Terumah - 4th Portion

Join us as we learn Kumish for Wednesday Paresum chapter 26 verse1 15. Yesterday's Torah reading we spoke about the curtains and the coverings of the the tapestries that would cover the roof of the Mishkan of the tabernacle. Today we're going to talk about the actual structure, the walls of the Mishkan. Verse 15. And you shall make the planks, the boards laish for the tabernacle. They should be made out of acacia wood vertically standing side by side as Rashi will explain. And you should make the planks. really should have said you should make planks. Why does he say the planks? It said by all the other things it said you should make a table. You should make ark. It doesn't say sim. Why then also does he say the all the other ones it says you make a table over here. He says the planks is referring to those beams that were already set for it. Jacobu already planted the woods, cedar woods in Egypt. So when he died, he told his children that they should take it with him when they leave Egypt. And he told them and he told them that God is going to command you to build a tabernacle in the desert. And that tabernacle you would need from wood. He made sure that this would be ready for them to use. And this is what we find in the in the liturgy that there was a fellow that we say on that there are some that say on PES from a fellow by the name of Matim that was sprouted the great height the uh cedar trees that were prepared beforehand by those who were hastily making it ready for the home to be built which was Yakov and his dire that Jacob was ready and eager to get those cedar woods ready for the acacia wood that would have to be used for the building of the tabernacle. These planks would be standing vertically that the length of the planks would be standing vertical and they would stand as the walls of the tabernacle side by side the other planks. You shouldn't make the beams horizontal like in the width of the beams, one beam on top of the other, but vertical side by side next to each other. An interesting thing that we know that the Reb talks about in his famous discourse of bosani how the tabernacle which is a divine presence of God in this world. So too each aspect of the tabernacle symbolizes of the uh absolute bringing the divine pro presence into this world and especially as this is seen by the kroshim. The word kerishes in Hebrew is made up of three letters kuf shin which those three letters can mean a plank kerish as well as it makes the word a kesher to connect and as well as the word sheer which means a lie. The job of the tabernacle and the task of the tabernacle and the divine presence in this world is to transform the lies in this world to a connection and making it upright a connection together with God. as well as the word shittita which is the word shitim for aaca wood comes from the wordus nonsense folly and the fact that a tree of nonsense means weighing to the wayside but God tells us to take the make itim take the foolishness and stand it upright meaning that we have the ability to take the foolishness of nonsense and transform it into a foolishness of holiness as we have the ability to take the lie and transform it into something of a connection with God. The entire job and task of the tabernacle is transforming the physical into spiritual. The Torah now continues with the measurements of each one of these planks. Text 16 uh verse 16. The length of each plank would be 10 cubits. And the width of each plank would be one and a half cubits. It teaches us that the height of the Mishk of the tabernacle was 10. From here we learnish the length of the Mishkan. There were 20 beams on the north and south side going from east to west. So that gives you amma 30 ammas long because if each one was an amma and a half was a cubit and a half you have 20 beams that makes it 30 cubits long. Verse 17. There were two arms, two pl for each plank. There were two tenants, two little arms that would come out of it. As well as they were parallel to one another. This is what you would do to all the planks of the tabernacle. What does it mean? Explains how they would do this. For every plank there were two little pieces that would come out on the bottom. They were like pegs. What they would do is they would cut out from the beam in the middle in the height of an a quarter of an amma on the side and a quarter of the handbreath on each side. this way. These are look like hands. They were like pegs that came down from the center of the beam. There were two little pieces each side indented by a quarter of an ammo. The actual engraving the cutout was a half of the beam in the middle. What was the point of those two pegs? And those two pegs though would go into the empty salow sockets. And the sockets were an amah. They would sit straight. So you had 40 sockets one next to the other. There were 20 beams. Each beam had 20 uh two pegs. That's 40 pegs for the 40 sockets. The actual width of the um cutout was the was the size of the width of the socket. So you had the empty part of the socket where this peg would go inside the leftover the quarter of an amma around it would cover the top of the socket. So the entire beam was sitting on the socket because if not because if not then you would have empty space between the two of them and