Woven With Two Faces and the Floor Plan of the Sanctuary

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 422:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

The work of the curtains was blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen, and the thread was folded fourfold. Rabbi Yose says: a thread of gold was added among them, as it is said, "And they beat out the plates of gold" (Exodus 39:3). "The work of a skilled weaver" (Exodus 26:1). Rav Nachman said: "the work of a skilled weaver" means two faces, two figures, one on this side and one on that side; and "the work of an embroiderer" means one figure, one face. There were other curtains above them, made of goats' hair, eleven curtains, two sets: one set of five on the west and of six on the east. The length of the two sets was forty-four cubits, corresponding to the length of the lower curtains, and their width thirty cubits, corresponding to the width of those below, joined with clasps of gold. And the ones above were joined with clasps of bronze, to join the tent so as to be one. And they were placed corresponding to the last third of the tent, opposite which the curtain hung below. Rabbi Yose says: it was folded double opposite the boards. So there were two extra cubits, which hung over beyond the curtains of blue from east to west, as it is said, "shall hang over" (Exodus 26:12-13). From here you learn proper conduct, that a person should be sparing of the beautiful. "And you shall make a covering for the tent" (Exodus 26:14). Another covering covered the tent, on three sides, from the north, from the south, from the west. Rabbi Nehemiah says: they were made like lattices. Rabbi Yehudah says: below were rams' skins dyed red, and above tachash skins. How were their measurements? North and south its length was thirty cubits. Ten by ten on the west was the Holy of Holies, the place of the ark. A curtain was at the end of ten cubits, dividing the house: ten cubits within and twenty without. And it was spread under the clasps of the curtains, and outside it twenty by ten. The golden altar was set at the end of ten cubits, dividing the house ten cubits to the east and ten to the west, five to the north and five to the south. The lampstand and the table were within the altar, the lampstand in the south and the table in the north, five cubits between the lampstand and the table, two and a half cubits from the boards on the south to the lampstand, and likewise from the boards on the north to the table, and five cubits from its place to the curtain, and five cubits from its place to the altar. And the entrance of the sanctuary was on the east, and there were no boards there but pillars, the thickness of each one cubit by cubit, overlaid with gold and their sockets of bronze, and a screen was spread over them corresponding to the inner curtain. And the place of the boards standing on the south and the north and the west was a cubit wide, and was not part of the measure of the tent.

Themes

TabernacleTemple VesselsCreation

Continue Reading

Yalkut Shimoni on TorahThe Tent of Meeting Mirrors the Work of CreationRabbi Nehemiah saw the whole of creation folded into the desert sanctuary. The hanging curtains were heaven and earth stretched out. The laver and its base stooZoharThe Tabernacle Rivers Fill the Great SeaThe Tabernacle of Moses is counted like heaven is counted. In Zohar, Pekudei 1, Rabbi Hiya reads "these are the accounts of the Tabernacle" through the verse, "Yalkut Shimoni on TorahWhy Bezalel Began With the Ark and the Open Crown of TorahThe first thing Bezalel built was the Ark. The rabbis ask why, and answer with a memory of creation. When God set out to make the world, He wrapped Himself in lYalkut Shimoni on TorahWhere Was It Commanded and the Cloud Above the TabernacleWhen the Torah says frankincense was placed "upon" the row of showbread, Rav teaches that the word does not always mean stacked on top. Here it means beside, seYalkut Shimoni on TorahFifty Blue Loops and the Measure of the Tabernacle CurtainsWhat follows is pure accounting, and that is its point. Each great curtain carried fifty loops of blue wool along its edge, matched loop for loop with the curtaYalkut Shimoni on TorahThe Shamir Worm That Splits the Priestly Breastplate StonesThe names of the twelve tribes had to be cut into the gemstones of the High Priest's breastplate, but two verses fence the work in. "Engravings of a signet" rul