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1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

2 The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and every one of the curtains shall have one measure.

3 The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

4 And you shall make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

5 Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another.

6 And you shall make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

7 And you shall make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make.

8 The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

9 And you shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle.

10 And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

11 And you shall make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

12 And the remnant that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle.

13 And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to cover it.

14 And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins.

15 And you shall make boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood standing up.

16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth of one board.

17 Two tenons shall there be in one board, set in order one against another: thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

18 And you shall make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south side southward.

19 And you shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

20 And for the second side of the tabernacle on the north side there shall be twenty boards:

21 And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

22 And for the sides of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards.

23 And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides.

24 And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

25 And they shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

26 And you shall make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

28 And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end.

29 And you shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and thou shalt overlay the bars with gold.

30 And you shall rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shown to you in the mount.

31 And you shall make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:

32 And you shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.

33 And you shall hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

34 And you shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

35 And you shall set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

36 And you shall make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

37 And you shall make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

[30] requires an oral law

h.ואת המשכן תעשה עשר יריעת MOREOVER THOU SIIALT MAKE THE DWELLING OF TEN CURTAINS — that they should serve it as a roof and at the same thime as wall-coverings for the outside of the beards; — for the curtains hung behind them so as to cover them.

h.שש משזר ותכלת וארגמן ותלעת שני OF FINE TWINED LINEN AND BLUE PURPLE, AND RED PURPLE, AND CRIMSON — Thus there were four different materials in every thread, one of linen and three of wool, each of the strands of which a thread was composed being sixfold (the word is taken here in the double sense of שש “linen” and of שש “six”). Consequently the four materials intertwined into one thread gave a twenty-four-fold thread (Yoma 71b; Baraita DeMelekhet HaMishkan ch. 2).

h.כרבים מעשה חשב WITH CHERUBIM, THE WORK OF AN ARTIST — 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).

h.תהיין חברת SHALL JOIN TOGETHER — They sewed them together with a needle, each five separately.

h.אשה אל אחתה ONE TO 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 איש אל אחיו, lit., a man to his brother, as it is said, e. g. of the cherubim (Exodus 25:20) “and their faces were turned איש אל אחיו‎”.

h.ללאת are lacels in old French Similarly Onkelos translates it by ענובין, which has the meaning of “looping.”

h.מקצה בחברת FROM THE EXTREMITY IN THE JOINING — i. e. the loops shall be made on that curtain which is the last in the section. The combination of five curtains is here termed חוברת.

h.וכן תעשה בשפת היריעה הקיצונה במחברה השנית— AND LIKEWISE SHALT THOU MAKE IN THE OUTERMOST EDGE OF ANOTHER CURTAIN IN THE JOINING OF THE SECOND — i. e. on that curtain which is the end-most — קיצונה is connected in meaning with קצה, end; — it is as much as to say: “at the end of the section.”

h.מקבילת הללאת אשה אל אחתה — Be careful that you make the loops (place them on the curtains) to one measurement: that the spaces between one loop and the other be exactly the same, and further, as their measurement is on the one so shall it be on the other, so that when you lay out one section next to the other the loops of the one shall come exactly opposite those of the other. That is what is meant by the expression מקבילות, viz., “one opposite the other”. In the Targum the translation of נֶגֶד “opposite” is לקבל (hence the term מקבילות from קבל). The curtains were twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, so when they joined five curtains together along their lengths it followed that their width was twenty cubits. The same was the case with the other section. The Tabernacle was thirty cubits in length from East to West, for it is said, (Exodus 36:23) “twenty boards for the south side (which was the long side of the Tabernacle) southward,” and the same is stated with reference to the north side; and as each board was one cubit and a half in breadth you have thirty cubits from East to West. The width of the Tabernacle from North to South was ten cubits, for it is said, (Exodus 36:27, 28) “and for the side of the dwelling westward he made six boards … and two boards … for the corners of the dwelling,” so you have ten cubits (this appears to give a breadth of twelve cubits, but each of the corner boards stood partly behind the thickness of the adjoining board that stood at right angles with it, and as the thickness was one cubit it took off a cubit on each side from the inside measurement). — I shall explain these verses each on its place. — They spread the curtains with their length over the breadth of the Tabernacle, whereby the ten middle cubits served as a roofing for the inside over the width of the Tabernacle and a cubit on each side of these ten cubits went to cover the thickness of the boards which were one cubit thick, so that there remained altogether sixteen cubits — eight hanging over on the north side and eight on the south side, covering the vertical boards which were ten cubits in height; consequently the two lowest cubits of the boards were left showing. The breadth of the curtains after having been joined together was forty cubits, twenty cubits for each section. Thirty cubits of these served as a roofing for the inside of the Tabernacle over its length, and one cubit for the thickness of the tops of the boards of the westside and one more cubit to cover the thickness of the columns in the east side — for there were no boards in the east side but there were five columns on the hooks of which the screen was spread and hung as a kind of curtain (cf. Exodus 27:10). Thus there remained eight cubits which hung on the back of the Tabernacle on the west side, leaving the two lowest cubits showing. This I have found in the Boraitha מ“ט מדות. But in Treatise Shabbat 98b it is stated that the curtains did not cover the thickness of the columns on the east side, and consequently there were nine cubits of the curtains hanging on the back of the Tabernacle. The text of this section suppports this view, since it says (v. 33) “and thou shalt hang up the partition veil under the catches;” for if it were as the Boraitha states the partition veil would have been distant from the catches one cubit to the West.

