The Show-Bread

The Show-Bread

The Show-bread was to be placed on the table: “On the table, the Show-bread should be placed before Me at all times.” (Shmos 25,30) The Mishnah lists ten miracles which occurred regularly in the Beit HaMikdash. One such miracle was there never having been a pasul, an invalidating quality.

Bread for the Creator

The Torah gives us more details about this mitzvah—how many loaves of bread there should be, their weight, and the day of the week on which they should be brought as an offering to the Creator:

Take the finest grade of wheat flour and bake it into 12 loaves. Each loaf will be made from two-tenths of an eifah (2.7 liters; 1 gallon). Arrange these loaves in two stacks, six loaves to a stack, on the pure table, before G-d. Put pure frankincense beside these stacks. This will be the memorial portion, a fire-offering to G-d. Every Shabbos these loaves should be placed before G-d—it is an eternal covenant that this must come from the children of Israel. The [bread] will be given to Aaron and his descendants to eat in a holy place, since it is a most holy fire-offering to G-d. This is an eternal law. (VaYikra 24:5-9)

From this passage we learn that the Show-bread was placed on the table in two stacks, each stack containing six loaves. Frankincense (resin extracted from the Boswellia sacra tree) was placed on the table with the Show-bread. Fresh loaves of bread replaced the old loaves on the table every Shabbat, and the Kohanim (priests) would eat the loaves that were removed from the table.

Bread Artisans

How did the loaves of Show-bread look? The Talmud (Menachos 94b) cites different opinions.

According to Rabbi Chanina, the loaves were made “like an open ark,” but according to Rabbi Yochanan, they looked “like a dancing ship.”

What do these images mean?

Rashi opines that “an open ark” is like an upside down “chet” (ח, the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet). In other words, each loaf looked like a two-sided box with no lid. The Rambam (Maimonides), on the other hand, says that the upper edges of the loaves were turned in, so that the loaves looked like a two-sided box whose upper flaps were slightly pushed in.

And what does “a dancing ship” look like? Rashi says that this refers to the shape of a ship whose hull is narrow where it touches the water, but wider towards the top. Since the ship stands on a narrow base, it’s not very stable, and so it “dances.” In his commentary on the Talmud, Rashi draws a picture that looks like the English letter V. However, the Baalei HaTosefos say that above the V shape, the sides of the loaves rose straight up.

Whatever shape it was, the baking of the Show-bread was a real art. Remember that:

• The loaves were uniquely shaped and had to remain whole and unbroken during the baking and afterwards.
• The loaves were standing exposed to the air for a full week, and they must have been made according to a special recipe, because they never became moldy or dried out.
• The loaves had to be baked quickly so they wouldn’t become chametz (leavened).
• The loaves were fairly large, each weighing almost five kilograms (11 lbs.).

The Talmud (Yoma 38a) tells us that there was a family named Garmu who were experts at preparing the Show-bread. The sages asked them to teach other people the secrets of preparing the Show-bread, but they refused and were fired. Specialists were brought from Alexandria, Egypt, who knew how to bake, but they did not know how to take the loaves from the oven as well as the Garmus did, and in spite of their many attempts, their loaves became moldy. The Garmus were summoned back to their job, and the Show-bread was once again offered. When they were asked why they wouldn’t teach anyone else how to do the work, they said, “We know that the Temple will be destroyed, and we are concerned that an unworthy man will learn how to bake the Show-bread and use it to serve an idol.”

In addition, the Garmu family was known to be honest. The Show-Bread was made from clean flour that had been sifted many times. The family never ate bread made from fine flour, only simple, rough bread, so that no one would suspect them of using the lechem hapanim flour for their own meals.