Terumah תרומה

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ויקחו לי תרומה THAT THEY TAKE ME A HEAVE OFFERING — “Me” means to the glory of My Name (Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 1).

תרומה is something set apart (cf. Onkelos); the meaning is: let them set apart from their possessions a voluntary gift in My honour.

ידבנו לבו — The word ידבנו is of the same root as נדבה (the נ in the latter being replaced by the Dagesh in the ד); it is a term denoting “good-will”, apaisement in old French (cf. Rashi on Genesis 33:10 and Leviticus 19:5).

תקחו את תרומתי YE SHALL TAKE MY HEAVE OFFERING — Our Rabbis said: the expression תרומה is used here three times, being an allusion to three different heave offerings; one is the heave offering which consisted of a beka (half a shekel) a head, and of which the sockets were made, as is set forth in the section אלה פקודי (Exodus 39:26-27); another is the heave offering for the altar — a beka a head that was given to the funds (more lit., “the basket”, in which collections for communal or charitable purposes were made) from which to purchase the communal sacrifices; (see Rashi on Exodus 30:15) and the other one is that implied in the word תרומתי “My heave offering” and referred to by the word כסף in the next verse — the heave offering for the Tabernacle which was a free-will gift from each individual (Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 1:1). Thirteen different articles (cf. Tanchuma) that are mentioned in this section were all required either for the work of the Tabernacle (i. e. the construction of the Tabernacle or making the articles contained therein), or for the priests’ garments, as you will find when you look closely into the matter.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

זהב וכסף ונחשת וגו׳ GOLD AND SILVER AND COPPER etc. — All these came (were brought) as voluntary gifts, each man giving as his heart prompted him, except that silver which was brought by all in equal quantities (cf. Rashi above), a half shekel by each person. For we do not find in the account of the entire work connected with the Tabernacle that any silver was needed for the work there described in detail over and above this, for it is said, (Exodus 38:25-26) “And the silver of them who were numbered of the congregation [was an hundred talents, etc.] … a beka for every man etc.” and vv. 27 and 28 inform us that of this silver were made the Sockets and the hooks. Of the other silver which came (was brought) there, as a free-will gift they made the holy vessels (lit., vessels for service), and it is this silver that is referred to in this verse and which is stated in the preceding verse as having been brought voluntarily.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ותכלת AND BLUE PURPLE — wool dyed with the blood of the חלזון (a kind of shell-fish), the colour of which was greenish-blue (Menachot 44a).

וארגמן AND RED PURPLE — wool coloured with a kind of dye the name of which is ארגמן

ושש — this is what we call LINEN (Yevamot 4b).

ועזים is GOATS’ HAIR; therefore Onkelos translates it by וּמְעַזֵּי which denotes something that comes from the goats — not the goats themselves, for the Aramaic translation of עזים is עִזַּיָּא‎.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

מאדמים RED — they were dyed red after having been tanned.

תחשים TACHASH was a kind of wild beast. It existed only at that time (when Israel built the Tabernacle). It was multi-coloured and therefore it is translated in the Targum by ססגונה, and it is so translated because it delights (שָׂשׂ) and prides itself in its colours (גונא) (Shabbat 28; Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 6).

ועצי שטים AND SHITTIM WOOD — But from where did they get this in the wilderness? Rabbi Tanchuma explained it thus: Our father Jacob foresaw by the gift of the Holy Spirit that Israel would once build a Tabernacle in the wilderness: he therefore brought cedars to Egypt and planted them there, and bade his children take these with them when they would leave Egypt (Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 9; cf. Bereishit Rabbah 94 and Rashi on Exodus 26:15).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

שמן למאר OIL FOR THE LIGHT — “clear olive-oil … to make the flame ascend continually”).

בשמים לשמן המשחה SPICES FOR THE ANOINTING OIL which was made for the purpose of anointing the vessels of the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle itself in order to sanctify it. For this oil spices were required as is set forth in the section כי תשא (Exodus 30:23 ff.).

ולקטרת הסמים AND FOR INCENSE OF AROMATIC SPICES that were burnt every evening and morning, as is set forth in the section ואתה תצוה (Exodus 30:7). The word קטרת signifies raising vapour (קיטור) and a column of smoke.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

אבני שהם ONYX STONES — two were required there for the needs of the “ephod” which is mentioned in ואתה תצוה (Exodus 28:6ff.).

מלאים FOR SETTING (lit., filling in) — Because they made for them (for the stones) settings in gold — a kind of indentation — and they put the stone there (in it) to fill the indentation, they were called “filling-up stones”; the spot where the indentation is (i. e. the hollow spot) is called משבצת “setting”.

לאפד ולחשן FOR THE EPHOD AND THE BREASTPLATE respectively: the onyx stones for the ephod and “stones for setting” for the breastplate. Ephod and breastplate are described in ואתה תצוה. They were a kind of ornament worn only by the High-Priest.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועשו לי מקדש AND LET THEM MAKE ME A SANCTUARY — Let them make to the glory of My Name (cf. Rashi on v. 2) a place of holiness.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ככל אשר אני מראה אותך ACCORDING TO ALL THAT I AM SHOWING THEE here, את תבנית המשכן THE PATTERN OF THE DWELLING. — This verse must be connected with the verse that precedes it, thus: And let them make for Me a sanctuary … according to all that I am showing thee (the words ושכנתי בתוכם being a parenthesis).

