und Segnung dieser ein vollendetes Menschendasein begründenden Elemente, dass sich die besondere Gegenwart Gottes im Menschenkreise bekundet, wie dies Wajikra. 26. 3 — 14; Dewarim 7, 12 —16 ausgesprochen. Darum ist die Darstellung dieser Cherubim aus dem Byssusfaden des reinen Pflanzen-, dem wollenen karmoisinroten Faden des animalischen, dem wollenen Purpurfaden des humanen und dem wollenen Faden der Himmelsbläue des göttlichen Elementes des Menschenwesens gewoben, und nur das, die hohepriesterliche Kleidung charakterisierende Element der edelsten, sittlichen Kraft, das Gold, fehlt in der Darstellung der Cherubim; denn sie ist das Einzige, das nicht von den Cherubim entgegengebracht wird, ist vielmehr das Einzige, das der Mensch und der Mensch allein zu dieser Gestaltung des Göttlichen auf Erden hinzu zu bringen hat — הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים.

Es sind aber die Fäden, aus welchen die Cherubim gewoben, "sechsdrähtig gegliedert" שש משזר (V.1). Wie "sieben" das mit dem Geschöpflichen verbündete unsichtbare Göttliche vergegenwärtigt, so ist "sechs" das Zeichen des "Geschöpflichen", und dieses Zeichen ist jedem Elemente auch der Cherubim aufgeprägt; denn nicht in göttlicher Selbstherrlichkeit, sondern als erschaffene Boten und Werkzeuge, als die Gottesnähe verkündende "Schöpfung" kündigen sie sich an.

Dürften wir es wagen, wir bemerkten noch folgendes. Vergegenwärtigen wir uns das gewobene Bild der Cherubim, so tritt das Rote, ארגמן ושני, überwiegend in ihnen hervor. Rot ist aber die Farbe des "Lebens", und charakterisiert somit die כרובים als חיות Jechesk. 10, 20). Aus vier Elementen ist das Bild der Cherubim gewoben, viergestaltig die Erscheinung der חיות. Erinnern wir, dass שור überwiegend die vegetative Natur unter den lebendigen Wesen charakterisiert (siehe zu Wajikra 11, 3), so ergibt sich als Parallele von selbst: נשר=תכלת ,אדם=ארגמן ,אריה= שני ,שור=שש.

Der von Gottes Cherubim schützend umschlossene Kreis des מקדש findet seine Darstellung in den in silbernen und auf silbernen Füßen ruhenden goldbekleideten Schittimstämmen. Diese stehen da als קדשים, zunächst abwehrend (גרש) nach außen alles Unheilige, dem die Seele des heiligen Kreises bildenden עדות Entfremdete, und als sein eigenstes Eigentum aufnehmend (מורשה ,ירש) das Gottes-Gesetzeszeugnis, und auf Grund der von diesem Gesetze gegebenen Basis der sittlichen Läuterung und Reinheit (אדני כסף) ein in ihr wurzelndes, aus ihr sprießendes, von ihr getragenes "baumgleich" fortwachsendes Leben ewig jugendlich frischer Entwicklung (siehe V. 15), innerhalb der von dem Ideal der höchsten Sittlichkeit gezogenen goldreinen Umschränkung entfaltend.