h.קרסי זהב CATCHES OF GOLD — Fermels in old French They put one end of them into the loops on one section and the other end into the loops on the other section and they thus joined them (these sections) together by means of them.

h.יריעת עזים CURTAINS OF עזים — i. e. GOATS HAIR (cf. Rashi on Exodus 25:4). לאהל על המשכן TO BE A COVERING UPON THE DWELLING — i. e. to spread them over the lower curtains (over those which had been already placed over the Tabernacle).

h.שלשים באמה [THE LENGTH OF ONE CURTAIN SHALL BE] 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.

h.וכפלת את היריעה הששית AND THOU SHALT DOUBLE THE SIXTH CURTAIN which was additional in these upper curtains over and above the lower curtains,

h.אל מול פני האהל OPPOSITE 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.

h.וסרח העדף ביריעת האהל AND THE SURPLUS OF THE CURTAINS OF THE TENT over and above the lower curtains of the Tabernacle [SHALL HANG OVER etc.]. “The curtains of the אהל” were the upper ones made of goats’ hair which Scripture calls אהל, as it states about them, (v. 7) “they shall be an אהל over the dwelling.” The word אהל used in connection with them means only a covering (the word has not its usual meaning of “tent“) because they formed a cover and a screen over the lower ones. They exceeded the lower ones by one half curtain on the west side. For the other half of the eleventh curtain which was in excess of the number of the lower ones was folded over to hang in front of the tent (the Tabernacle) (cf. v. 9). There therefore remained two cubits, — the breadth of the half of it — in excess of the width of the lower curtains (it is this which is here described as חצי היריעה העדפת “the half curtain that exceeded”). This

h.תסרח על אחרי המשכן SHALL HANG OVER THE BACK OF THE TABERNACLE — to cover the two cubits of the boards that were left bare.

h.אחרי המשכן THE BACK OF THE TABERNACLE — i. e. the west side. This is called “the back” because the entrance was on the east side which was therefore its front. The north and the south are accordingly called the “sides” in the right and the left directions.

h.והאמה מזה והאמה מזה AND A CUBIT ON THE ONE SIDE AND A CUBIT ON THE OTHER SIDE — i. e. on the north and on the south,

h.בעדף בארך יריעת האהל OF THE SURPLUS OF THE LENGTH OF THE CURTAINS OF THE TABERNACLE — i. e. which were in excess over the curtains of “the Tabernacle” (the woollen ones) by two cubits,

h.יהיה מרוח על צדי המשכן SHALL HANG OVER THE SIDES OF THE TABERNACLE — on the north and on the south as I have explained above. The Torah here teaches you a rule of life — that a man should take care of his artistic objects (this the Torah does by commanding that the beautiful lower curtains should be protected by coarse upper ones) (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 422).

h.מכסה לאהל [AND THOU SHALT MAKE] A COVERING FOR THE אהל — For that roofing of goats’ hair (which is termed אהל in this section) make still another covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and above this also a covering of Tachash skins. These uppermost covers however covered the roof only (were not hanging over the sides), their length being 30 cubits and their width 10. This is the opinion of R. Nehemia (that the goats’ skins and the layer of rams’ and Tachash skins formed two different covers one above the other); according to R. Jehudah, however, there was only one cover, half of it being of rams’ skins dyed red and half of it of Tachash skins (cf. Shabbat 28a).