וכן תעשו AND SO SHALL YE MAKE IT also in future generations (cf. Sanhedrin 16b); if one of the vessels is lost, or when you make for Me the vessels for the “House of Eternity” (another name for the Temple in Jerusalem), — as e. g., the tables, candlesticks, lavers and stands which Solomon had made — you shall make them after the pattern of these (the vessels of the Tabernacle), If, however, the verse were not to be connected with the preceding one but formed a new statement, Scripture ought not to have written: וכן תעשו “and so shall ye make them” but כן תעשו “so shall ye make them” and then it would be speaking of the making of the tent of meeting and its vessels and not of the vessels of the Temple, and the translation would be: according to all that I am showing you the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its vessels, even so shall you make them.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועשו ארון AND THEY SHALL MAKE AN ARK (ארון) — It is so called because it had the appearance of boxes (ארונות) which people make without feet — in the shape of a chest which is called escrin in old French which rests on its bottom.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

מבית ומחוץ תצפנו WITHIN AND WITHOUT SHALT THOU OVERLAY IT — Bezalel made three arks, two of gold and one of wood, each having four walls (sides) and a bottom, being, however, open at the top. He put the wooden ark into the larger golden one and the smaller golden one into that of wood and covered its upper rim (that of the wooden ark) with gold; consequently it can be said that the wooden ark was overlaid with gold within and without (Yoma 72b; Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1).

זר זהב A BORDER OF GOLD — a crown-like ornament encompassed it (the ark) round about above its rim, for he (Bezalel) made the outer ark which was of gold higher than the inner ones so that it stood up over against the thickness of the cover which was made for it and even somewhat beyond it (Yoma 72b). Now when the cover lay upon the thickness of the sides of the two smaller arks the crown-like ledge rose a little above the entire thickness of the cover. It was a symbol of the “crown of the Torah” which was placed within that ark (Exodus Rabbah 34b).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ויצקת — a term used of casting metal, as the Targum has it.

פעמתיו — Understand this as the Targum renders it: ON ITS CORNERS. It was on the upper corners near to the cover that the rings were placed — two on one side of the ark and two on the other along the breadth of the ark, and the staves were put into them (the rings). The length of the ark thus formed a space of two cubits and a half between one stave and the other so that two men who were carrying the ark could walk with ease between on the same side. Thus is it explained in Treatise Menachot in the section beginning with the words, "Shtei HaLehem" (Menachot 98b).

שתי הלחם ושתי טבעות על צלעו האחת AND TWO RINGS IN THE ONE SIDE OF IT — These are the very four rings spoken of in the beginning of the verse but here Scripture explains to you where they were fixed. This ו of the word ושתי (the first time the word occurs here) is really redundant and the interpretation is as though it read, שתי טבעת (see Note on Exodus 24:12). Since however the ו is there you may make it fit in thus: and two of these rings shall be on the one side of it and two on the other side thereof.

צלעו means THE SIDE OF IT.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

בדי means STAVES.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

לא יסרו ממנו THEY SHALL NOT DEPART THEREFROM for ever (cf. Yoma 72a).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ונתת אל הארן — It must be explained as though it were written בארון: [AND THOU SHALT PUT] INTO THE ARK,

העדות THE TESTIMONY — the Torah (the Tablets; cf. Rashi on Exodus 40:20) which is a testimony between Me and you that I have ordained the commandments written in it (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 4).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

כפרת — A cover for the ark which was made open on top. He laid it upon it, flat like an ordinary slab.

אמתים וחצי ארכה TWO CUBITS AND A HALF SHALL BE THE LENGTH THEREOF, as was the length of the ark, and its (the cover’s) breadth was as the breadth of the ark (i. e. of the inner wooden ark, cf. Rashi on v. 11); thus it rested on the thickness of its four walls. Although it does not assign any size for its (the cover’s) thickness our Rabbis have explained (applying to it a ג"ש) that the thickness thereof was one handbreadth (Sukkah 5a).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

כרבים CHERUBIM — They had the form of a child’s face (Sukkah 5b).

מקשה תעשה OF BEATEN WORK SHALT THOU MAKE [THEM] — i. e. thou shalt not make them separately (apart from the actual lid) and join them to the ends of the lid after they have been made, like goldsmith’s work which is called in old French souder (English solder) — but lay down a large mass of gold (lit., much gold) when thou beginnest to make the lid and beat upon the middle part of it (the gold) with a hammer or with a mallet, so that its ends will project upward (stand out in relief), and then shape the cherubim out of the projecting edges.

מקשה batediz (beaten work) in old French Similarly we have (Daniel 5:6) “and his knees knocked (נקשן) one against another”.

קצות הכפרת means THE EXTREMITIES OF THE COVER.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועשה כרוב אחד מקצה AND MAKE ONE CHERUB FROM ONE EXTREMITY — In order that you should not say that the preceding verse means two cherubim on each extremity, it was necessary to expressly state: “one cherub from the one extremity and one cherub from the other extremity”.

