Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 24, 2017)
Gospel (Luk 1:26-38)
Reading 1 (2Sa 7:1-5)
God’s Promise to David
1 Now it came about when the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around,
2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God remains in a tent.”
Exo 26:1-10
The Tabernacle
1 “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains consisting of fine twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn. A cherubim design of the work of a skilled worker you shall make them.
Rashi’s Commentary
Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains—That they should serve it as a roof and cover its walls outside the planks—for the curtains hung behind them so as to cover them.
Of fine twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn—Thus there were four different materials in every thread, one of linen and three of yarn, each of the strands of which a thread was composed being sixfold. Consequently the four materials intertwined into one thread gave a twenty-four-fold thread (Yoma 71b; Baraita DeMelekhet HaMishkan ch. 2).
A cherubim design of the work of a skilled worker—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).
2 The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of one curtain shall be four cubits; all the curtains shall have the same size.
3 Five of these curtains shall be joined to one another, and the other five curtains shall also be joined to one another.
Rashi’s Commentary
Shall be joined—They sewed them together with a needle, each five separately.
To one 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 אִישׁ אֶל-אָחִיו, lit., a man to his brother, as it is said, e. g. of the cherubim (Exo 25:20) “אִישׁ אֶל-אָחִיו.”
4 And you shall make loops of blue material on the edge of the end curtain that is at the edge of one set, and likewise you shall make them on the edge of the end curtain in the other set.
Rashi’s Commentary
Loops are lacels in old French. Similarly Onkelos translates it by עִנוּבִין, which has the meaning of “looping.”
Curtain that is at the edge of one set—i. e. the loops shall be made on that curtain which is the end in the section. The combination of five curtains is here termed חוֹבֶרֶת.
And likewise you shall make them on the edge of
the end curtain in the other set—i. e. on that curtain which is the end— הַקִּצוֹנָה is connected in meaning with קָצֶה, end, meaning at the end of the set.
5 You shall make fifty loops on the edge of one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set; the loops shall be opposite each other.
6 You shall make fifty clasps of gold and fasten the curtains together with the clasps so that the tabernacle will be a unit.
Rashi’s Commentary
Clasps of gold—Fermels in old French. They put one end of them into the loops on one set and the other end into the loops on the other set and they thus joined them (these sets) together by means of them.
7 And then you shall make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—you shall make eleven curtains.
Rashi’s Commentary
Curtains of goat hair—i. e. goat hair (cf. Rashi on Exo 25:4).
For the tent over the tabernacle—i. e. to spread them over the lower curtains (over those which had been already placed over the tabernacle).
8 The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of one curtain four cubits; the eleven curtains shall all have the same size.
Rashi’s Commentary
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.
9 And you shall join five curtains by themselves and the other six curtains by themselves, and you shall fold the sixth curtain at the front of the tent.
Rashi’s Commentary
And you shall fold the sixth curtain which was additional in these upper curtains over and above the lower curtains.
At 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.
10 And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of one curtain which is at the edge of the first set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the other set.
3 Nathan replied to the king, “Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.”
4 But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:
5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Are you the one who should build me a house to dwell in?
This work is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0
Moses and the Tabernacle by Free Bible Images is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Moses and the Tabernacle by Free Bible Images is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Moses and the Tabernacle by Free Bible Images is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0