h.ועשית את הקרשים AND THOU SHALT MAKE THE BOARDS — It should be said: “Thou shalt make boards” (without the definite article), the same form which is used of each of the other things (parts of the Tabernacle)! What is the force of the term, “the boards?” It speaks of those boards that already existed as being designated for that purpose. For our father Jacob had planted cedars (shittim-trees) in Egypt and when he died be bade his sons carry them up with them when they would leave Egypt. He told them that God would once command them to erect a dwelling of shittim-trees in the wilderness. “See” — added he — “that they be ready in your possession!” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 25:5). That is what the Babylonian embodied in his liturgical composition: The plant of those who had been admonished by their father Jacob grew up rapidly to become the cedars for the beams of our House (the Tabernacle), which refers to the fact that they had been admonished that they (the cedars) should be ready in their possession in advance (before they were needed).

h.עצי שטים עמדים OF SHITTIM-WOOD STANDING UP — Estantivs in old French; Engl, perpendicular. — This means that the length of the boards shall be placed perpendicular in the walls of the Tabernacle and that you shall not make the walls of the boards placed horizontally so that the breadth of the boards should be along the height of the walls, one board upon the other.

h.עשר אמות ארך הקדש TEN CUBITS SHALL BE THE LENGTH OF A BOARD — This tells us that the height of the Tabernacle was ten cubits (since the boards were standing vertically).

h.ואמה וחצי האמה רחב AND A CUBIT AND A HALF SHALL BE THE BREADTH — This teaches us that the length of the Tabernacle corresponding to the twenty boards which were on the north and on the south was 30 cubits from east to west.

h.שתי ידות לקרש האחד TWO TENONS THERE SHALL BE IN ONE BOARD — They cut out the lower part of the boards in the middle to a height of one cubit leaving one fourth of its width on the one side and one fourth of it on the other side. These pieces on each side of the boards were the ידות, the tenons. Thus the part cut out was one half of the breadth of the board (¾ cubit) in its centre. Now these tenons they fixed into the sockets which were made hollow. The sockets were one cubit in height and they lay in a line forty of them, one close against the other. The tenons of the boards that were fixed into the sockets were then cut away on three sides, the depth of the portions thus cut away being equal to the thickness of the rim of the sockets, so that when the boards were fixed in the sockets the wood of the board would cover the entire top of the socket. For if this were not so (if the tenons were not cut away on their outside edge) there would have been a space between one board and the next equal to the thickness of the rims of two sockets which would have separated them. That is what is meant when it says, (v. 24) “and they shall be coupled together beneath” — that they should cut away the sides of the tenons in order that the boards should join closely one to the other.

h.משלבת means made like the rungs (שליבה) of a ladder and separated from each other and planed at their ends in order that they could be inserted into the hollow of the sockets like a rung which is fixed in the hole in the ladder’s uprights.

h.אשה אל אחתה ONE TO THE OTHER — i. e. the tenons should correspond exactly one to the other; the meaning is that the portions cut away from the fronts and backs shall be precisely equal, one portion cut away having the same measurement as another portion cut away in order that of two tenons one should not diverge from a straight line towards the front and the other diverge towards the outside (the back) in reference to the thickness of the board which was one cubit. The Targum renders ידות by צירין, pivots, because they resembled, in one respect, the pivots of a door which are inserted in the hole in the threshold.

h.לפאת נגבה תימנה ON THE SOUTH SIDE SOUTHWARD — The word פאה here has not the meaning of “corner” (as e. g., Leviticus 19:9, פאת שדך) but the whole side is called פאה, as the Targum has it: לרוח עבר דרומא.

h.ולירכתי AND FOR THE BACKPART — This is a term for “end”, as the Targum renders it, ולסיפי, “for the ends.” Because the entrance was on the east the east-side is called the front and the west-side the back. And this is why it is described here by a word denoting end, because the front is the head (the beginning) of a thing.

h.תעשה ששה קרשים THOU SHALT MAKE SIX BOARDS — thus you have 9 cubits in the breadth.

h.ושני קרשים תעשה למקצעת AND TWO BOARDS SHALT THOU MAKE FOR THE CORNERS — one for the north-west corner and one for the south-west corner. All the eight boards were set in a row, only that the entire width of these two did not show in the interior of the Tabernacle, but only a half cubit on the one side and a half cubit on the other side could be seen in the interior, thus making up the breadth to ten cubits. The remaining cubit of one board and the remaining cubit of the other board came against the cubit thickness of the boards of the Tabernacle on the north and the south sides, so that the outside should be even.