מן הכפרת FROM THE COVER itself, תעשו את הכרבים SHALL YE MAKE THE CHERUBIM — This is the explanation of: (v. 18) “of beaten work shalt thou make them” — that thou shalt make them out of the cover itself and that thou shalt not make them by themselves and afterwards join them to the cover.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

פרשי כנפים [AND THE CHERUBIM SHALL] SPREAD THEIR WINGS [ON HIGH] — i. e. that you shall not make their wings touching the body but spreading on high slightly above but almost on the same level with their heads so that the hollow space between the wings and the cover shall be ten handbreadths, as it is explained in Treatise Sukkah 5b.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ואל הארן תתן את העדות AND IN THE ARK THOU SHALT PUT THE TESTIMONY — I do not know why this is repeated for it has already been commanded, (v. 16) “and thou shalt put the Testimony in the ark”. One may say that it intends to tell us that whilst the ark is still by itself — i. e. without the cover — he should first put the Testimony into it, and only afterwards should he put the cover on it for the first time. Thus indeed do we find: that when he (Moses) erected the Tabernacle it is stated, (Exodus 40:20) “and he [took and] put the Testimony into the ark”, and afterwards it says, “and he put the cover upon the ark above it” (cf. Talmud Yerushalmi Shekalim 6:1).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ונועדתי AND [THERE] I WILL BE MET [BY THEE] — When I shall appoint you a place of meeting to speak to you that place will I appoint as the place of meeting whither I will come to speak to you.

ודברתי אתך מעל הכפרת AND I SHALL SPEAK WITH THEE FROM ABOVE THE COVER — In another passage, however, it says, (Leviticus 1:1) “And God spake unto him out of the appointed tent, saying” — this is that part of the Tabernacle outside the partition veil whilst the ark and the cover were on the other tide of the veil — consequently we have two verses contradicting each other! But there comes a third verse and reconciles them: (Numbers 7:89) “And when Moses came into the appointed tent to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking unto him from off the covering etc.” This verse explains exactly what happened. Moses came into the Tabernacle and as soon as he had passed the entrance a voice fell from heaven to the place on the cover which was between the cherubim, and from there it issued and was heard by Moses in the tent of meeting (outside the Holy of Holies; cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 58 and Rashi on Numbers 7:89).

ואת כל אשר אצוה אותך אל בני ישראל AND OF ALL WHICH I SHALL COMMAND THEE CONCERNING THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — This ו of the word ואת is redundant and without import; there are many sentences similar to this in Scripture. However if you wish to explain this ו the verse must be interpreted as follows: [I shall speak with thee from above the cover] and that which (ואת) I shall speak to you will be everything I shall command thee concerning the children of Israel.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

קמתו THE HEIGHT THEREOF — i. e. the height of its legs together with the thickness of the table-board.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

זר זהב A BORDER OF GOLD — a symbol of the royal crown, for the table is an emblem of wealth and greatness, as may be seen from the fact that people speak of one’s “royal table” when they wish to state one is exceedingly wealthy (cf. Yoma 72b).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

מסגרת — Understand this as the Targum renders it: גדנפא, A RIM. The Sages in Israel are of different opinion as to what this מסגרת signifies. Some say it was on top all the way round the table like the vertical ledge that is on the edges of the table of noble men, whilst others say it was fixed beneath the table from leg to leg on the four sides of the table and that the table-top rested upon that ledge (cf. Menachot 96b and Sukkah 5a).

ועשית זר זהב למסגרתו AND THOU SHALT MAKE A GOLDEN BORDER TO THE RIM THEREOF —This is the same border spoken of above (v. 24), and here it explains to you that it was fixed to the rim.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

לעמת המסגרת תהיין הטבעת OVER AGAINST THE RIM SHALL THE RINGS BE — inserted in the legs over against the extremities of the border.

לבתים לבדים FOR PLACES FOR THE STAVES — These rings shall be receptacles in which to put the staves.

לבתים means for the purpose of being (to serve as) receptacles for the staves, as the Targum has it: places for the staves.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ונשא בם — The word ונשא is a passive (Niphal) form; the meaning is: THAT THE TABLE MAY BE BORNE BY THEM.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועשית קערתיו וכפתיו AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE DISHES THEREOF AND THE SPOONS THEREOF — קערתיו are the forms (moulds) that were made to fit the shape of the bread (Menachot 97a). The bread was shaped like a case broken open as regards two of its sides (two opposite sides of which have been removed; these are what we would call the front and the back). It had a bottom underneath, but no top, and this bottom was turned up on both ends to form, as it were, walls. On this account it was called לחם הפנים, “bread with faces” — because it had faces (surfaces) looking in both directions towards the sides of the House (the Sanctuary). The bread was placed lengthwise across the breadth of the table with its sides standing up exactly in a line with the edge of the table. There were made for it a golden mould and an iron mould: in the iron one it was baked, and when it was taken out from the oven it was put on the golden one until the next day, the Sabbath, when it was arranged on the table (the mould then being removed). This golden mould is here called קערה (Menachot 94a; cf. also Berliner’s Rashi 2nd ed. p. 426).

וכפתיו AND ITS SPOONS — ladles (or rather, cups with flat bottoms) in which the incense was put. There were two such vessels for the two handfuls of incense which was put upon the piles in which the loaves were arranged, as it is said, (Leviticus 24:7) “And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each pile”.

