Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat TerumahRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Terumah · תרומה · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:06Parashat Terumah. This week's parashah has 96 pesukim.0:09This is the parashah where Hashem commands about the building of the Mishkan0:13and all the keilim that are inside of the Mishkan.0:15From here until the end of Sefer Shemot, the Torah discusses this theme and this subject0:21about the building of the Mishkan, its commandments, and what actually took place.0:25We divided the parashah into four different parts.0:28The first part of the parashah, the Torah tells us about the command for the material that's0:32needed for the Mishkan and the bigdei kohen gadol.0:35The second part of the parashah, Torah tells us about the actual keilim in the Mishkan,0:39the utensils that were, or the furniture of the Mishkan.0:42The third part of the parashah, Torah tells us about the structure of the Mishkan,0:46the Ohel Moed. And finally, the last part of the0:49parashah, the Torah's commandments regarding the courtyard, what stood in the courtyard of0:54the Mishkan and the actual courtyard of the Mishkan.0:55Three mitzvot in this week's parashah, two mitzvot aseh and one1:01mitzvah lo ta'aseh, and they are number 95, 96, and 97 in Sefer1:07HaChinuch. And now we get to the parashah. Keep in mind that there's so many details in this week's1:12parashah, and to really give you everything in 15 minutes is not going to happen.1:16You're not going to get all the details,1:18so therefore, Be'ezrat Hashem, we're working on a separate video to see the details of the Mishkan very, very clearly.1:24Here we're just going to get an idea.1:27First part of the parashah, the Torah commands that we should have material for the building of the Mishkan,1:31and here there was three different collections.1:35Two of the collections were obligatory; we'll discuss them, Parashat1:38Ki Tisa. The last one, which is voluntary, the Torah says that anybody who wants to volunteer to give1:44from the 13 materials that are needed for the building of the Mishkan or the making of the Kohen Gadol1:50is more than welcome to1:52donate. And what are these 13 materials?1:54They are gold, silver, copper, three types of wool, linen, goat hair, hides from rams, which were to be colored red,2:04hides from a special animal named the tachash, wood. Pure olive oil, spices for the ketoret,2:11and to be used also with the shemen hamishcha, special stones called avnei shoham that were to be used for the2:17ephod, and special stones called the avnei miluim for the2:20choshen. And with that, we move on to the second part of the parashah, where Torah talks about the keilim that were to be placed inside of the Mishkan.2:27Now, we used Rashi's simple commentary for our description.2:33What I mean is that we just went with the peirush of Rashi, with the explanation of Rashi,2:38and wherever Rashi had two different opinions, we took the simpler one to2:42present. And the measurements, we have taken, we've converted the measurements from the amah of the Gemara, of the Torah, into our daily measurements of inches and feet,2:52and we used the opinion of Chaim Naeh, which is the way the Sefardim also calculate the2:58amah. There are three keilim that are mentioned in this week's parashah that are to be placed inside of the Mishkan,3:04and they are the aron, which is the ark, the shulchan, the table for the showbread, and the third one is the menorah.3:11We'll begin with the aron.3:12The aron was made out of three boxes.3:16Two were gold and one was wood.3:18They were to take the wooden box, place it in the gold box, and then another, the second gold box was to be placed inside of the wooden box.3:25The size, the dimensions of the aron were two and a half amah long, which means three feet and eleven inches,3:34one and a half amah wide, which is two feet four inches, and one and a half amah tall, which is two feet and four inches.3:44Keep in mind, all the inches, everything is rounded off, so there's a little bit more detail to that.3:48Also, they were to place four rings on the upper part of the aron, in which you would place Poles.3:55These poles were made out of wood, covered with gold, and they were not allowed to be removed from the aron.4:01On top of the aron, if you look at the picture you'll see on top of the aron there's a cover.4:07On top of the cover there's like an image of two what looks like two angels, but really these are4:13keruvim, the image of a child, a male child and a female child, that were to be together part of the kaporet.4:20That cover is called the kaporet, and they were to be made together.4:23You're not allowed to make the keruvim on top and then attach it to the kaporet.4:26They all have to be made in one shot, and that is to be the cover of the aron.4:31The aron was made in order that we should place inside of it the luchot and the Sefer Torah as well.4:37This is the aron. From there we move on to the4:40shulchan. The shulchan, which is the table. First we'll discuss the lower part of the table.4:45The main part of the table, the purpose of the table was to place this lechem hapanim, the showbread,4:49as we'll discuss4:50bezrat Hashem. The dimensions of the table are two amot in length, which is three feet two inches,4:58one amah in width, which is one foot seven inches,5:02and it was one and a half amah tall, which is two feet and four inches.5:06It was made out of wood and covered with gold, and it had a misgeret, the Torah says.5:10What's this misgeret? It had a frame on the table with a golden crown coming out of the5:18frame, and the frame itself was5:23one tefach. Also in the shulchan, just like the aron, there were rings on the upper part of the5:27shulchan, right by the frame, and there were poles that would go into the shulchan in order to be