Królów I 7:40 Komentarz: Tze'enah Ure'enah & Rashi

“Hiram made the lavers” [7:40]. Hiram made a hand laver and shovels and four hundred pomegranates and ten hand lavers and the basin placed on twelve oxen. All the utensils were poured in earthen forms dug out of copper. There were so many of them that they could not be weighed. Solomon made a table out of gold on which the showbread was placed. He made five candelabrums on the right side and five on the left side, out of pure gold.

The Midrash writes: Why did Moses Our Teacher only make one table in the Temple? The answer is that the Temple and Tabernacle in the desert where there was manna and there was no need to grow grain, since the manna was given from heaven. However, with Solomon, the Temple was in the land of Israel and they needed great quantities of grain. Therefore, there were many tables. Thus said Solomon: Because of the merit of the five on the right side, the Holy One should send dew and good rain. Through the merit of the five that stand on the left side, on the north side, they should stop the evil that used to come into the world. There were ten golden candelabrums for the Ten Statements. On each candelabrum seven lights burned, for the seventy nations. As long as the lights burned in the Temple, the nations had no power over Israel. However, when the lights were extinguished, the nations had power over Israel. Solomon first put the showbread on the table that Moses had made in the wilderness, since Solomon had Moses’ table. Also, when the lights were lit, the candelabrum of Moses was the first one that was lit. Then all the other candelabrums were lit. The twelve oxen on which the basin stood symbolized the twelve constellations that are in the heavens and rule the whole world.¹Yalkut Shimoni, I Kings, Remez, 185.

“Hiram made the lavers” [7:40]. Hiram made a hand laver and shovels and four hundred pomegranates and ten hand lavers and the basin placed on twelve oxen. All the utensils were poured in earthen forms dug out of copper. There were so many of them that they could not be weighed. Solomon made a table out of gold on which the showbread was placed. He made five candelabrums on the right side and five on the left side, out of pure gold.

And Chirom made, etc. And Rebbi said, that the כיורות are one and the same as the סירות, as it is stated, “like a pan of fire burning wood,”⁶¹Zecharyah 12:6. and similarly, “and he thrust it into the pan.”⁶²I Shmuel 2:14.

The [wash] basins. Of copper, used to remove the ashes from the altar.

The rakes. Copper shovels which are called vedil, in German, [were used] to rake the ashes into the pots.