וקשתיו — These had the form of halves of hollow canes which are split along their length (Menachot 96a). Articles similar to these were made of gold and three of them were set in a row above each loaf so that another loaf (that above it) should rest on top of the “canes”; thus they (these canes) separated one loaf from another so that air could enter between and they would not become mouldy (Menachot 97a). In the Arabic language anything hollow is called קסוא (and this corresponds to the root of this word, which therefore denotes something hollow).

מנקיותיו — It is translated in the Targum by ומכילתיה “and the trestles (supports) thereof” (cf. Menachot 96a). According to him these were attachments to the table like a kind of golden pegs (pillars) standing on the floor and reaching in height far above the table up to the height of the pile of bread. They were notched in five places, one above the other, and the ends of the canes which were between one loaf and another were supported on these notches so that the weight of the upper loaves should not press heavily upon the lower ones in which event these would be broken. The word מכילתיה used by Onkelos as a rendering of מנקיותיו denotes “bearers;” it is of the same root as the verb in (Jeremiah 6:11) “I am weary to bear (הכיל) it.” But as for the term מנקיות (which is a Piel of נקה and would denote “cleansers”) I do not know how it is applicable to these attachments the purpose of which was not to keep the bread clean but merely to serve as supports for the canes. But there are some of the Jewish Sages who hold that קשתיו (connected with קשה “hard”) are the pegs (or pillars) and they are so called because they served to keep it (the loaves) hard and firm, so that it should not break, whilst מנקיותיו are the “canes” which kept the bread clean so that it should not become mouldy. Onkelos, however, who translated מנקיותיו by מכילתיה understood it according to the opinion of him who holds that מנקיות were the supporting pillars (cf. Menachot 97a).

אשר יסך בהן means BY WHICH THEY SHALL BE COVERED. It is of the קשות, the “canes,” that the words אשר יסך are said, because these lay over it like a cover and a screen. Thus, too, in another passage (Numbers 4:7) it says, ואת קשות הנסך, “and the קשות for covering;” both words, יסך and הנסך, denote screening and covering.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

לחם הפנים SHEW-BREAD (lit., bread of faces) — It was so called because it had “faces” (פנים) as I have explained (v. 29). The number of loaves and the way they were set in piles are fully explained in the Sidrah אמר אל הכהנים (Leviticus 24:5—9).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

מקשה תיעשה המנורה OF BEATEN WORK SHALL THE CANDELABRUM BE MADE — i. e. one should not make it of separate pieces nor shall one make its branches or its lamps as separate limb — a kind of work called souder in old French, Engl, to solder, but is was to be made in its entirety of a single mass of gold. He (who made it) beat it with the hammer and cut away with the implements of his craft thus making the branches spread out in this direction and in that (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 61:1).

מקשה — This word is translated in the Targum by נגיד, an expression for “drawing out;” he renders it thus because the parts of the candle-stick were drawn from the lump in this direction and in that by the blow of the hammer. The term מקשה denotes knocking with the hammer — batediz in old French — as the verb in (Daniel 5:6) “and his knees knocked (נקשן) one against another”.

תיעשה המנורה [OF BEATEN WORK] SHALL THE CANDELABRUM BE MADE — The passive form used here in contradistinction to the active forms of עשה used throughout this section in connection with the making of the vessels indicates that it shall be made of itself (automatically). Because Moses was puzzled by it (the work of the candlestick), the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “Cast the talent of gold into fire and it will be made of itself.” For this reason it does not say here תַּעֲשֶׂה “thou shalt make” (Midrash Tanchuma, Beha'alotcha 3)

ירכה — the foot (the base) below, which was made in form of a box, three legs coming out from it underneath.

וקנה — ITS SHAFT — its middle branch that rose from the central point of the base vertically upwards. On it was the middle lamp, made in the form of a cup into which to pour the oil and to put the wick.

גביעיה — They were like that kind of goblets which are made of glass and which are long and slender; in old French they are termed maderins (cf. Rashi on Genesis 44:2). These, however, were made of gold and came out as projections from each branch to the number which Scripture enjoins for them. They were on it for embellishment only.

כפתריה ITS KNOBS — These were like apples, globular, projecting all round the middle branch (shaft), such as are made for candlesticks of princely houses (lit., which stand before the princes), and which are called pommeaux in old French, apple-shaped ornaments. Their number is stated in this section — how many knobs projected from it (the middle branch) and how much was left plain between one knob and the other.

ופרחיה AND ITS FLOWERS — Figures were made on it in the shape of flowers.

ממנה יהיו SHALL BE OF THE SAME — All shall be of beaten work coming out of this block-shaped piece: one must not make them separately and then join them on the branches.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

יצאים מצדיה [AND SIX BRANCHES] SHALL GO OUT OF ITS SIDE — on each side slantwise extending on high up to the level of the candlestick proper, i. e. of the middle branch. They came out from the middle branch, one above the other — the lowest being the longest, that above it being shorter than it, and the upper one even shorter than that, for the height of their tops was to be the same as the height of the middle branch — the seventh, the central one, from which the other six branches came out.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

משקדים — Understand this as the Targum has it, מְצָיְרִין, chased. They were “modelled” in the way that is done on gold and silver vessels, a kind of work called in old French nieller.

