Comentário sobre Êxodo 26:15

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.