Terumah - 2nd Portion

Join as we learn for Monday Pares Truma, the second Torah reading of Paras Truma, chapter 25:17. Yesterday's Torah reading, we began where God tells Moshe the commandment of collecting the donations, the 13 items needed for the building of the tabernacle. He began by telling him in the first about building the ark. Yesterday we spoke about the poles that were made on the side of the ark and how the ark was made of three separate boxes, gold, wooden and gold on the inside where there the u tablets were replaced. Today we continue with the details of the making of the ark. Verse 17, chapter 25. And you shall make a cover of pure gold should be two and a half cubits long and a half a cubit wide. Rashi verse 17. Capus. What is the word capyus? Where does it mean the word capus? The word capus means a cover for the ark because the box that he made until now was open on top. Then he would place on top of the box this cover like a board. It would be the length of the ark and the width like the width of the ark and it would sit on the four on the four uh corners on the four edges the walls of the ark. Even though the Torah does not say the size of the thickness of the top of the of the cover, the rabbis explained and tell us that it was thick a handbreath. Verse 18, you'll make two. They should be made out of gold hammered out. You should make them say from the two ends of the coverin. What did the word krin mean? Means two things that were coming that were pointing out hammered out from the top of the cover with the moose parts of these had the image in the shape of a child on them. They should be hammered out. Meaning don't make them separate. Don't chisel out two separate type of images and then afterwards attach it to the cover after making them like the people who chisel out things. You have to make that you bang it out from the actual thing itself from the actual thickness of the ark of the cover. put a lot of gold on the actual cover to begin with and then knock it out with a hammer and a chisel in the middle. So then so you'll have the heads of it sticking out and then from the edges you will then shape the cubin from it that you'll make a thick piece of gold to begin with. When you hammer it out, you'll be able to create this and that's how you'll chisel out the faces from it hammered out coming from the words like it says that the knees of Balettzar when he was so nervous that because of that they were banging against each other because of his fear. What does it mean the edge? It doesn't mean the edge of the of the circumference or the uh water of the cover, but it means from the top of the cover, you should hammer them out. How will these cube going to be? So, the verse now continues verse 19. You'll make one on one edge and one will be on the other edge of the cover. You will then make the on the two ends and the the height of them as we'll soon see as the Rashi explains the Torah over here. Didn't I already tell you you should make two of them? So why does he have to say again? You shouldn't think you will put two on each edge for the Torah has stated again clearly that there's only one on each edge from the cover. You should make these as we mentioned previously from the actual cover. They banged out. They hammered out these. This is what it means in the previous verse that you should hammer them out from the actual cover. You should not make the crew on its own and then afterwards attach them to the cover. They should be banged out each one on each edge of the caporus of the cover. Verse 20. What are these croo going to look like? These crew shall have wings that will spread a loft above. So that their wings will be shielding them as a cover on the cover. Their faces will be facing one another of the to the facing. They should be inclined towards the cover. The faces of the kuim should be tint should be inclined or should be tilted towards the face of the cover of the ark. Do not make that their wings are to the side. There should be above them. Should be above and high next to their heads. How high should there be? should be like there should be a tent space is anywhere about 42 in in between the between 38 and 42 in between the wings of the kubim to the surface of the cover as it says in the track of verse and then you will take that cover with the kim on it and you'll put it on the ark above and then into the ark you're going to place the tablets of the testimony that I will give you says, "I don't know why the Torah has to why God has to command us twice why the Torah is to repeat this if he already said this previously in verse 16." Rashi says one could answer that the reason is that there's coming to tell us that when will you place the ar the testimony? When will you put the tablets into the ark? Only after there's a cover on it. That first you're going to put the tablets in it and then afterwards you'll put the cover. That means do not cover the ark before the tablets are placed in it. Therefore, we find when Moshe put up the tabernacle it says first it says that he put the tablets of testimony into the ark and only afterwards it says did he put the cover on top telling us that first you make the ark then you place in the tablets and only afterwards do you cover it with the with the cover. Verse 22. And I will and I will convey convene with you there. And I will speak to you from above the cover from between the two which is on the ark of the testimony. Whatever I shall command