that's the point of when the Torah says that they should be matching up with one another that there should be no empty space and they should fit exactly to the socket that it goes into mish. What does the word mish mean? that these pegs they were made like steps that there were two pegs separate from one another. Not that there was one beam that would sit in it. You had two of them separate from one another with a space in between like a ladder and there and the heads of them were a little pointy that they should be able to go into properly to this hollowess of the socket. Just like a step of a ladder, the prong of a ladder has these pointy parts that go into the sides of the ladder. So too, you have these pegs would fit into the sockets. Exactly. Verse 18. like facing each other exactly one to the other. Meaning that the two pegs that are coming out and you the cutout that you have should be exact. You shouldn't have that you're going to have one peg that the one beam that the peg isn't forward and one beam the peg is backwards. They should all have the exact measurements around it. And that's why he enumerates a quarter space that was underneath that they would cut out. Then they would have the pegs coming out and then a half a half a half a cubid space in between. Uh and this should be exact. So all of them should be evenly made. The the Aramaic explanation explains the word pegs and he calls it hinges because it looks like the hinges that go into the door to be able to keep the door closed so it fits in what they would call today tongue and groove type of thing. Verse 18. And then you should make these uh planks, these boards for the tabernacle. How many are you going to make? You will have 20 planks for the southern side. The word the word over here means side. Every single side was called aa like it says translates to the south side. Verse 19 underneath those planks you will have then 40 silver sockets bases that will be made under the 20 planks. two planks, two sockets for every planka for the two uh pegs that would be coming out of the plank and two sockets under each plank for two of its pegs. Uh there's no rashi on this one. So we continue on to verse 20. And for the second side of the tabernacle, which will be on the north side, you will do the same thing. Have 20 planks. Verse 21. You will have as well 40 silver sockets. Two sockets under each one of the planks and two bases under each one of the planks. Two silver sockets for each plank. Verse 22. What about for the back of the tabernacle, which that would be the west of the tabernacle over there? You're going to have six planks. Each one of those planks one and a half cubits that will be fully exposed into the tabernacle as Rashi will explain. Mishkan means the end being that the entrance of the tabernacle was on the east. So therefore the east is called the face and the west is called the back. This is the end because the face was the beginning. We're going to make six um six beams. Six times one and a half gives you nine amos width. Now the Torah continues. So you have now six that are visibly seen fully in the actual tabernacle and then you're going to make another two which are going to go on the corners are the corners of the tabernacle in the back. So you have eight you have six uh in the previous verse as we said six which would be visibly seen then two that would go into the corners. Rashi explains what does this mean? Two beams added beams each one for each corner. One for the northwest corner and one for the southwest corner. So therefore you have a total of you have eight beams one after the other lined up one after the other. Mishkan. The only difference is that these two corner beams you did not see on the inside of the Mishkan completely. You only saw a half of each. So from the inside of the Mishkan, you had only 10 Amas. You had nine amas for the six times one and a half plus a half and a half of the two corner ones which would bring it to 10 because you have the on each side left over was then on the sides of the Mishk north and south. So that the corner so when you look from the outside of the tabernacle the corner was even and but on the inside it was less the space than it was on the outside. Verse 23 we just did that and you make the two beams in the corner. Verse 24. You will make sure that the two planks in the uh in the back co and and everything should be flushed and all the planks should be flushed at the bottom. So to on the top they should all be flushed. They should all be even. You will put a ring that will then connect the two. The same thing will also be done to the two corners. That means as we mentioned in Rashi previously that you wanted on the bottom all the beams should be flushed one together attached to one another as well on the top it should be flush and there was a ring that would keep them in place that would keep the two together. Rashi explains this and says as follows. All the planks should be equal should be flush from the bottom. That the thickness of the socket should not create space between any of them. This is what I explained previously in verse 17. That therefore they had to make the pegs cut out properly that they should all be even. So they sit in the planks and all of them sit evenly in the planks. And this is that