שלשה גבעים THREE GOBLETS, projecting from each branch,

כפתור ופרח AND A KNOB AND A FLOWER was also on each branch.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ובמנרה ארבעה גבעים AND IN THE CANDELABRUM SHALL BE FOUR CUPS — i. e, on the body of the candlestick (on the vertical branch), were four goblets, viz., one jutting out from beneath the branches and three above the points from which emerged the branches that went out from its sides.

משקדים כפתריה ופרחיה GOBLETS MODELLED, WITH THEIR KNOBS AND THEIR FLOWERS (or it may be translated also: GOBLETS, MODELLED WITH THEIR KNOBS AND FLOWERS — The word משקדים being separated from the preceding by an אתנחתא seems to belong to the next words, to כפתוריה ופרחיה, but the fact that in the preceding verse it had been used of the goblets only suggests the reading גביעים משקדים. This is one of the five verses in Scripture the syntactical construction of which is undecided: it is not clear whether one should read גביעים משקדים or משקדים כפתריה ופרחיה (Yoma 52b).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

וכפתר תחת שני הקנים AND THERE SHALL BE A KNOB UNDER TWO BRANCHES — The branches were drawn out from the two sides of the knob to this direction and to that. Thus we are taught in the Baraitha dealing with the construction of the Tabernacle (ch. 10): The full height of the candlestick was eighteen handbreadths, the legs and the flower taking up three handbreadths. — This is the flower mentioned in connection with the base, as it says, (Numbers 8:4) “unto the base thereof, unto the flower thereof”. — Then there was a space of two handbreadths that was plain; then one handbreadth in which was one of the four goblets (mentioned Exodus 25:34) and a knob and a flower of those two knobs and those two flowers that are mentioned together with the candlestick proper — for it states, (v. 34) “[And on the candelabrum (i. e. on the shaft) there shall be four cups] made like unto almonds with their knobs and their flowers,” which teaches us that there were on the middle branch two knobs and two flowers (the plural כפתריה ופרחיה without stating the number suggesting “two” of each kind; besides the three knobs from which the branches emerged and of which it is said, (Exodus 25:35) “And there shall be a knob under the two branches etc.” — Then there were the following: two handbreadths that were plain; a handbreadth made up of a knob from which two branches emerged on each side, extending upward to the level of the candlestick proper; one handbreadth plain; one handbreadth made up of a knob with two branches emerging from it; one handbreadth plain, and a handbreadth made up of a knob from which two branches emerged and rose to the level of the candlestick proper; two handbreadths plain. Thus there remained three handbreadths in which were three goblets (three of the four mentioned in v. 34) and one knob and one flower (of the two mentioned Exodus 25:34-35). Consequently the goblets were twenty-two — eighteen on the six branches, there being three on each, and four on the candlestick proper, making altogether twenty-two; — and there were eleven knobs, — six on the six branches, one on each, and three on the candlestick proper from which the branches emerged, and two more knobs on the candlestick proper, — for it says, “made like unto almonds with its knobs”, and the minimum number implied by the plural כפתורים, is two. One of these was below near the base and the other in the upper three handbreadths together with the three goblets. Furthermore it had nine flowers, six on the six branches, — as it says, (Exodus 25:33) “with a knob and a flower on the one branch” — and three on the candlestick proper, viz., two as is implied in what is said “made like unto almonds with its knobs and its flowers” — and the minimum number to be understood by the plural פרחים is two, and one that is mentioned in the section בהעלתך, (Numbers 8:4) “unto the base thereof and the flower thereof.” If you will study the above quoted Boraitha minutely you will find them (the different parts of the candlestick) enumerated according to their number, each in its position as laid down in this section (Menachot 28b).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

את נרתיה ITS LAMPS — a kind of small bowls into which the oil and the wicks were put.

והאיר על עבר פניה AND MAKE THEM GIVE LIGHT OVER AGAINST IT — Make the mouths of those six lamps which are on the top of the branches that come out from its sides so that they are turned towards the middle branch, in order that when you kindle the lamps they shall cast their light over against its (the candlestick’s) front-side, i. e. their light should be directed in the direction of the front of the central branch which forms the candlestick proper.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ומלקחיה — These were tongs made for taking the wicks out from the oil, to put them in position and to draw them into the mouths. Because people took things with them they were called מלקחים, (from לקח, “to take”). The word צבתהא by which Onkelos renders it is the same as the more familiar term צבת, “a pair of tongs”; tenailles in old French

ומחתתיה AND ITS SNUFF-DISHES — These were like small bowls into which the High Priest raked the ashes every morning when he cleansed out the lamps from the ashes of the wicks that had burned all night and had become extinguished. The word מחתה is fougère (feuchière) in old French, as in, (Isaiah 30:14) “to rake (לחתות) fire from the hearth.”

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ככר זהב טהור OF A TALENT OF PURE GOLD [SHALL HE MAKE IT WITH ALL THESE VESSELS] — i. e. that its weight together with (את) all its vessels shall he exactly one talent, neither more nor less (cf. Menachot 88b). A common (not holy) kikkar (one used for weighing ordinary articles) was sixty manehs, that used for sacred purposes double as much, hundred and twenty manehs; a maneh was equal to a litra (the Roman libra, a pound) by which silver is weighed, according to the standard weight of Cologne. This is hundred denars which is the equivalent of twenty-five Sela’im, one Sela being four denars (cf. Bekhorot 5a).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

וראה ועשה AND SEE AND MAKE — See here, in the mountain, the pattern which I shew thee. This teaches you that Moses was puzzled about the workmanship of the Menorah until the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him the pattern of it in a candlestick of fire (Menachot 29a).

