In Exodus 25:30, God commands the Israelites to bake "
shewbread": "And thou shalt set upon the table
shewbread for me always." "
Shewbread" or "showbread" is the King James Bible's translation of the Hebrew phrase lechem panim, which can also be taken to mean "bread of the presence" or, more literally still, "bread of faces." All these translations hint at the most important thing about this offering, which is that it remains on display in the Temple all week longon show in the presence of God.
\NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH
Shewbread and the sword is the theme of tomorrow's 11am service, conducted by Rev Jack Dunion.
In response, Jesus asks if they remember what David did when Abiathar was the high priest, how he went into the temple and ate the
shewbread that only the priests are supposed to eat.
The inner area for cult worship (hekal), the hall of the Temple, with incense altar,
shewbread table and candelabrum
"Model of the West" comments on a page of the Talmud devoted to the lechem ha-panim, or shewbread. This shewbread amounts to twelve loaves, made from fine flour.
He begins by pointing out that the book of Exodus indicates that three holy objects in the tabernacle possess a metallic frame, or crown: the table holding the shewbread mentioned above (Exodus 25:24), the Ark (Exodus 25: 11), and the outer altar (Exodus 27:2).
On the table of marble they laid the Shewbread when it was brought in, and on the table of gold they laid the Shewbread when it was brought out, since what is holy we must raise (in honor) but not bring down.
The new shewbread is first placed on the marble table, which stands next to a gold table outside the sanctuary.
Levinas remarks that the essential point here is to raise and not lower the shewbread in honor, from marble table to gold table for the new, and at least from gold to gold for the old.
Each of these clans was the hereditary keeper of one of the Temple rituals: The House of Avtinas was responsible for making the incense burned in the Temple in Jerusalem; and the House of Garmu was in charge of baking the
shewbread. In this week's Daf Yomi reading, in Tractate Yoma, we heard once again about how these families refused to share their recipes, treating them as a kind of trade secret.