why you had that empty space around the pegs that they would sit and cover the pe the the socket. So all should be covered and sitting evenly on the edge of the socket. So to the beam that's next to it. So thereby you have everything is sitting evenly and flush to the socket and there's no empty space between them. The same idea would be when you have then the corner beams. How do you situate those? Those would have to be cut out to its width. That means it's going to have to be cut out towards the width of going to the north or the south depending on which side it is. because you have the sockets that are there and there's one socket going this way and then there's the other socket going that way. So therefore the sockets are all going in the same direction. So you would have that the beams will then be cut the corner beam the pegs would be going the opposite way of the beams that were horizontal on the back of the mushkin elab. Now, besides on the bottom of being flushed to the sockets and making sure that even the corner doesn't have any extra space on the top as well, the Torah wants that there should be flushed. And how did they do that? They had this ring. Every beam on the top had a little indentation that would be at the edge of each beam. That indentation would be the thickness of this ring that would sit on it and that ring would then sit. You have one ring beam to the other beam and the ring that would sit by the both which would be like this bracket that would hold them both in place. So it makes that it should be flush to the plank that's next to it. Rashi explains. Rashi says, "I don't know if those rings were always in the planks or they used to take them out as well." Or they would move them around. The beam that was in the corner, the one that was in the corner needed one that was the thickness of the south and the north and then also the beginning of the one that was on the west. So, because it was a corner beam, it needed a special corner bracket that would fit and be aligned to the one that was either the north or south as well to the one that was on the west. It would go into it and would keep it in place this way. So, if you had a corner beam, on one side of the corner beam, it was connected to the north or south wall. It had that indentation and on the other side of the corner beam it had an indentation that would connect the ring with the western wall. So this way your corners were built and once your corners are built it give support to the rest of the columns. This is the way you would do it for both of them for both corners for both corners that are for both beams that are on the corner. For the plank that was at the end of the north wall and for the plank that was on the west wall. That's the way it would go for both corners. Verse 25. So total you would have now eight beams on your back end wall. And the sockets would be silver sockets 16 sockets. Two sockets for every beam and two sockets for every beam. What does this mean? These eight beams. So as we mentioned this is talking about the western wall. This is what we mentioned previously about making the six beams and then you have the two beams on the corners. So I give you a total of which gives you a total of eight beams on the western wall. Rashi gives us a bottom line of what all the beams were and how they worked. And he says as follows and he brings it and quotes it from the bryishna. This is the way it's discussed in the Mishna say the detail of how the beams were made by the details of the construction of the tabernacle. And the Mishna says the following they would make the sockets empty hollow them out and then they would also carve out in the beams on the bottom. quarter of the hand breath, a quarter cubid here, a cure a quarter cubid on each side and the indent and the peg was halfway in the middle. The oscillation and then they would make two pegs that were looking like two legs that were coming out of the beam. What it means is not but the word is supposed to be which means two steps of the ladder like two prongs of a ladder like Rashi mentioned previously that a separate one from the other and they were on an indent was on a slant so it would go easily into the hollow socket is like a prong that goes into the sides of the hole. of the ladder. That's why he uses the terminology regime which means a like a prong of a ladder. Then the continues now goes back to the bry and says then they would take that beam and put it into the two sockets. And then he would scratch then he would carve out a little indentation on the beam on the top a finger off the edge and a finger off the edge of the other side. And they use the golden bracket to be able to connect the two so that the breams don't separate one from the other. It says in the verse that they should be flushed to one another on the bottom. This is the text of the Mishna and I explained the ideas that are mentioned in this Mishna according to the passages that we just read. Verse 26. And now you're going to make uh crossbarss made out of wood, five of them for the for the planks of one side of the tabernacle. That means five um crossbarss for each side of the Mishkim says. This is long poles that they would then connect the beams as well. Five for each side of the Mishkan. These five there were