you concerning the Jewish people will be heard coming from these two. when I will set up a time to meet with you. That's why it says when we will convene to speak that will be the place that we will meet that will come there to speak to you and not in other places but in other places it says that God spoke to Moses from the from the tent of gathering and over here it says that it was between the so he explains them when we talk about the tent of the gathering That's the hall that was right outside the holy of holies. So seemingly we have two verses that are conflicting with one another. And so either it was from the or was it from the tent of gathering. Therefore we have a third verse as we know whenever we have two conflicting verses and we take the third verse which that gives us sums it up for us and tells us we have a third verse that comes and explains what this means. And where it tells us in the book of numbers when Moshe would come into the tent of gathering, he would hear them the voice that speaks to him from amongst the cover of the ark. How did this all work out? So Rashi explains would first walk into the tabernacle. Once he stood at the entrance of the tabernacle, then a voice would come down from heaven which would then ascend descend into the place of between the from there would go out. From there Moshe would hear the voice while standing in the tent of gathering in that outside hall outside the holy of holies. Rashi continues. Why does it say and everything I will command you? It's seemingly it's extra we find this many places though the Torah of telling us that over here what is the thing that God is coming to tell you that the Torah is saying that this was a unique place that God would come and tell Moshe anything he had to tell the Jewish people. So the VV is coming to identify though it's not coming to express any extra explanation. Now the Torah goes on with the next item that was made for the tabernacle which was the table. Verse 23. And you will make a table out of wood. It will be two hand breaths long and two cubits long and two cubits wide and one and a half cubits high. What does it mean the height? That means you're counting the height of the table with the thickness of the actual table. The legs that were supporting the table with the actual table with the height of one and a half cubits. Verse 24. You shall then cover the wood with pure gold. Then you'll make a gold rim around the top of the table. This is a sign of a crown. Because this table symbolized a sign of wealth and greatness like you say a table of the princes, a table of kings and therefore it should have it should look nice. It should have this crown which is symbolic of royalty. Verse 25. Then you shall make a frame around it which will be one handbreath wide around it. And then you will make a gold rim frame around to attach to around the whole entire table. So you had the tabletop on top of the tabletop you had that handbreath rim uh frame and then on top of the frame is where you had that gold crown rim around it like a trim like a frame. And there's a argument amongst the sages about how this was done. Some people say that where was this frame. It was on top of the table like their hand on other like great um like it had this piece that was coming out that was sticking out like you would have like a crown molding if you want to call it. There was a certain frame around a table that went around it. So you had the actual table and then on top of the table you had this frame and then on top of that the crown some say so there's so there are two opinions of how this actually situated itself. According to one opinion there was the actual frame was above the table and on top of the frame was the crown that we mentioned. According to the second opinion, the frame was below the table. That means connecting the legs and then on top of the frame, not on top of the table was this crown. So the crown was in between the frame and the top of the table and the tabletop. Verse 27, the gold that you should make four gold rings and they should be placed on the on the frame. I'm sorry. Verse 26. And you should make four gold rings. You should take these four gold these gold rings and put them on the four sides and the four corners which is on the four legs which on four four of its legs. The ring should be close to the frame. They should be holders for the poles. The purpose of these poles will be to carry the table. Meaning where are you going to put these rings? On the legs. The actual rings will be on the legs of the table but facing where that frame was. you. Those rings are going to be like homes that are going to hold the poles that will then be placed in the table. The word like for the need of homes, the need of cases like the translates for a place that the poles can be placed in and hold them and carried with them. Verse 28 and the actual pose itself you will make from a piece and you will coat them in golden and the table will be carried with them. The word doesn't say and you will carry but meaning it will be done that it will be carried at the table will be carried by these poles. Verse 29. Now over here the Torah is telling us about the utensils that will be made. These utensils you shall have for it. So let's start off. The first one is which are bread forms, the cap and spoons, the and shelving tubes and supporting uh and which and supporting frames. All these will be made of pure gold. You shall make them. So we go through