Menachos, Chapter 11, Mishnah 7. In this lesson we will deal with arranging the lechem hapanim (showbread) on the golden table in the Kodesh, and with removing it from there. Arranging the bread is counted among the 613 mitzvos, and it is one of the fixed, routine services of the Mikdash. We will begin with a general overview of the order of the service, which will help in understanding the language of the Mishnah itself. The basic requirement is that there always be bread on the table, as it says: "V'nasata al hashulchan lechem panim l'fanai tamid" - on the special golden table the lechem hapanim shall be placed, before Hashem, always.
The Meaning of the Word "Tamid":
What does the Torah mean by the word "tamid"? There are two possibilities here, and the matter is the subject of a dispute among the Tannaim:
Continuous, without any interruption: something that goes on in complete continuity, with no breaks at all. According to this understanding, there is not a single moment in which the table stands empty of bread.
Recurring again and again: something that is done over and over, but with gaps in between. According to this understanding, as long as no day passes without the lechem hapanim lying in its place, that is called "tamid".
The Structure of the Heichal and the Location of the Tables:
The building stands in the western part of the Mikdash complex, and it has three sections: the Ulam, which is the entrance chamber; to its west, further inside, the Kodesh; and to the west of the Kodesh, the Kodesh HaKodashim. The table on which the lechem hapanim rests stands in the Kodesh, on its northern side, to the right of one who enters.
The Ulam is mostly empty, but two tables mentioned in our Mishnah stand there: the table to the right of one who enters, on the north side, made of marble (ra'am), and the table to the left of one who enters, made of gold. These two tables are used for placing the bread during the time that it is not resting on the golden table in the Kodesh.
The Order of the Exchange:
The kohanim enter carrying the two arrangements of bread, two kohanim bearing two arrangements of six loaves each. First they place them for a short while on the marble table, in order to arrange things and make sure that everything is in order, and from there they enter the Kodesh and exchange the twelve old loaves for the twelve new ones.
It should be mentioned that before Shabbos the tubes are removed - these are the supports that hold up the stacks of bread - and at the time of the exchange the kohanim remove the side supports as well. It turns out that a stack of six loaves lies on the table one on top of the other, with nothing separating between them.
The kohanim who bring in the bread stand on the northern side and push the new loaves inward, while two other kohanim stand on the southern side and draw the old ones out. The drawing out and the pushing in are done at one and the same moment, so that according to the opinion that "tamid" means complete continuity, there is no moment in which the table is empty of bread. This is the essence of the Mishnah.
The Wording of the Mishnah:
"Shenei shulchanos hayu ba'ulam mibifnim al pesach habayis" - besides the table that stood in the Kodesh, there were two additional tables in the Ulam, not at its far end but in its inner portion, toward the entrance of the Sanctuary, at the doorway leading into the Kodesh.
"Echad shel shayish ve'echad shel zahav" - one of them was made of marble and the other of gold.
"Al shel shayish nosnin lechem hapanim biknisaso" - the marble table was used for temporarily setting down the new loaves as they were being brought in.
"Al shel zahav biytziaso" - and the golden table was used for setting down the twelve loaves as they were being taken out.
This procedure took place every single Shabbos: the old loaves were removed and at that very moment the new ones were brought in. The kohanim were divided into twenty four watches, each watch serving for one week, and the changeover of the watches took place on Shabbos. It emerges that the kohanim of the incoming watch placed the new loaves while the kohanim of the outgoing watch took the old ones, and the twelve loaves were divided equally between the two watches, six loaves for each watch.
The reason the marble table was used when bringing the loaves in and the golden table when taking them out is "she'ma'alin bakodesh ve'lo moridin" - we elevate in matters of holiness and do not lower. Since the table in the Kodesh was made of gold, the bread is raised from marble to gold; but once it has already been on gold, we do not lower it to marble, rather it is transferred from gold to gold.
"Ve'echad shel zahav mibifnim she'alav lechem hapanim tamid" - this is the third table, standing inside, on the northern side of the Kodesh, and upon it the twelve loaves, the two stacks, rested constantly. And as noted, "tamid" means either in complete continuity or in a fixed and recurring manner.
"Arba'ah kohanim nichnasin" - four kohanim would enter the Kodesh:
"Shenayim beyadam shenei sedarim" - two of them carried six loaves each, two stacks of six loaves of bread.
"Ushenayim beyadam shenei bazichin" - in addition to the twelve loaves there were two bazichin, spoons of frankincense, and each of these two kohanim carried one bazich.
"Ve'arba'ah makdimin lifneihem" - four other kohanim entered ahead of them:
"Shenayim litol shenei sedarim" - two to take the two stacks of old loaves, which had been lying there since the previous week.
"Ushenayim litol shenei bazichin" - and two to take the old spoons of frankincense, which had been there all week long.
"Hamachnisim omdim batzafon ufneihem ladarom" - those bringing in the new loaves stood on the northern side of the Kodesh, since the north is more sanctified, which is why the offerings of the highest sanctity are slaughtered on the northern side of the Azarah, and their faces were turned southward, toward the table. "Vehamotzi'in omdim badarom ufneihem latzafon" - while those removing the old loaves stood on the southern side of the table with their faces to the north. It emerges that the two groups of kohanim stood facing one another.
