Terumah

Shemot 25:1-27:19

Lehem HaPanim: The Symbol of Our Covenantal Creativity

Aryeh Bernstein, 5764

This devar torah is dedicated to the precious memory of Matt Eisenfeld and Sara Duker, ז"ל, on their yahrzeit, 8 years after they were taken from this world in an act of brutal terror.  .תנצב"ה

Our parashah brings the first big, detailed list of regulations for precisely how to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle), its decorations, and the items used in service there. One small, but important feature of the Mishkan is the "lehem panim", as the Torah says, "וְנָתַתָּ עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן לֶחֶם פָּנִים לְפָנַי תָּמִיד"-"And on the table you shall set the lehem panim before Me always" (25:30). Often translated as "bread of display" or "showbread" (or, in old-school translations, "shewbread", which makes me think of Ed Sullivan), the words literally mean "facebread". Vayiqra 24:5-9 fills in that this bread, which sat on the table in the Mishkan continuously, consisted of 12 loaves, arranged in two piles, that the kohanim would place there on shabbat and there it would sit for a week, with burning frankincense, until being replaced by a new batch the next shabbat. At that time, the kohanim leaving their week-long shift and those starting the next one would eat the old batch. Mishnah Menahot 5:1 explains that the lehem panim, like most other bread offerings, was matzah, so fear not that these kohanim had to eat stale, moldy bread.

The Rambam says in the Guide For the Perplexed, III:45, "As for the table and the bread that was always to be upon it, I do not know the reason for this and I have not found up to now something to which I might ascribe this practice." Nevertheless, I would like to attempt to understand this mitzvah better. What is the significance of there being constant display bread in the Temple, why is it called "face bread", and what is its relationship to the Shabbat, such that that is when it is brought fresh?

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 serving to feed God, the bread seems to have represented Israel's presence before God. The requirement for 12 loaves apparently corresponded to the 12 tribes of Israel, just like the 12 stones on the Kohen Gadol's breastplate and other twelves in the Tanakh. That is, the lehem panim should signify that the whole of am yisrael is there in the Temple, before God. Indeed, the Mishnah Sheqalim 4:1 teaches that the money to pay for the lehem panim came from taxes paid 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. This replacement has the function of saying to God, "We do not stay away from the Temple because we are not interested, rather, consider us as standing before You as we labor." The Torah's mandating this charges us to execute our worldly affairs with the utmost of religious responsibility, as we are before God at all times.

A further key to the meaning of the lehem panim lies in the language of the Vayiqra verses. There (24:8), the Torah refers to it as "בְּרִית עוֹלָם" ("eternal covenant"), suggesting that the purpose of the loaves is to remind God of the covenant with Israel. This, of course, is the same language the Torah uses to describe the Shabbat in Shemot 31:16.

The meaning of the phrase "lehem panim", then, can be understood according to Ibn Ezra, as "bread of presence": "לֶחֶם פָּנִים", because it is "לִפְנֵי"("before") God at all times. However, there exists a more literal interpretation. In Mishnah Menahot 11:4, Ben Zoma explains that it is called "lehem panim" "so that it should have faces" ("שיהא לו פנים"). In the following mishnah, we see that the dough would be laid flat on the table and the sides folded up, so Ben Zoma seems to mean is that it should have an abundance of surfaces. R. Hanina in the gemara in Menahot 94b describes the lehem panim as looking like a broken box ("כמין תיבה פרוצה"), with neither top, nor front, nor back, but only a base with two upright sides. Accordingly, Rashi explains that it has a face that looks at each side of the Temple. We can understand this focus on faces by considering the connection of the lehem panim to Shabbat.

The gemara in Rosh HaShanah 16a brings a tradition in the name of R. Aqiva that God commands us to bring specific items on each holiday according to what we need on that holiday:

Although this gemara does not mention Shabbat, I imagine that if it did, it would have God explain why we present lehem panim on Shabbat. What would the gemara say about that? What is the connection between lehem panim and Shabbat?

"וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ"-"And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy" (Bereishit 2:3). A midrash, brought in some places in the name of R. Shimon, teaches that this means that God "blessed" the day with manna and "made it holy" with the light of the human face, because "לא דומה אור פניו שלאדם כל ימות השבת כשבת"-"the light of the human face all the days of the week does not resemble it on Shabbat" (Bereishit Rabbah 11:2 and elsewhere).

Rav Hutner (Pachad Yitzchak Shabbat 1) explains that the face is the place on the body where a person's דַעַת, or mental vitality, is most manifest, as evidenced by the verse "חָכְמַת אָדָם תָּאִיר פָּנָיו"-"A person's wisdom lights up his face" (Qohelet 8:1). This is the unique characteristic of human beings as distinct from the animals, and it is through our da‘at that Shabbat becomes Shabbat. Nature remains the same, but we choose to relate to it differently. This is even reflected in halakhah. In the first week of marriage, a newlywed couple must say the seven berakhot that were said under the huppah at any meal which they eat with a minyan and at which there are "panim hadashot" (i.e., "a new face", someone with whom they have not yet dined since the wedding). However, on Shabbat, they are obligated in the seven berakhot even if there is not a new person at the meal, because Shabbat itself is considered "panim hadashot". This is based on a midrash (cited by Tosafot, Ketubbot 7b, s.v. "והוא") that God instituted the song for Shabbat ("Mizmor shir leyom haShabbat", Psalm 92), because "פנים חדשות באו לכאן; נאמר שירה!"-"Panim hadashot have arrived, so let's sing!" Shabbat makes us into new people. It is on Shabbat, then, when we all have a new face, that we replace our stand-in before God, giving it a fresh face to reflect to God all of our efforts of creative presence in the world. Perhaps, then, our gemara on Rosh HaShanah could have reported God saying, "תתנו לפני לחם הפנים בשבת, כדי שיאיר ויקרין מאור פניך"-"Set before Me lehem panim on Shabbat, so that the light of your face may shine and radiate."

In the gemara on Berakhot 12a, R. Helbo teaches that on Shabbat, when the kohen shifts would switch, the departing kohanim would say to the entering kohanim, "מי ששכן את שמו בבית הזה הוא ישכין ביניכם אהבה ואחוה ושלום וריעות"-"May the One whose name dwells in this house, cause to dwell among you love and fraternity, peace and friendship." They could utter this prayer meaningfully only once the lehem panim had been replaced, refreshing and renewing God and Israel's covenantal creativity.