אשר אתה מראה WHICH WAS SHOWN THEE — Translate as the Targum does: דאת מתחזי בטורא which thou hast been shown on the mountain. If it were punctuated with Patach (מַרְאֶה) it would mean which you show to others,” now, however, that it is punctuated with חטף קמץ (our קמץ חטוף, short Kametz) it signifies, “which thou hast been shown” — i. e. which others show thee [for the punctuation distinguishes between the words denoting “one who does something” and “one who has something done to him” (i. e. between the active participle מַרְאֶה and the passive participle מָרְאֶה).]

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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 time as wall-coverings for the outside of the boards; — for the curtains hung behind them so as to cover them.

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).

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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”.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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.”

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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”).

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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,

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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 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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

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.

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

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

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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).

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

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

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.

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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).

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

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

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.

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.

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.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועשית את המזבח וגו׳ ושלש אמות קמתו AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR etc. AND THE HEIGHT THEREOF SHALL BE THREE CUBITS — These words should be understood as they are written (i. e. to mean exactly what they say — that its height was three cubits); this is the opinion of R. Jehudah. R. José, however, says: it is stated here, “[the altar shall be] square” and it is stated with reference to the inner (the golden) altar, (Exodus 30:2) “square [shall it be].” How was it there (in the case of the latter)? Its height was twice its length (“a cubit the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, . . . and two cubits the height thereof”)! So, also, here: the height shall be twice its length, i. e. ten cubits. And if you ask, how, then, do I explain the words and three cubits the height thereof?” I reply that this gives the measurement from the edge of the surround (סובב) upwards (whilst 10 cubits was the actual height from the ground to the top of the altar) (cf. Zevachim 60a; Rashi on v. 5).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ממנו תהיין קרנתיו ITS HORNS SHALL BE OF THE SAME — i. e. he shall not make them separately and afterwards attach them to it (to the altar).

וצפית אתו נחשת AND THOU SHALT OVERLAY IT WITH COPPER — to atone for sins committed with effrontery (more lit., with impudence of forehead, the Hebrew expression for effrontery being, “having a copper forehead,”) as it is said, (Isaiah 48:4) “[Because I know that thou art obstinate] and that thy forehead is copper” (cf. our English expression “brazen-faced”) (Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 11).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

סירתיו — a kind of pot.

לדשנו means TO REMOVE ITS ASHES in them. That is exactly as Onkelos translated it: למספי קטמה, to remove the ashes into them. For although in its primary sense דַּשֵּׁן would mean to cover with ashes, it has also the meaning of removing the ashes, for there are in the Hebrew language certain expressions with the peculiarity that the same word changes in meaning so as to be used to denote both “construction” and “destruction,” (having a positive and a negative meaning). Examples are: (Psalms 80:10) “and didst cause it to take deep root (ותשרש)”; (Job 5:3) “I have seen the foolish taking root (משריש),” whilst we have its opposite (negative) meaning in, (Job 31:12) “and thou wouldst root out (תשרש) all my increase.” Similar to it is, (Isaiah 17:6) “in the utmost fruitful branches (בסעיפיה),” and its opposite, (Isaiah 10:33) “The Lord of hosts shall מסעף”, i. e. shall lop off the branches thereof. Similar to it is also (Jeremiah 50:17) “And this last person עִצְּמוֹ” — “has broken his bones” although the primary meaning of עצם is to be strongboned. Similar to it is, (1 Kings 21:13) “and stoned him with stones (ויסקלהו)” i. e. heaped up stones above him, and its opposite is, (Isaiah 62:10) “סקלו the stones” — i. e. remove its stones; and so, too, (Isaiah 5:2) “And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof (ויסקלהו).” Thus here, also, לדשנו means to remove its ashes. In 0. F. à discendrer.

ויעיו AND ITS SHOVELS — as the Targum renders it, מגרפות, shovels by which the ashes were removed. They had the form of the lid of a pot, of thin metal, but having a handle. In old French vedil.

ומזרקתיו AND ITS BOWLS, in which to receive the blood of the sacrifices.

ומזלגתיו AND ITS FLESHHOOKS — These had the form of bent hooks; they stuck them forcibly into the flesh so that they penetrated it, and with them they turned the flesh over upon the coals of the fire-place in order that it might become the more quickly consumed. In old French these are called crochets and in the language of our Sages צנוריות (Yoma 12a).

ומחתתיו AND ITS FIRE-PANS — These had a cavity to hold things so that the coals might be taken in them from the altar in order to carry them on to the inner altar for the incense. And because of their use for raking the coals into them (חתיה) they were called מחתות. This word is of the same root and meaning as the verb in, (Isaiah 30:14) “לחתות fire from the fire-place,” which has the meaning of drawing fire from its place. Similar is, (Proverbs 6:27) “Can a man rake (היחתה) fire into his bosom?”

