Commento su Esodo 26:24

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.