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Beit HaMikdash

שולחן ולחם הפנים

The Table and the Showbread

A gold-covered table with twelve loaves, set out every Shabbat.

Text, diagram and reconstruction

וְנָתַתָּ עַל־הַשֻּׁלְחָן לֶחֶם פָּנִים לְפָנַי תָּמִיד׃

And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before Me always.
The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation

Dimensions and materials

Table
2 amot long, 1 wide, 1.5 highTorah text: Stated in the Five Books of Moses.
Each loaf
10 handbreadths long, 5 wide, with 'horns' of 7 fingerbreadthsMishnah / Talmud: Recorded in the Mishnah or Talmud, the rabbinic texts that preserve Temple practice and law.
Loaves
Twelve, in two rows of sixTorah text: Stated in the Five Books of Moses.

Acacia wood overlaid with gold in the Mishkan (Exodus 25:23-24); gold in the Temple.

Function

Held the showbread 'before Me always'.

Daily and annual use

The bread stayed on the table all week.

Every Shabbat four priests removed the old loaves while four set the new ones, hand beside hand, so the table was never bare. The old loaves were eaten by the priests.

Interpretations

  • Twelve loaves for twelve tribes, a standing thanksgiving for sustenance in the presence of God.

    A common traditional reading; the Torah itself states only the number and the command.

Historical questions

  • The exact shape of the loaves and their 'horns' is debated in the Talmud.

In the Third Temple

Halachah: Rambam: Codified as Jewish law by Maimonides (Rambam) in the Mishneh Torah.

Required. Rambam lists the Table among the vessels of the Sanctuary, north of the Menorah's position.

All sources for this object