able to be carried,5:35and the poles were also made out of wood and covered with gold.5:38The showbread, the lechem hapanim, also was made in a specific way.5:41Just to tell you, there was twelve breads, each one weighing close to seven pounds.5:47That's how big these breads were, and they were baked in a silver mold,5:51and then after they were baked, they were placed in a gold mold,5:54which later on they were taken out of that mold and placed on top of the5:59shulchan. The upper part of the shulchan consisted of Two columns, and each column had six showbreads,6:07but they used things to separate between the breads, and that the Torah calls kesotav.6:13The kesot were like tubes, were really half tubes that were placed in order to give airspace between each of the bread,6:20and they were hanging on something called6:25menakiyot. Menakiyot, these are the golden pillars which stood from the ground all the way above the table,6:31and this served as the upper part of the shulchan holding the showbread.6:36From there we move on to6:38the menorah. The Torah tells us that this had to be all one piece.6:42It had to be sculpted out all out of one piece.6:44It cannot be made separate pieces and attached together.6:47That's called6:48miksha. The size of the menorah was 18 tefachim high by 12 tefachim wide,6:53which means it was6:5912 feet tall by 8 feet wide.7:01It had seven branches,7:03the center branch with three branches coming out from the right and three branches coming out from the left.7:07Each branch, all seven branches, had three decorated cups called the7:13gevi'a, and one knob called the kaftor,7:17and one flower called the7:21perach. The middle branch, though, had an additional cup,7:24which means it had a total of four cups.7:26It also had an additional four knobs,7:28which means now it had five knobs,7:30and it had an additional two flowers,7:33two perachim, which totaled three flowers.7:35Also on the bottom, the base of it had three legs,7:39and the three branches on each side must have their cups7:43where they would light the oil7:44directed towards the center branch when they are lit.7:48Also, there were tongs and spoons that also had to be made out of pure gold.7:51All of the menorah together, all the gold that was used for the7:55menorah, plus the utensils that were used for the tongs and everything else,7:59had to be8:00The total of one kikar zahav, which is one talent of gold. Just to give you an idea how much it's worth in our days, one gram of gold in 5774 is worth $40.73, which means that a talent of gold,8:31which is 3,000 shekel, is equal to 28,800 grams, totaling $1,173,024. We move on to the third part of the parasha. The structure of Ohel Moed, which means the Mishkan itself, the physical building itself, was made actually with covers.8:35There was no roof. The roof was actually made out of covers.8:37There were four different covers that covered the roof, the sides of the Mishkan, and the back of the Mishkan.8:44The four covers were the yeri'ot haMishkan, which was made out of cloth,8:49the yeri'ot izim, which was made out of goat hair,8:52and then there was orot elim me'odamim, which is made out of ram skin, which was dyed red,8:58and orot techashim. These were made out of the hides of a special animal called the9:04tachash. To go into full detail, we're not going to be able to; we'll just give very quickly.9:08The cloth covers were ten separate covers.9:14Five were sewn together, and another five were sewn together.9:16And the edge of each one, there were lulaot.9:19These lulaot were basically loops that were made out of turquoise wool,9:26and these loops, on each of them, on each of these five, there were fifty loops.9:32These loops were connected together by a golden hook.9:35That's called karsei zahav in the Torah,9:38and that's how they hooked it all together.9:40The total size of all the yeri'ot haMishkan was— 28 amah by 409:48amah in feet, that is 44 feet 1 inch by 63 feet.9:52That was the first cover that was used on top of the Mishkan.9:55The second cover was called the yeri'ot izim, which was made out of goat hair.9:59This was a little bit larger.10:01The total size was 30 amah by 44 amah, which is 47 feet 3 inches by 69 feet 4 inches.10:11And these consisted of 11 covers, each one made of 30 by 410:18amah. 30 amah by 4 amah. Five were sewn together and six were sewn together.10:20And just like in the cloth covers, they were also connected through a10:24loop, but this one was connected through a copper hook,10:31karsei nechoshet. The third cover was10:34orot elim me'odamim. That was the third layer,10:36and this was just a cover on top.10:38The size was 30 amah by 10 amah, which is 47 feet 3 inches by 15 feet 9 inches.10:44And then the fourth cover, although it's a10:47machloket, we went with the opinion based on the Midrash10:50HaGadol that there was a fourth cover, which was a cover on top,10:52was made out of a special animal that was only created for that time called the10:57tachash, and they took the hides of this animal, which was multicolored,11:00and they placed it on top.11:01This also was the same size as the11:05orot elim me'odamim, as the ram cover, which is 30 by 1011:09amah. The other parts of the structure that we need to know about is the kerashim.11:13The kerashim were the planks.11:14The planks basically made up the walls,11:17or at least they held up the curtains, which made up the11:19walls. There were 48 planks in total,11:2220 on each of the longer sides, which is the north and the south,11:27the southern side of the Mishkan,11:28and 8 planks by the west.11:29And the front was actually open.11:31It was not made out of these specific kerashim; they were actually poles.11:34How did they make the kerashim?11:35It was made out of wood, and this was special wood.11:38This was wood that was planted.11:40These trees were planted by Yaakov Avinu in11:44Eretz