How the Tabernacle Curtains and Boards Were Joined

"And he overlaid the bars with gold" (Exodus 26:29). How did he do it? He would bring two mouthpieces of gold, each one a cubit and a half long, and place them in the hollow of the board, in the place where the bar is set. How did he set up the Tabernacle? He would bring ten curtains of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, as it is said, "And you shall make the Tabernacle with ten curtains" (Exodus 26:1, verse 1). Their thread was doubled thirty-two upon thirty-two, the words of Rabbi Nehemiah. For Rabbi Nehemiah used to say: one thread doubled into two, twisted into four, twined into eight, so that their thread comes to thirty-two doubled. But the Sages say: one thread doubled into two, twisted into three, twined into six, so that their thread comes to twenty-four doubled. And he would join them into two sets of curtains, one of five and one of five, as it is said, "five of the curtains shall be joined together." He would join them with loops of blue, as it is said, "And you shall make loops of blue" (verse 4), and he would join them with fifty clasps of gold, and the clasps would appear in the Tabernacle like the stars in the firmament. The length of the curtains was twenty-eight cubits, as it is said, "the length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits" (verse 2), and their width forty cubits, as it is said, "and the breadth four cubits." Take from them thirty cubits from east to west, which he gives to the roof of the Tabernacle, and ten cubits for the western side of the Tabernacle, and the surplus of the curtains they spread out behind it. He would bring eleven curtains of goats' hair, the length of each one being thirty cubits, as it is said, "And you shall make curtains of goats' hair" and so on (verses 7-8). And he would join them into two sets with loops, one of five and one of six, as it is said, "And he coupled the five curtains by themselves, and the six curtains by themselves" (verse 9), and he would join them in the loops with fifty clasps, as it is said, "And you shall make fifty loops," and it says, "And you shall make fifty clasps of bronze" (verse 11). The width of the curtains was forty-four cubits, as it is said, "the length of the curtain" and so on. Take from them thirty cubits for the length of the Tabernacle and ten cubits which he gives to the height of the Tabernacle; one curtain remained over, which he folds over the face of the Tent, as it is said, "And you shall double over the sixth curtain" (verse 9). Rabbi Yose says: half of it was folded over the face of the Tent, and half of the curtain was folded behind the Tabernacle, as it is said, "And the overhanging part that remains" and so on. He would bring one cover of leather, its length thirty and its width ten cubits, which clothes the Tent from east to west, as it is said, "And you shall make a covering for the Tent" (verse 14), and it was made above with a kind of stripes, the words of Rabbi Nehemiah. Rabbi Yehudah says: two coverings, the lower one of rams' skins dyed red and the upper one of tachash skins, as it is said, "its covering and the covering of tachash that is above it" (Numbers 4:25). "The work of a skilled weaver" [choshev]. "The work of an embroiderer" [rokem]. Rabbi Ilai said: that they embroider in the place where they design. In a baraita it was taught: "embroiderer" is needlework, therefore one face; "skilled weaver" is the work of a loom, therefore two faces.