לכל כליו means ALL THE VESSELS THEREOF [THOU SHALT MAKE OF COPPER] (i. e. it does not mean: “thou shalt make things of copper, for (i. e. to serve as) all its vessels” but the ל is redundant; cf. Rashi on Exodus 14:28).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

מכבר A GRATE — מכבר is an expression connected with כברה, a sieve which is called in old French crible. A kind of covering was made for the altar, constructed with many holes just like a net. The word of this verse are transposed, and its explanation is as follows: And thou shalt make for it a grate of copper, of network.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

כרכב המזבח THE COMPASS OF THE ALTAR — כרכב is a surround. Anything which encompasses an object all the way round is called כרכב, just as we read in the Talmudical section beginning with the words הכל שוחטין (Chullin 25a): The following come under the description of unfinished wooden vessels — all such as have still to be polished and to be rounded off (ולכרכב; i. e. making a rim by hollowing out the centre). This is similar to the practice of making rounded grooves in the boards that form the sides of chests and wooden chairs. For the altar too he made a hollowing round about — its width was a cubit — in its wall for ornamentation. It was made at the end of three cubits of its height (measuring from the top of the altar). This is according to the view of him who says (cf. v. 1): its (the altar's) height was twice its length. And if you ask how, then, can I explain the statement, “and the height thereof shall be three cubits” I reply, that this gives the measurement from the edge of the surround upwards. This surround served only as an ornamentation, but a surround for the priests to walk upon when officiating the copper altar had only on its top within its horns (running from one horn to the other). Thus we read in Treatise Zevachim 62a: What is the כרכב? The sunken space between one horn of the altar and the other, this being a cubit in width, and, from that space inward (towards the centre of the altar) a space of another cubit upon which the priests could walk right round the altar, thus making a surround two cubits in width. These two cubits were called כרכב. The criticism is there made to this definition: But is it not written, “[and thou shalt put it (the grate)] under the compass of the altar beneath” — which statement teaches us that the כרכב was on the side of the altar and not on its top since the covering formed by the grate was beneath it? Whereupon the Talmud replies (lit., the replier replies), that in fact there were two surrounds, one for ornamentation (that below) and another (on the top) for the priests that they should not slip off when walking round. The one on the side of the altar was intended for ornamentation, and beneath it they put the grate as a covering and its width reached to the middle of its (the altar’s) height, measuring this from the ground. It also served to mark the middle of its height separating the two halves of the altars side upon which were put respectively the sacrifical blood which had to be sprinkled above (on the upper part; this was the blood of a חטאת) and the blood which had to be sprinkled below (that of עולה ,שלמים and אשם). Corresponding to this there was made for the altar in the “Eternal House” (the Temple at Jerusalem) a sign consisting of a red line (Zevachim 53a; Mishnah Middot 3:1). As to the ascent (כבש — the inclined plane) upon which they went up to the top of the altar, it is true that Scripture does not expressly mention it in this section but we have it already implied in the statement in the section beginning with the words מזבח אדמה תעשה לי (Exodus 20:21—23): “Thou shalt not go up by steps [unto my altar]” — i. e. thou shalt not make steps on its ascent, but thou shalt make an unbroken ascent, — this tells us that it had such an ascent. — So do we read in the Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:23:1). — For the altar of earth there spoken of is identical with the altar of copper described here and it was called an altar of earth because they used to fill the hollow space within it (within its coppered walls) with earth at every place where they encamped in the wilderness. This ascent was on the south of the altar, its top standing away from the altar just a hair’s breadth (i. e. almost touching the altar). Its foot reached to the cubit adjacent to the hangings of the court on the south, (i. e. it was one cubit distant from those hangings of the enclosure). This latter statement is according to him who holds that its height (that of the altar) was ten cubits, whilst according to him who holds that the command, (v. 1) “and three cubits shall be the height thereof” is to be taken literally (cf. Rashi on v. 1) the length of the ascent was only ten cubits, for since the altar was lower the slope leading to its top could not be a very long one. So did I find in the Boraitha דמ"ט מדות (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 419). And as regards this statement that it stood away from the top of the altar just a hair’s breadth, in Treatise Zevachim 62b they (the Rabbis) derived it from a Biblical text.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

בטבעת [AND THE BARS SHALL BE BROUGHT] INTO THE RINGS — into the four rings made for the grate (v. 4).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

נבוב לחת HOLLOW WITH TABLETS — Render it as the Targum does, חליל לוחין, hollow as regards boards (לוחין is what is termed an accusative of respect): boards of shittim-wood on all sides (cf. v. 1) and a hollow space in the middle; it shall not be in its entirety a single block of wood, the thickness of which in two directions should be five cubits by five cubits — like the trunk of a tree, which has been hollowed out.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

קלעים HANGINGS — made like the sails of ships, full of holes, of plaited work and not weaver’s work. The rendering in the Targum, סרדין, is the same as the rendering of מִכְבָּר, which it renders by the singular סרדא; this is because they, both the hangings and the grate, are riddled with holes like a sieve.

לפאה האחת FOR ONE SIDE — the entire side (not only the corner; cf. Rashi on Exodus 26:18) is called פאה.‎

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ועמדיו עשרים AND TWENTY COLUMNS THEREOF — There was a space of five cubits between one column and the other

ואדניהם AND THE SOCKETS of the columns SHALL BE OF COPPER (i. e. the word נחשת is to be connected only with the preceding word ואדניהם, not with ועמדיו at the beginning of the verse). The sockets rested on the ground and the columns were inserted in them. There was made a kind of rail which is called pals in old French, six handbreadths by three, and a copper ring was fixed in its centre. They folded the upper edge of the curtaining round it (round each rail) by cords at the places where the curtaining came opposite each column and they hung the rail by its ring on the hook which was on the column and which was made like the letter ו — one of its ends being bent upward and the other end being driven into the column, like those hooks which are made to fix doors upon them, and which are called in old French gonds. Thus the width of curtain was hanging down and this width formed the height of the walls of the court.