h.ויהיו AND THEY SHALL BE — all the boards shall be —תאמים COUPLED TOGETHER with each other, מלמטה BENEATH, so that the thickness of the edges of two adjacent sockets should not form a space between them, keeping them apart. That is what I meant when I explained (v. 17) that the pivot-like tenons of a board should be cut away on all sides, in order that the breadth of the board shall project at the sides beyond the tenons of the boards that it may cover the rim of the socket. In like manner was the adjacent board treated. The result was that they coupled together (stood one close against the other). Each end-board in the western row was cut away along its width into its thickness over against the portion cut away from the adjacent boards of the northern and southern wall, so that the sockets standing between should not part them (the end-board and that standing next to it on the north side or south side).

h.ויחדו יהיו תמים AND THEY SHALL BE COUPLED TOGETHER — תמים has the same meaning here as תאמים in the phrase immedialely preceding.

h.על ראשו ABOVE THE HEAD OF IT — i. e. of each board.

h.אל הטבעת האחת INTO ONE RING — Each board had on the top two semi-circular incisions, one on each end of its breadth, tallying with the thickness of the ring which was to be inserted into it. They passed it (the board) into the same ring into which the next board had been passed (see illustration); Thus it (one board) joined close to the board next to it. I do not know however whether these rings were fixed to the boards or whether they were loose (not screwed down). In the case of the end-board the ring was inserted into the incisions made in the thickness of the north and south board respectively, and the top of the board which was in the west row adjacent to it was passed into it also. Thus the two pairs of walls (the western with the southern and northern respectively) were held together.

h.כן יהיה לשניהם THUS SHALL IT BE FOR THEM BOTH — for the two end-boards; e. g., for the board at the end of the north side and for the adjacent board in the western wall; and thus shall it be at both corners.

h.והיו שמנה קרשים AND THEY SHALL BE EIGHT BOARDS — These are the same boards mentioned above (vv. 22—23): “Thou shalt make six boards” … “and two boards shalt thou make for the corners”; consequently there were eight boards in the western row. The following is stated in that Mishna (paragraph) in the Boraitha dealing with “The structure of the Tabernacle” which treats of the method of arranging the boards of the Tabernacle: they made the sockets hollow, and cut away the board at the bottom, a quarter of its width being left on one side and a quarter on the other side, the portion cut away in the middle being one half its width. Thus they made for it (the board) two tenons like two חמוקין — I think the correct reading is, “like two חווקין” i. e. like two rungs of a ladder set at some distance one from the other. These were planed down so as to fix into the hollow of the socket just as a rung which is fixed into the hole in the ladder’s upright. This is the meaning of משלבות, viz., made like a rung (שליבה). They fixed them (the two tenons) into the two sockets as it says, (v. 19) “two sockets [under one board for its two tenons] and two sockets [under another board for its two tenons]”. They cut out the board at the top a finger breadth on this side and a finger breadth on that side and put them (two semicircular projecting pieces on two adjacent boards) into one golden ring in order that they (the boards) should not fall apart, as it says, “and they shall be coupled together beneath, [and they shall be coupled together above].” Thus the Mishna; its explanation I have set forth above following the order of the verses.

h.בריחים are BOLTS, as the Targum translates it: עברין; in old French esparres.

h.חמשה לקרשי צלע המשכן FIVE FOR THE BOARDS OF THE ONE SIDE OF THE TABERNACLE — The five were really only three, but the upper and the lower bolts were each composed of two pieces, the one reaching to the middle of the wall from one side and the other reaching to the middle of the wall from the other side, the one passing through the outermost ring from one side and the other passing through the outermost ring from the other side, until, passing through all the intermediate rings, they met one against each other. Thus the upper and lower bolts were two which were made up of four. As to the middle bolt its length was equal to that of the entire wall passing from one end of the wall to the other end, for it is said, “And the middle bolt etc. shall reach from extremity to extremity.” This was therefore in one piece, and so we have the five of which this passage speaks. For the upper and lower bolts had rings on the boards into which were to be inserted two rings for each board. The bolts were משלשים i. e. placed at three equidistant points along the ten cubits that formed the height of the board, thus dividing the height into four equal portions, — one portion extending from the upper ring to the top of the board, another from the lower ring to the bottom, each portion being a quarter of the board’s height, and the other two portions were between the rings (from one ring to the central bolt and from there to the other ring). This was done in order that all the rings in one row should be exactly opposite one another so that the bolt could be easily inserted. The middle bolt, however, had no rings, but the) wards were grooved right through their thickness and it (the middle bolt) passed through them by way of these grooves which were exactly opposite one another (all in one straight line). This is the meaning of what is stated, “[and the middle bolt] in the midst of the boards.” The upper two and the lower two bolts on the north and south side were each 15 cubits long, whilst the middle bolt was 30 cubits long. That is what Scripture means by saying of this bolt that it shall reach “from extremity to extremity” — from east to west. Of the five bolts on the west side the length of the two upper and the two lower ones was each six cubits whilst the middle one hade its length twelve cubits corresponding to the aggregate width of the eight boards (each of which was one cubit and a half). This is how it is explained in the Boraitha treating of the construction of the Tabernacle.

