Blessing for Torah Study
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.
Beginning with Our Own Torah
1) What is sacred food? 2) Think of or imagine eating a food that brought you closer to someone or something. How did you feel emotionally?
Why bread?
Question to consider: What might bread represent? What makes bread special?
אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה. אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין קֶמַח.
Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread.
(1) ה׳ appeared to [Abraham] by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot. (2) Looking up, he saw three figures standing near him. Perceiving this, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, (3) he said, “My lords! If it please you, do not go on past your servant. (4) Let a little water be brought; bathe your feet and recline under the tree. (5) And let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; then go on—seeing that you have come your servant’s way.” They replied, “Do as you have said.” (6) Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quick, three seahs of choice flour! Knead and make cakes!”
Matzah
How could unleavened bread be considered sacred? What makes its holiness similar to or different than leavened bread?
Manna
How does the holiness of manna compare to other types of bread?
And GOD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.
(11) ה׳ spoke to Moses: (12) “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I ה׳ am your God.” (13) In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. (14) When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. (15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?(man hu)" for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which ה׳ has given you to eat.
(31) The house of Israel named it manna (man) it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers (ṣappiḥith- uncertain meaning) in honey. (32) Moses said, “This is what ה׳ has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” (33) And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before ה׳, to be kept throughout the ages.” (34) As ה׳ had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Pact to be kept.
Lechem Ha-Panim / Bread of Faces (Showbread)
How do you imagine "bread of faces"? Why might this particular kind of bread be offered to God?
The bread was shaped like a case broken open as regards two of its sides (two opposite sides of which have been removed; these are what we would call the front and the back). It had a bottom underneath, but no top, and this bottom was turned up on both ends to form, as it were, walls. On this account it was called lech ha-panim, “bread with faces” — because it had faces (surfaces) looking in both directions towards the sides of the House (the Sanctuary).
בֵּית גַּרְמוּ עַל מַעֲשֵׂה לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים בֵּית גַּרְמוּ הָיוּ בְקִיאִין בְּמַעֲשֶׁה לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים וּבְרִדִּייָתוֹ וְלֹא רָצוּ לְלַמֵּד. שָֽׁלְחוּ וְהֵבִיאוּ אוּמָנִים מֵאַלֶכְּסַנְדְרִיאָה וְהָיוּ בְקִיאִין בְּמַעֲשֶׁה לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים. וּבְרִדִּייָתוֹ לֹא הָיוּ בְקִיאִין. בֵּית גַּרְמוּ הָיוּ מַסִּיקִין מִבִּפְנִים וְרוֹדִין מִבַּחוּץ. וְלֹא הָֽיְתָה מִתְעַפֶּשֶׁת. וְאֵילּוּ הָיו מַסִּיקִין מִבִּפְנִים וְרוֹדִין מִבִּפְנִים. וְהָֽיְתָה מִתְעַפֶּשֶׁת. כֵּיוָן שֶׁיָּֽדְעוּ חֲכָמִים בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה אָֽמְרוּ. כָּל־מַה שֶׁבָּרָא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִכְבוֹדוֹ בָּרָא. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר כֹּ֤ל פָּעַ֣ל יְ֖י לַֽמַּֽעֲנֵ֑הוּ. שָֽׁלְחוּ אַחֲרֵיהֵם וְלֹא רָצוּ לָבוֹא עַד שֶׁכָּֽפְלוּ לָהֶן שְׂכָרָן. שְׁנֵים עַשָׂר מְנָה הָיוּ נוֹטְלִין וְנָֽתְנוּ לָהֶן עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבַּע. רִבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר. עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבַּע הָיוּ נוֹטְלִין וְנָֽתְנוּ לָהֶן אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁמוֹנֶה. אָֽמְרוּ לָהֶן. מִפְּנֵי מַה אֵין אַתֶּם רוֹצִין לְלַמֵּד. אָֽמְרוּ לָהֶן. מְסוֹרֶת הִיא בְיָדֵינוּ מֵאֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁהַבַּיִת הַזֶּה עָתִיד לִיחָרֵב. שֶׁלֹּא יִלְמְדוּ אֲחֵרִים וְיִהְיוּ עוֹשִׂין כֵּן לִפְנֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה שֶׁלָּהֶן. בִּדְבָרִים הַלָּלוּ מַזְכִּירִין אוֹתָן לִשְׁבָח. שֶׁלֹּא יָצָא בְּיַד בְּנֵיהֶם פַּת נְקִייָה מֵעוֹלָם. שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ אוֹמְרִים. מִמַּעֲשֶׂה לֶחֶם הַפָּנִים הֵן אוֹכְלִין.
The family Garmu were experts in preparing the shew-bread and its removal from the oven, but they did not want to teach. They sent and brought craftsmen from Alexandria who were experts in preparing the shew-bread but were not experts in its removal from the oven. The family Garmu were heating from within and removing from the outside, and it did not become moldy. But those were heating from the inside and removing from the inside, and it became moldy. When the Sages realized this situation... they sent after them, but they refused to come until they doubled their wages. They used to take twelve mina, so they gave them twenty-four.
"A Labor Economy of Freshness and Wealth: The Meaning of the Lechem Panim — D’var Torah for Parashat Teruma," Avodah (2021)
Bread displays were universal in Ancient Near Eastern cultures, but in all of them, the bread was changed daily, suggesting that its purpose was to feed the god(s). For Israel, it was changed weekly. Moreover, while at least part of all other bread offerings was consumed on the altar, these loaves merely sat there for the whole week. Scholars understand that Israel, then, took a familiar practice and totally undercut its familiar meaning. Instead of feeding God, the bread represented Israel’s presence before God. The requirement for twelve loaves corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel, just like the twelve stones on the High Priest’s breastplate. That is, the face bread should signify that the whole of the Jewish people is there in the Temple, before God. Indeed, the Mishna (Shekalim 4:1) teaches that the money to pay for the lechem panim came from taxes paid equally by everyone. Human beings, who cannot come to the Temple because they busily toil for their daily bread, contribute bread, their basic sustenance, to face God constantly as their proxy.
Shewbread on Ancient Judean Coin
Mattathias Antigonus Coins. 40-37 BCE, Eretz Yisrael. Accessed via The Center for Jewish Art.
Shewbread in Medieval Illuminated Hebrew Bible
Hayyim ben Isaac. Vatican La Rochelle Bible, Fol 43. 1215 CE, Vatican Library. Accessed via The Center for Jewish Art.
"The Showbread: The How and Why of the Temple Bread Offering," Chabad