ווי העמדים are the hooks already mentioned.

וחשקיהם AND THEIR FILLETS — The columns were encircled with silver threads. I do not know, however, whether this was done over their whole surface or at the top only or round the middle only, but I do know that חשוק denotes “tied on”, for we find in the account of the concubine of Gibeah (Judges 19:10): “there were with him a couple of asses saddled (חבושים lit., bound)” which latter word the Targum renders by חשוקים‎.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

לפאת קדמה מזרחה ON THE EAST SIDE EASTWARDS — The last two words are the same as פני המזרח. The word הדם is synonymous with פנים, the face (the front side of any thing), and אחור is the same term as אֲחוֹרַיִם, the buttocks, the back-side. The East is therefore called קדם because it is the front part of the world; correspondingly, the West is called אחור, the back part of the world just as you speak of (Deuteronomy 11:24) הים האחרון the Hinder Sea, which the Targum renders by “the Western Sea.”

חמשים אמה FIFTY CUBITS — These fifty cubits were not all filled in with curtaining, because the entrance was there; there were only fifteen cubits of curtaining at the side of the entrance in the one direction, similarly on the other side thereof. Thus there was left the width of the open space at the entrance consisting of 20 cubits between (between the two lengths of curtaining to the right and left of the entrance). This is what is meant by: (v. 16) “and for the gate of the enclosure a veil of twenty cubits” — a veil serving as a screen for the entrance, twenty cubits long, equal to the breadth of the entrance.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

עמדיהם שלשה THEIR COLUMNS THREE — There were five cubits space between one column and another column: between the column at the end of the southern row, standing at the southeast corner, to the first column which was one of the three in the east there were five cubits; from that to the second, five cubits, and from the second to the third, five cubits. It was similar at the other side of the entrance. And four columns for the screen are mentioned here, so that you have ten columns for the east corresponding to the ten columns in the west side (v. 12).

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

כל עמודי החצר סביב וגו׳ ALL THE COLUMNS ROUND ABOUT THE ENCLOSURE etc. — Because Scripture expressly mentioned hooks and fillets and copper sockets in connection only with the north and the south, and with regard to the east and the west there is no mention of hooks and fillets and copper sockets (cf. vv. 14, 15, where there is indeed mention of sockets but it is not stated that they should be of copper), therefore Scripture now comes and gives directions that the sockets of all the pillars that are round about should be of copper.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

ארך החצר THE LENGTH OF THE ENCLOSURE — i. e. its north and south sides which run from east to west, SHALL BE A HUNDRED CUBITS.

ורחב חמשים בחמשים AND THE BREADTH FIFTY EVERYWHERE — The part of the enclosure in the east side was a square of fifty by fifty cubits, for the Tabernacle was thirty cubits long and 10 cubits wide. Its entrance was placed in the east at the end of the outer fifty cubits of the length of the enclosure; consequently it (the Tabernacle) was entirely within the inner (the western) fifty cubits and its length finished up at the end of another thirty cubits (thus using up eighty cubits in the middle of the length of the enclosure); it followed therefore that it had a space of twenty cubits behind, between the hangings of the enclosure in the west and the curtains of the back of the Tabernacle. The breadth of the Tabernacle was using up ten cubits in the middle of the breadth of the enclosure; thus it had a space of twenty cubits on the north and on the south between the hangings of the enclosure and the curtains of the Tabernacle and there was a similar space in the west, as shown above, whilst fifty by fifty was the court in front of it (cf. Eruvin 23b).

וקמה חמש אמות AND THE HEIGHT FIVE CUBITS — The height of the partitions of the enclosure was five cubits and this was formed by the breadth of the curtaining.

ואדניהם נחשת AND THEIR SOCKETS OF COPPER — This statement is intended to include the sockets of the screen — that you should not say: sockets of copper are prescribed only for the columns of the curtaining (v. 17), but the sockets of the screen which are not stated to be of copper (v. 16) may be of another material; this, it appears to me, is the reason why Scripture repeats these words after having used them in v. 17.

Rashi — M. Rosenbaum & A. M. Silbermann

לכל כלי המשכן ALL THE VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE that were necessary for erecting it and for taking it down as, for instance, hammers to drive in the pegs and the columns.

יתדת PEGS — a kind of copper nail made for the curtains of the אהל (the second layer of curtain over the top) and for the hangings of the enclosure, fastened to these by cords all the way round them on their lower edge in order that the wind should not lift them up. I do not know for certain whether they were stuck in the ground or whether they were merely tied to the edges and hung down, their weight loading the edges of the curtains that they should not move about in the wind. But I would say that their name (i. e. the name given here to these pieces of metal) shows that they were stuck in the ground, and for that reason they are here called יתדת. The following verse supports me in my opinion: (Isaiah 33:20) “A tent that shall not be taken down; its stakes (יתדותיו) shall never be plucked up.”.