Yisrael, and he took them down with him to Egypt,11:46and from Egypt, Bnei Yisrael took them out with them to the Midbar.11:50We don't have time to discuss it in full,11:51but we'll just tell you that the planks stood on silver sockets11:56known as the11:57adnei kesef, and they had rings which were able to store the poles inside of them.12:03The bars12:05ran—there were actually bars that ran on the upper side of the kerashim12:09and on the lower side of the kerashim,12:10and also on the inside of the kerashim.12:12And then we find also that the ohel moed, which is the12:17Mishkan, had two dividers, two12:19mechitzot. They were called the parochet and the12:22masach, two separate12:24mechitzot. Both of them were the same size.12:25The mechitzah was ten by12:28ten amah, ten amah long and ten amah tall.12:32How much does that measure in feet?12:34That's 15 feet 9 inches by 15 feet 9 inches.12:37The material was also the same.12:39They were made out of linen12:41plus three different types of wool,12:43which is red, turquoise, and purple wool,12:47but they had different functions.12:48The parochet itself was made in order that it should divide12:53on the inside of the Mishkan between the Kodesh and the Kodesh12:57HaKodashim, and it hung on cedar wood13:00poles that was held by golden hooks on four wooden pillars13:04which were covered with gold.13:07These poles that we're talking about over here13:09stood on silver sockets.13:11Pay attention, the masach is slightly different.13:13The masach was used as a screen door to the entrance of the13:18Mishkan, which hung from the east,13:19and they were hung from golden hooks on five wooden pillars,13:25okay, with— When they stood on copper sockets,13:28these poles were placed right in the front,13:31like we said, right in the front of the13:33Mishkan when a person would walk in.13:35And from there we move on to the fourth part of the13:38parashah, the final part of the13:39parashah, the courtyard, the chatzer of the13:42Mishkan. In the chatzer, two things we have to know about.13:44Number one is what stood in the13:46chatzer, and that is the13:47mizbeach, and the other one is the size of the13:48chatzer and also what made the chatzer the13:52chatzer. The first thing is the13:55mizbeach. The mizbeach itself, known as the outer, the altar on the13:59outside. The material was it was made out of wood but covered with copper,14:03and its dimensions were five amah long, which is seven feet ten inches,14:10five amah wide, which is seven feet ten inches,14:13and its height was ten amah, which is fifteen feet and nine inches.14:18The mizbeach itself was actually hollow14:19and it was only filled up with dirt whenever they camped.14:23And at the corners of the14:24mizbeach, from the mizbeach itself, from the wood itself,14:26there were four kerenot, which are basically four cubics14:30made of an amah by an14:32amah. And on the mizbeach, there was like,14:34you would look at it and you see like a copper net14:36that goes all around the mizbeach, right in the middle of the14:39mizbeach. On the net, there were four rings which were made14:42in order to put bars which were made out of wood14:45covered with copper to pick it up.14:47And right above the michbar, right above this net,14:50there was about an amah indentation inside14:53that was going on the inside,14:54and that was known as the sovev or the karkov,14:56like the Torah calls it.14:58The courtyard of the Mishkan itself,15:01what constituted the courtyard was the15:03kelaim. The Torah tells us that they had to make15:05kelaim, which were basically curtains15:07that aligned where the chatzer should be.15:09And these curtains were made out of linen,15:11but they were not woven together.15:13They were actually braided together to allow airspace in,15:15that they shouldn't fall down.15:17And the curtains themselves stood hanging on columns.15:21And the columns, in many details15:23of the columns, we just studied that the columns were one amah wide,15:26but they were fifteen amot tall,15:28which means they were twenty-three feet seven inches tall.15:31And there was a total of sixty columns15:33running along the whole courtyard of the Mishkan,15:37twenty on each side of the Mishkan,15:39the longer sides of the Mishkan,15:40which is on the north and on the south,15:42and ten on the western part of the Mishkan,15:44and— 10 on the eastern section of the Mishkan.15:49The area of the courtyard itself15:51was rectangular in shape15:53and was 10015:55amah, which is 157 feet 6 inches15:57by 50 amah, 78 feet 9 inches.16:00And the actual Mishkan, which is where the keilim, the menorah and the shulchan stood, it stood in the front part of the Mishkan, which is the western part of the Mishkan, which is by the fifty by fifty amah in the front part of the Mishkan, the western part of the Mishkan.16:14And with that, we conclude the parashah. And I know there was a lot of detail, but you should know these details are important because we find the Torah speaks at length about the mitzvot, the commandments of the Mishkan,16:25and it repeats it again in Parashat Vayakhel and again in Parashat Pekudei. And as a rule, Rabbeinu Yonah tells us that you want to know what a person likes, what a person is all about, see what he talks about the most.16:38If we find the Torah speaks so much at length about the building of the Mishkan, its commandments, and all its details, which the Torah doesn't do by many, many other commandments,16:47it shows us how much love Hashem has for the Jewish people to create a home so Hashem should come and live with us,16:55and we should be zocheh, just like we studied about the Mishkan itself, the building of the Mishkan, we should be zocheh to actually see in the building of the Beit HaMikdash where Hashem will come and live with us once again like He used to beforehand.17:07Chadesh yamenu kekedem, shebat Zion.