"Eilu moshchin ve'eilu manichin" - the two who were removing would draw the loaves away, and at that very same moment the other two would set theirs down. "B'tefach shel zeh keneged tefach shel zeh" - for every tefach that the old loaves were drawn away, they were replaced by a tefach of new loaves. The idea underlying this is that there should not be a single moment in which the table stands without the lechem hapanim, "shene'emar: lifnei tamid" - according to this Tanna, "tamid" means before Hashem in complete continuity, without any interruption whatsoever, and therefore this delicate and precise procedure was required.
Rabbi Yose says: this is not indispensable. One may remove all the loaves and only afterward set down the new ones, and one may even remove them in the morning and set the new ones down at midday, so that there are hours during which nothing is on the table, and this presents no problem at all. This too is called "tamid," for according to Rabbi Yose "tamid" means recurring day after day, and therefore there is no objection to the lechem hapanim not resting on the table for a few hours on a given day.
As a matter of halachah, the Rambam rules like the Amora in the Talmud, that the exchange is done simultaneously - removing and placing as one. Others, however, among them the Ritva, hold like Rabbi Yose, that one may remove the loaves in the morning and set down the new ones at midday.
After the removal:
The kohanim who remove the bread take the twelve loaves that had rested there for a full week, go out, and set them down on the golden table in the Ulam. Unlike the momentary pause on the marble table at the entrance, here the loaves remain for some time, because the bowls of frankincense must first be burned on the altar. The frankincense is the matir, the agent that permits the bread to be eaten by the kohanim, and so they wait until it has been burned. Once the contents of the two bowls of frankincense have been offered and consumed on the altar, the loaves become permitted for eating, and then the twelve loaves are divided equally among the kohanim: six for the incoming watch and six for the outgoing watch.
And what is the law when Yom Kippur falls on Shabbos? On that Shabbos the loaves cannot be divided and eaten, since eating is forbidden on Yom Kippur. The bread therefore remains lying on the golden table in the Ulam, in the front chamber, for the entire day, and only at the conclusion of Shabbos, which is also the conclusion of Yom Kippur, is it divided. It is not divided earlier, out of concern that someone might eat from the bread inadvertently on Yom Kippur.
An additional law: Yom Kippur that falls on Erev Shabbos:
Here the Mishnah concludes with an additional law that has no connection to our subject except that it is similar in kind, and it is therefore taught here. The question is what the law is when Yom Kippur and Shabbos fall one after the other, Yom Kippur on Friday and Shabbos the next day. In our calendars, which have been fixed and calculated in advance since the year 358 CE, this is arranged so that such a situation cannot arise, and there can never be two consecutive days on which it is impossible to cook food or to bury the dead. But in the time of the Mishnah the calendar was set by the sighting of the moon and the testimony of witnesses, and so anything could happen, including Yom Kippur falling on a Friday.
And if that did happen, a problem arises: there is one offering brought on Yom Kippur that must be eaten - the sin offering brought as part of the Musaf. This does not refer to the goat offered to Hashem, whose blood is brought on the inner altar and which is burned, nor to the other Musaf offerings, which are burnt offerings, but to that sin offering whose blood is brought on the outer altar like any sin offering of a festival, and which must be eaten on the day it is offered or on the night that follows. Since the day of its offering was Yom Kippur, it is not eaten on that day, and it turns out that the time for eating it is the following night, Friday night. But it cannot be cooked on Yom Kippur because of the prohibition of labor, and not at the conclusion of Yom Kippur either, since that is Shabbos and labor is forbidden then. The result is that there is meat that must be eaten, and it remains raw.
And this is what the Mishnah says: "Chal lihyos erev Shabbos, sa'ir shel Yom HaKippurim ne'echal la'erev" - that goat which comes as the Musaf sin offering on the outer altar and requires eating is eaten that night, on Friday night. "HaBavliyim ochlin oso k'shehu chai mipnei she'da'atan yafah" - the Bavliyim eat it raw, without cooking, since there is no way to cook it, and "their minds are broad" - they are not squeamish and are not repulsed by eating raw meat.
The Gemara asks: who are these Bavliyim? Although the plain meaning of the word is people of Bavel, these are not kohanim from Bavel but kohanim from Alexandria in Egypt (and it is clear that kohanim are meant, since only male kohanim eat this offering in the Azarah). And why were they called Bavliyim? Because Chazal looked askance at the Jews of Bavel for not going up with Ezra to return and settle in Eretz Yisrael, and because of this the Shechinah did not return to its place, and ever since the first exile some two thousand five hundred years ago most Jews have not returned to Eretz Yisrael and have remained a minority there to this day. The Jews of Eretz Yisrael were embittered about this: why do you not come up to the Land? And this is not very different from what goes on in our own times. Out of this, the name "Bavliyim" became a kind of derogatory label for coarse people, just as other languages have terms such as "provincial" or "philistine," which are not meant to describe people who actually come from Philistia or from Crete. So too here, "Bavli" is a borrowed label for a coarse person, and the reference is to kohanim who came from Alexandria, who were called this because they ate the meat raw.
In summary: in this Mishnah we learned the order of arranging the lechem hapanim and removing it: the dispute among the Tannaim as to the meaning of "tamid" - complete continuity or regular recurrence; the two tables in the Ulam, the marble one at the entrance and the golden one at the exit, because of the principle that we elevate in matters of holiness and do not lower; the eight kohanim, four bringing in and four taking out, standing on the north and on the south and drawing back and setting down as one; the burning of the bowls of frankincense that permits the bread and its division between the incoming watch and the outgoing watch; and the laws of Yom Kippur that falls on Shabbos and that falls on Erev Shabbos, including the law of the goat eaten raw by the "Bavliyim."