The Ramban on Parashat Teruma: a short Torah talk for the Shabbat table

“And you made a table of sycamore wood, its length and width and its height.

And you coated it with pure gold and made a gold ring around it…

And you put bread on the table before me always.” (Exodus 25:23-33)

On the table, which stood in the tabernacle and the temple, there was always “face bread” – 12 challah baked on Friday and placed on it on Shabbat. The face bread remains on the table for seven days – from Shabbat to Shabbat. When they placed the new face bread, they removed the 12 challahs that were placed on it last Shabbat, and they were given to the priests to eat.

What is the role of the table and the face bread in the sanctuary? What is the special thing for which they come, within the whole of the vessels of the Mishkan?

The Ramban first cites Rashi’s interpretation, which explains why the table had a “gold wreath” – “a sign of the royal crown that the table where wealth and greatness is, as they say the table of kings.”

The Ramban continues:

“And the matter, which is the secret of the Shulchan, because God’s blessing since the world was not created out of nothing, but the world according to its custom, it is written (Genesis 1:31) ‘And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good.’ But when there is a root of something, the blessing will apply to it and you will add to it”.

God created the world out of nothing, but since the creation of the world God’s blessing does not create something out of nothing but something. God wants to affect the people of Israel with a material blessing, to give them abundance and sustenance. God determined that there should be a “root of a thing” in the world, upon which the divine blessing would apply and from which it would spread. The breads that are placed on the table are the “Yesh”, the “root of something” that is blessed and from which the divine blessing bursts forth and multiplies.

“When Elisha said, ‘Tell me what you have in the house’ (2 Kings 4:2), and the blessing fell upon Asuch with oil and filled all the vessels. And Elijah, ‘The jar of flour was not consumed and the plate of oil was not lacking’ (1 Kings 10) 7, 16)”.

In the miracle that occurred in the home of the Shunammite woman, one vessel of oil – “asuch shemen” – filled all the empty vessels with oil. In order to bring regarding the miracle, Elisha asked her “Tell me what you have at home”. The small vessel was the “root of a thing”, the “yes” upon which the blessing fell and from which it spread. Similarly, Eliyahu’s miracle also applies to a primary “root of matter” – a jar of flour and a plate of oil.

The Ramban summarizes:

“And so is the table with the bread of the face where the blessing will be applied and from which the satiety will come to all Israel. And to this they said every priest who comes twice eats and is full”.