Messianic Education Trust
		Always Being Raedy     Terumah   (Ex 25:1 - 27:19)

Shemot/Exodus 27:12   And the width of the enclosure for the western side, curtains fifty cubits [long]; their pillars ten, their sockets ten.

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Our text comes from the complex building instructions for the wilderness Tabernacle, the point of The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem's physical presence in the midst of His people, given from HaShem to Moshe during his first forty days with HaShem on Mt. Sinai. The instructions detail many exacting minutiae of the construction process, specifying length, count and materials without always explaining the purpose of every space and object. Walter Brueggemann comments that "the building of the court of the tabernacle again focuses on structure and design and not at all on its function."¹ Many commentators navigate their way through the collection of measurements, shapes and patterns by interpreting them as symbols. Philo, for example, explained the Tabernacle as a model of the universe,² while Who Is ...

Rambam: Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides (1135-1204 CE), Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer and physician; author of Mishneh Torah, Guide for the Perplexed and other works; a convinced rationalist
Maimonides saw the Tabernacle and its practices as a reflection of a royal palace whose servants sought to honour their king.³ Brevard Childs comments that the difficulty is not in finding a possible meaning to a symbol, "but in choosing between a large group of alternative suggestions and in distinguishing between those elements in the Tabernacle which were not to be understood symbolically."⁴

The Tabernacle itself was to be surrounded by a rectangular courtyard, one hundred cubits east to west and fifty cubits north to south. Our verse describes the western side or wall of that enclosure, behind the Tabernacle which is also situated on an east-west alignment, with its doorway facing east like the courtyard. The parokhet, the thick curtain separating the Holy Place - where all the priests could enter and serve - from the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies) where only the Cohen Gadol could enter once a year to offer the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the doorway curtain of the Tabernacle and the entrance curtain to the courtyard all faced east, towards the rising sun. The courtyard is constructed of linen, "hangings of fine twisted linen" (27:9, NJPS), and the commentators are undecided as to whether they were hangings made of linen thread - perhaps something like netting that could be seen through - or solid linen that provided privacy for whatever was going on inside. Nahum Sarna tells us that "the hangings are suspended from sixty pillars, each five cubits (7.5 feet) high; and that the pillars are held by pegs and guy-ropes." Umberto Cassuto goes a little further, reporting that "the curtains were hung on pillars and felt fast by cords (35:15) and bronze pegs (27:19) fixed in the ground on each side of them."⁵

Since the word in our text לִפְאת, the construct form of לִפְאָה, can mean corner, side, district or region - as shown in "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field" (Vayikra 19:9) - there is also debate about the precise arrangement of the pillars. The Who Is ...

Sforno: Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (1470-1550 CE), Italian rabbi, philosopher and physician; born in Cesena, he went to Rome to study medicine; left in 1525 and after some years of travel, settled in Bologna where he founded a yeshiva which he conducted until his death
Sforno, for example, suggests that "the last pillar on each side also served the next side, as the corner, so that each side started one space in from the end," while What Is ...

Targum Onkelos: An early (1^st-2^nd Century CE) translation/paraphrase of the Torah into Aramaic; attributed to a Roman convert to Judaism, Onkelos; used in Babylonian synagogues during the Talmudic era
Targum Onkelos changes לִפְאַת to the more explicit לְרוּחַ, which Jastrow confirms is used for 'side' in the rabbinic writings. This affects the pillar spacing as we don't know if each side was essentially free-standing, or whether they were interlocked at the corners. An explicit connection would offer more strength, but would narrow the space between pillars from five cubits to just over four and a half cubits. The text also tells us that the pillars were banded: "the hooks and bands of the posts to be of silver" (Shemot 27:11, NJPS). It is unclear whether this is solely for decoration, or for more strategic purposes. Who Is ...

Chizkuni: Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah (13^th century), French rabbi and exegete; his commentary on the Torah was written about 1240 in memory of his father, based principally on Rashi, but using about 20 other sources
Chizkuni posits that "since they were not plated like the other posts, they had to be banded so the dry heat of the sirocco would not split them." Cassuto surmises that "the curtains should be fastened to the pillars not only at the top but also at the bottom and in the middle, using the silver banding at top, bottom and middle, which served both as decorations and as fittings to which to tie the hangings, with the help of straps or fine cords, so that they should not be shifted from their position by the winds."⁶

It seems, from the measurements given, as Who Is ...

Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105 CE), French rabbi who wrote commentaries on the Torah, the Prophets and the Talmud, lived in Troyes where he founded a yeshiva in 1067; focuses on the plain meaning (p'shat) of the text, although sometimes quite cryptic in his brevity
Rashi calculates, that the pillars were 5 cubits (7.5 feet) apart and that "the sockets rested on the ground and the pillars were stuck into them." That means that between each pillar was a square of linen 7.5 feet high and wide. On the west side alone, that is a seventy-five foot length of linen held up 7.5 feet in the air; over five hundred square feet of linen to catch the wind, held by just ten pillars with guy ropes and pegs. A typical single-hand sailing dinghy carries around 75 square feet of sail and can sail at nearly twenty miles per hour downwind. Put another way, one hundred square feet of sail generate around 2 horse-power, so five hundred would equate to ten horse-power. Would the pillars and guy ropes, on the west end alone, be up to that pressure and stay standing? The sirocco winds, known to gust at more than sixty miles per hour, starting in the Arabian and Sahara deserts particularly during autumn and spring, would be more than a match for the courtyard hangings, tearing the sheets from each other, pulling them off the hooks and shredding the fabric as it flapped around the ties on pillars - assuming the mooring of the pillars was strong enough to prevent them from being pushed over.

Given that the Tabernacle was built by the community in the wilderness, for a journey originally intended to be two or three years, but which ended up being forty years, this design seems to be offering a hostage to the weather. It sounds like the words the prophet used to describe Israel's later behaviour: "they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7, ESV). Yet the instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle itself are prefaced by HaShem's words, "follow the patterns for them that are being shown you on the mountain" (Shemot 25:40, NJPS). To make sure that we don't miss the point, the Apostolic Writings echo that: "when Moshe was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by G-d, saying, 'See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain'" (Hebrews 8:5, ESV). Emphasising obedience, precision and a heavenly reality in earthly worship, HaShem's words leave no room for variation. We might imagine a conversation between Betzalel and Moshe going something like this: The courtyard design is just crazy; have you any idea what this is going to do in a wind? Well, HaShem was very clear that we have to build it that way. Doesn't HaShem realise that the first desert storm will whisk the whole thing straight over the mountains to Egypt? I'm sure He does, but that's the way He said to do it. And what happens when all the curtains have gone or shredded and we can't put up the courtyard for months? Either it won't happen or He already has a plan to cover that - just build it as He says and trust Him to take care of it; it is His dwelling place.

Moshe and Betzalel hadn't had the benefit of being at Mt. Horeb with Elijah: "And lo, the L-RD passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the L-RD; but the L-RD was not in the wind. After the wind -- an earthquake; but the L-RD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake -- fire; but the L-RD was not in the fire. And after the fire -- a soft murmuring sound" (1 Kings 19:11-12, NJPS). One phenomenon after the other in quick succession, any of which could have completely obliterated Elijah; HaShem turned them on and off like the flicking of a switch. Elijah stood on the mountain before HaShem and was completely unharmed. Yeshua was crossing the Sea of Galilee with His disciples and "a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling" (Mark 4:37, ESV) while Yeshua slept in the stern of the boat. He was awoken by the disciples in fear for their lives and rebuked the wind and the sea in just two words: "siw,pa( pefi,mwso - Quiet, be muzzled" (v. 39). Both imperative form verbs, to which the elements instantly respond, as Mark reports: "the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (v. 39, ESV). Controlling creation, turning the wind on and off, stilling a raging storm; these are easy things for the G-d who spoke all of creation into being, the One by whom "all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities" (Colossians 1:16, ESV).

Here, then, is the point for us. Are we always ready to do what the Spirit tells us to do, even if it doesn't appear to make sense in the here and now, even if - by our standards, even in our imagination - it looks impossible? Are we ready to trust Him and go out on a limb, trusting that He already has everything in hand and knows exactly what He is doing? Would we, like Jeremiah, stand in the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem and rebuke all those going in and out, crying out to them, "Thus says the L-RD of hosts, the G-d of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place" (Jeremiah 7:3, ESV)? Would we, like Isaiah, obey HaShem's call to "loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet" (Isaiah 20:2, ESV), walking "naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush" (v. 3, ESV)? Mercifully, we are not often asked to do things of such magnitude in our day, but the principle remains. Whether we are to speak truth to power, to rebuke those in sin, to correct congregations in error, to announce judgement or reward - or simply to humble ourselves to serve others in apparently menial ways - will we hear the Spirit's prompting and do what we are told, leaving him to take care of us and the consequences, or will we sit on our hands and come up with a thousand reasons why it won't work and resist the Spirit?

1. - Walter Brueggemann, "Exodus", in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 453.

2. - Philo, Life of Moses, II.88, 126.

3. - Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, II, 45-49.

4. - Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary, The Old Testament Library, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), page 538.

5. - Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, (Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1983), page 365.

6. - Cassuto, ibid.

Further Study: Psalm 104:1-6; Jeremiah 26:1-6; Matthew 14:28-33

Application: Do you feel that you could step out and do something unusual or - at least for you - difficult or potentially expensive in its aftermath? Don't be afraid, for Yeshua will always be with us and take care of us; not for nothing did He tell the disciples, "the gates of hell shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18). Ask Him today to calm your spirit and prepare you for that moment when you will need to step out and be counted, but in the meantime to give you His peace.

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© Jonathan Allen, 2026

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