Commento su Esodo 26:9

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.