Rashi is going to explain each one of these items and what they were used for. What are these these bread forms? This was the form that they would make the um that they would make the bread would be formed on it would be placed in it. What kind how is the bread made? The actual bread was made in a way like an open box that was open on both sides. Meaning imagine you have a upside down. So it was shaped that it would came to the top but on the bottom it was flat and then open on both sides and then open in the center like an upside down to be meaning and he explains following. that had a bottom the then was folded from both sides towards the top like like a wall. That's why they were called a bread the face press the showbread because it would fold up and they would face each other. So it's called showbread that they were able to show to one another. They would see one another. Now, where would he place these? Put the length of the bread towards the width of the table. And the walls that were holding were against the edge of the table to the north and the south of the table. So that comes out that the walls of the bread were facing the sides as well. So if you were looking at the actual table against the wall that was holding the supporting frames, the shelves, that's where the wall was and they would be facing towards each other. And if you were looking at the table from the side, you would be able to see all the way through. of what they do is what they did was they made a um a frame or a form of gold and then one of metal. The way they were able to keep it this way was that they made two of them. They made one of metal, one of tin and one of gold. They actually baked it in the one of tin. Then when they would take the bread out of the oven, they would put it in the gold. until the next day of Shabas until the following Shabas that they would sit there until they would set it up on the table. That bread frame was called what we call in the Torah that bread form and it spoons and those were the bowls that they would put the spices in. They made two of them for the two fistfuls of spices, the frankincense that they would put together with the two breads. It says in the book of Leviticus that they would put with each section of bread they would make sure to have spices the incense there as well. What were these? So he explains These are like half pipes that were cut to the length. They made them of gold and he would set up three half pipes and the bread would then sit on them. That was like the shelving. Um and then they would put another shelf. So then the next bread would sit on top of it. The reason for this is was to make space that they shouldn't put one bread directly on top of the other and they should be able to ear to get in. So it shouldn't get moldy and it shouldn't get ruined. The reason why over here it's called where do we get that word from? Because in Arabic the word anything that has an empty space in it is called so this was a half pipe that was empty that was used as a shelf. the gold form would sit on it and they would make a space between each one of the breads. What are these? These were the um these were like the holders that as he explains and he goes on to say they were like poles like golden pegs. They would stand all the way down to the floor. would go all the way on top of the table like higher than the table. According to how many bread hand six different um sections and according to some opinion they were one on top the other. So what they had was as we mentioned there were these halfpipes. Those halfpipes were in these verticals which were called minaki. In those verticals there were six different sections where these half pipes would go into with the horizontal shelves and each one was that the bread should sit on it and not be one on top of the other and then weigh down on top of the bread and break the bread. Rashi says, "I don't know where the word comes to mean these holders, these boards that were holding them on the side." But that's what it means. However, he says, some other commentaries explain that where did these words come from? They're called sniffing. They're called these were called these boards because they are supports it shouldn't break and the are the poles because since they keep it clean. However learns it a different way and says that these were these poles as we explained previously. But the purpose of this was to support the bread. They should be able to have clear concise spaces for each one of the bread so they shouldn't break the lower ones and they should be able to breathe and this way not become moldy as well. There is a debate as we mentioned according to some there were six shelves or five shelves if the actual first bread sat on the table or it was also sitting on a shelf that they would cover it. The reason why he uses it that they would cover it because it was like a covering on top of it. In both of these cases, when we're talking about it, it means that they were covered with them. And this is what they were used to be able to support the breads that were there in the holy temple. Verse 30. And you will then place the showbread on the table before me at all times. Why was it called showbread? Face as we explained previously that they were facing one another. How many breads there were and how it was detailed and how it was word used are explained in the Torah reading of in the book of Leviticus. This concludes the second Torah reading of parasuma.