really only three. What does this mean? Because you had a crossbar on the top and a crossbar on the bottom. Were made out of two pieces. One would go halfway and the other one would go halfway. They would put them on both sides on these little rings that would come out of the beams. They would put them through half on one side, one half on the other side until they would meet one the other middle crossbar. So that would go inside the beams across the whole length of the wall would go from one end of the wall to the other. As we're going to see in the verse, it says that the center crossbar would go from edge to edge. The top and bottom crossbarss had rings on the outside that they would sit in on the beams. Every plank, every beam had two rings that the crossbar would go into. And then they took by thirds. That means if you take the beam and split it up into thirds would be one would be in the first top two and a half cubits and the other one was on the bottom two and a half cubits and then you would put have those rings and that's where the crossbar would go into. And each part was on a quarter of the cross beam. So if you split up the cross beam, you had a quarter top you had one cross beam. On the bottom you had another cross beam and then you had the center one that went in the middle. The outside ones had rings on each one which were exactly parallel and every single beam had the exact same two rings. So therefore the crossbar was able to fit into them one on each side to be able to meet. The middle beam, however, was a hole with inside the planks that they put a crossbar with inside the beams, inside the uh the planks, and that would go all the way around from edge to edge of the beams of the planks. You have now the difference between the middle one, that means the inside one, and the outside ones. the outside ones which were on the north and on the south was 15 each because remember there were 30 am long and he's saying it met halfway so each one was 15 four pieces and the however the middle one was 30 that went from edge to edge from one edge to the other from east to west and then there were five crossarss on on the west wall. They were six long and however the center one was long 12 to able to take the whole width of the eight beams that were there. This is the way it's explained in the bryer containing the construction of the Mishkan verse 28 and the center crossbar which was full length that went inside. They drilled drilled a hole in the middle of the beams on the inside went from one end to the other. So you had five beams total on each side. Two beams, two beams on top, two beams on bottom that met each other and then the center beam that went inside from edge to edge theim. What are you going to do with these planks? They're not just going to stay acacia wood. The top of they should be covered in gold and the rings that are on the outside should also be made from gold. They should be to hold the crossarss. The reason why you're putting the rings on the outside, they're going to be there to hold the crossarss. And these crossbars should be covered in gold as well. Says these rings that you're going to make on the actual planks you going to be rings to insert the crossarss in them. Not that the gold was stuck onto the crossbarss. Not that they took the cross bars and then they coated it in gold. What they did was they were like these two empty pieces of gold, two hollow pieces of gold. And what they would do is they beam they would in the actual ring there was a piece that they would there were tubes and those tubes were covered with gold and they would fit the beams through those tubes. So it was then covered with gold. So not the actual be crossbar itself was wood but they fed it through these gold cross uh empty hollow tubes and this way it was covered with gold. because they would set it next to the ring. So you had the ring in the middle and then on both sides of the ring you had these empty tubes that were set there and the length of them would then fill the whole width of the beam. The crossar would go in it and from there into the ring and from the ring it would go into the second hollow part. So if you would look on the outside of the tabernacle, you wouldn't see wooden poles, your wooden crossbarss, you would see golden crossbars because all along the beams, you had the hollow p the hollow tube, a ring, and then another hollow tube. So when you'd fit the crossbar through it, you would fit it through the tube, then the ring, then into the other half of the crossbar. So on the outside, these were protruding on the outside. You saw these crossbarss. However, on the inside of the Mishkan, you didn't see any of these hinges or any of these crossbarss or brackets. All these brackets and everything was only on the outside of the Mishkan. On the inside of the Mishkin was smooth walls. Verse 30ish. And then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its proper order that I showed you on the mountain. Once everything is complete, then you should put it up because I'm going to eventually show you what is supposed to be done. So therefore, whatever I'm going to show you how it will be done, that's the way you will eventually do it when it comes time to putting up the tabernacle. This concludes the first I'm sorry.