h.בתים לבריחם FOR PLACES FOR THE BOLTS — The rings which you shall make on them (the boards) shall serve as receptacles into which the bolts shall be inserted.

h.וצפית את הבריחם זהב AND THOU SHALT OVERLAY THE BOLTS WITH GOLD —This does not mean that the gold should be attached to the bolts for there was no overlay on them, but on the boards there were fixed a kind of two gold staples something like the two longitudinal sections of a hollow cane. These were fixed close to each ring on both sides of it. The length of the two staples filled up the space along the width of the board, one extending from the ring in this direction, the other from it (the ring) again in the other direction. Thus the bolts appeared to be covered with gold when they were lying on the boards. These bolts formed a projection on the walls outside. Thus neither the rings nor the staples were visible within the interior of the Tabernacle, but the entire surface of the wall within was unbroken.

h.והקמת את המשכן AND THOU SHALT SET UP THE TABERNACLE — after it is completed set it up….

h.הראית בהר This must be translated: WHICH THOU WILT before then HAVE BEEN SHOWN IN THE MOUTAIN — (The verb is future perfect). For later on I shall instruct thee and show thee the way to erect it.

h.פרכת is a term denoting a partition; in the language of the Sages (in Rabbinical Hebrew) פרגוד is something which separates the king from the people (Berakhot 18b).

h.תכלת וארגמן BLUE PURPLE, AND RED PURPLE — every material was intertwined in each strand by six threads (Yoma 71b).

h.מעשה חשב THE WORK OF AN ARTIST — I have already explained (v. 9) that this is a weaving on the two surfaces, the designs on the two sides not being similar to one another.

h.כרבים CHERUBIM — i. e. he shall make on it figures of different creatures.

h.ארבעה עמודי FOUR COLUMNS inserted into four sockets. Hooks were fixed upon them, bent upward, upon each of which to hang a pole round which the top of the partition veil was wrappped. The hooks are the ווים mentioned in the text, for they were made in the form of the letter וי”ו. The partition veil was ten cubits long corresponding to the breadth of the Tabernacle and ten cubits wide as was the height of the boards. It was hung at one-third of the length of the Tabernacle from the western side so that from it there should be inward (i. e. to that side) ten cubits and from it outward (to the entrance) twenty cubits. It follows therefore that the Holy of Holies was ten by ten cubits, and this agrees with what is said, (v. 33) “and thou shalt hang up the partition veil under the catches” that coupled the two sections of the curtaining of the Tabernacle together. For the breadth of one section was twenty cubits and when it was laid over the top of the Tabernacle from the entrance to the west, its end with the catches came at two-thirds of the length of the Tabernacle (20 cubits), exactly where we have stated that the veil was hanging. The second section covered the other third of the length of the Tabornacle (10 cubits) and what was left over (10 cubits) hung behind to cover the boards (which were 10 cubits in height; cf. Rashi on v. 5).

h.ושמת את השלחן AND THOU SHALT PUT THE TABLE [WITHOUT THE PARTITION VEIL] — The table was in the north, distant from the north wall two cubits and a half. The candelabrum was in the south, distant from the south wall two cubits and a half. The golden altar was opposite the space which was between the table and candelabrum drawn back slightly towards the east (cf. Rashi on Exodus 30:6). All these three were placed in that part which extended from one-half the length of the Tabcrnacle (not including the Holy of Holies) inward. How so? The length of the Tabernacle from the entrance to the partition veil was 20 cubits, and the altar, the table and the candelabrum were distant from the entrance in a western direction 10 cubits(Yoma 33b).

h.ועשית מסך AND THOU SHALT MAKE A SCREEN — a curtain which formed a protecting screen in front of the entrance. the word מסך being of the same meaning as the verb in (Job 1. 10) “Hast Thou not hedged (שכת) him about?” It is an expression denoting protecting.

h.מעשה רקם THE WORK OF AN EMBROIDERER — The designs were made on it by needle-work; as were the figures on one side so were the figures on the other side.

h.רקם — This word is the name of the workman (an embroiderer), not the name of the trade (embroidery). The Targum therefore should be עובד צַיָּר “work of an embroiderer,” not עובד צִיּוּר “work of embroidery.” The size of the screen was the same as the size of the partition veil, viz., 10 cubits by 10 cubits.