Irren wir nicht, so sind diese das Heiligtum umstehenden Zederstämme die Stämme des jüdischen Volkes, die das Gesetz und die von ihm gewahrten Ideale eines geistigen und materiellen Nationallebens zur Verwirklichung in ihre Mitte aufgenommen. Es ist da das עץ יוסף und das עץ יהודה. usw. (Jecheskeel 37, 16), es sind dies die Bäume, die שתולים בבית ד׳ בחצרות אלקינו יפריחו (Ps. 92, 14), die "im Hause Gottes gepflanzt, ihre Blüten in dem das Gotteshaus umgebenden Gesamtleben verwirklichen"; es sind dies die Volkesstämme, von denen ihr erster Führer gesungen: "du bringst sie heim, du pflanzest sie ein" auf dem Berg deines Erbes, an der Stätte, die du für dein Weilen auf Erden, Gott, hast bereitet, dem Heiligtum, Gott, das deine Hände gestiftet" (Schmot 15, 17); es sind dies "die Zelte Jakobs, die Wohnungen Israels", die der fremde Seher geschaut, "wie Gärten an dem Strom, wie Aholsbäume, die Gott gepflanzt, wie Zedern am Gewässer; das Wasser rieselt aus Gottes Eimer und seine Saat ist's an reicher Flut" (Bamidbar 24, 5—7); es ist dies der "Weinstock, den Gott von Mizrajim her versetzt, Völker vertrieb und ihn eingepflanzt", von dessen Schatten Berge bedeckt wurden, und dessen Zweige Gotteszedern (Ps. 80, 9 u. 11); es ist das die Gottespflanzung, von der die Blätter des Prophetenworts reden, und die einst sich zur Gottesverherrlichung — מטע ד׳ להתפאר — vollenden wird (Jes. 61, 3).

Wir glaubten früher, dass sich hiernach auch Zahl und Konstruktion dieser "Zedernstämme", die auch als Umwandlung des Heiligtums, דרך גדלתן, stehende Zedernbäume bleiben, עצי שטים עומדים (V. 15) erklären ließen; allein diese Meinung beruhte auf einem Irrtum. Die Bedeutung der Zahl der קרשים wäre noch zu suchen. Allein deren Bedeutung als die um das Heiligtum vereinigten Stämme des jüdischen Volkes ist gleichwohl aufrecht zu halten. Die Stämme hatten eine doppelte Verbindung. Äußerlich sichtbar waren sie jederseitig durch vier Riegel zusammengehalten. Unsichtbar, im Innern, schloss sie alle ein Riegel zur Einheit zusammen (VV. 26.—29). Vier Mütter und einen Vater hatten die Stämme des Jakob-Israel-Volkes. Jede Stammmutter bildet einen zusammenfügenden Riegel gemeinsamer Abstammung. Demgemäß treten die Stämme äußerlich, nach physischer, mütterlicher Abstammung in vier Gruppen auseinander. Allein, wie sie alle einem Vater entstammen, so bildet auch die von diesem Vater ererbte gemeinsame Jakob-Israel-Bestimmung, und der mit dieser Bestimmung ererbte Jakob-Jisrael-Geist den בריח התיכון בתוך הקרשים, den vermittelnden inneren Riegel, der alle die Stämme, in ihrer verschiedenen Charakterisierung, einheitlich, als שבטי ד׳, in wunderbarer Einheit innerlich zusammenschließt. Ein Geist und eine Kraft, ein Streben und eine Stärke lebt und strebt in ihnen allen, und hält sie für ewig um das gemeinsame Gottesheiligung brüderlich vereint. —

Sichtbar in der Höhe, unsichtbar hinter den Wandungen niedersteigend, schirmten und umgaben den das Gesetz und seine Heiligtümer umschließenden Kreis die Cherubim Des, von dem das Lied der Lieder 2, 9 singt: הנה זה עומד אחר כתלנו משגיח מן החלנות מציץ מן החרכים ,siehe, er weilt hinter unseren Wänden, schaut herein durch" die Fenster, blickt herein durch die Gitter"; sie steigen aber auch schützend und scheidend zwischen die Lade des Zeugnisses und den Tisch und den Leuchter nieder.

Die Cherubimumgebung der göttlichen Waltung in ihrer Ganzheit durch Teppiche in der Zahl der vollkommensten Ganzheit: zehn, dargestellt, zerfiel gleichwohl in zwei Teile, je fünf und fünf. Die Teile waren durch "starke Halter" verbunden, konnten gleichwohl von einander gelöst werden. Die Scheidung und Verbindung traf gerade an die Grenzlinie zwischen dem allerheiligsten Raum der Zeugnislade mit dem Cherubimdeckel und dem heiligen Raum des Tisches und Leuchters. Und eben auf dieser scheidenden und verbindenden Grenzlinie stiegen die Cherubim als deckendes und scheidendes פרוכת nieder, also, dass eventuell, wenn die Cherubimhülle des Lichtes und Leuchters von der des Zeugnisses sich löste, der Raum des Zeugnisses für sich allseitig von Cherubim umschlossen blieb.

Höchst bedeutsam spricht sich diese Scheidung und Verbindung aus:

So gewiss wie Israels Tisch und Leuchter, Israels Nationalwohlstand und Geistesentwicklung, nicht minder als das göttliche Gesetz und seine Bestimmung auf Erden unter dem besonderen Schutz der göttlichen Waltung stehen, ja ein Cherubimlager alle drei umgibt, so gewiss ist doch das göttliche Gesetz und seine Bestimmung auf Erden in erster Linie der Gegenstand der göttlichen Waltungsfürsorge, und nur insofern Israels Geist und Wohlstand nur aus dem Gesetze Quell und Regelung schöpft und nur der Verwirklichung des im Gesetzeszeugnis vergegenwärtigten Ideales dienet, nur insofern genießt auch Israels Geist und Wohlstand den besonderen Schutz der göttlichen Vorsehung. Darum ist dieses Ideal selber Israels "Leuchter und Tisch" gegenüber zu "decken und zu scheiden", dass Israels dem Gesetze zu verdankende geistige und materielle Blüte nicht einst gegen das Gesetz selber sich wende, sich als das Prius, als das Bedingende setze und "die Grenze überschreitend" die vermeintlichen Anschauungen des Geistes und die vermeintlichen Bedürfnisse der Wohlfahrt dem Gesetze alterierend, modifizierend, reformierend aufdränge; damit vielmehr das Gesetz als das von Gott "bezeugte", hoch aufgestellte Ideal aller Zeiten, ewig das "Gegebene" bleibe, aus welchem allein Israels Baum der geistigen Entwicklung Wurzel und Nahrung, Stoff und Kraft und Norm der Entfaltung, und in welchem allein Israels Tisch des Wohlstandes Basis und Dauer und beglückende Fülle zu gewinnen vermöge. Sollte je Israels "Tisch und Leuchter" in Gegensatz zur "Lade" treten, dann löst sich der Cherubimschutz zu Häupten des Tisches und Leuchters — Tisch und Leuchter werden preisgegeben, aber die Lade des Zeugnisses bleibt unter Cherubsumgebung geborgen, bis ein neues Geschlecht entsteht, das seinen Leuchter nur an dem Lichte des Zeugnisses anzünden und seinen Tisch nur auf der Basis des Zeugnisses erbauen will. — Nicht die Existenz des Gesetzes, die Existenz der geistigen und materiellen Wohlfahrt der Nation ist gefährdet, wenn sie mit dem einen oder dem andern in Gegensatz zum Gesetze tritt. —

Das ist die ernste Bedeutung des zwischen Lade und Tisch und Leuchter niederwallenden Cherubim-Perochet. —

Die ganze "Wohnung des Zeugnisses" ist unter ein Zelt von Ziegenhaarteppichen gestellt, יריעות עזים לאהל על המשכן: dadurch erhält das Heiligtum den Charakter eines "nach außen geschützten lebendigen Organismus". Und während durch die am Boden nachhängenden Säume der Ziegenhaarteppiche das Heiligtum als "dahinschreitend" כאשה המהלכת בשוק (siehe zu VV. 11 - 13) somit: seinen Weg durch die Räume und Zeiten der Erde machend erschien, bildeten sein Haupt rotgefärbte Widderfelle und Tachaschfelle, und vindizierten diesem durch die Weltgeschichte dahinschreitenden lebendigen Organismus des göttlichen Heiligtums die lebensvolle Kraftfülle eines an die Spitze der Herden leitend voranschreitenden Widders und gleichzeitig die unaufhaltsame Bewegung des Eiltieres (V. 14).

Den "Türvorhang des Zeltes", VV. 36 u. 37, betrachten wir im Zusammenhang mit dem "Torvorhang des Hofes", Kap. 27, 16 u. 17.