Parashat Teruma: The Table that Feeds the World
How Does the Mishkan Teach Us to Eat in a Way that Brings the Shechinah Home?
Why do I Reminisce Fondly about Our Childhood Dinners in the Heart of the Family?
Even as a child growing up in an assimilated home, I learned something essential about the holiness of the table. We were not allowed to answer phone calls or watch television during dinner, when everyone in the family ate together each evening at exactly six o’clock. Those meals were protected moments, set apart from the noise of the outside world.
Years later, while learning at Diaspora Yeshiva, Rabbi Goldstein z”l taught us that the table from which we eat is compared to the Temple altar. Before every Shabbat meal, he instructed us to say aloud: “The table is a mizbeach (altar), the food is a sacrifice, I am eating l’shem shamayim – for the sake of Heaven. I am okay, and you are okay.” This teaching left a deep impression on me. From early on, it instilled within me an awareness of the table’s holiness and the importance of striving to eat in a sanctified way, even when it is not always easy.
Today, many of us have lost these simple disciplines. We often eat distractedly while checking messages, rush through meals, or eat on the run, without even using a table. Something sacred is lost when eating becomes hurried, fragmented, or disconnected.
Among the vessels of the Mishkan described in Parashat Terumah is the Tabernacle Table – a model for every Jewish home. In our time, when we can no longer bring sacrifices in the Temple, our personal table can become a place of atonement. The Torah’s path of eating is not defined only by what enters the mouth, but by what flows outward from the table into the world. Bread becomes holy when the table becomes a place of goodness, generosity, blessing, care for others, and words of Torah. In this way, the Shulchan becomes an altar where the self is no longer at the center (Rabbeinu Bachaya, Shemot 25:23).
This is easier said than done. For me, eating in holiness remains an ongoing struggle. Yet I am determined not to give up – to keep returning, again and again, to the work of turning my table into a place of true atonement.
Why is the Section About the Table Placed Next to the Ark?
When the Torah commands the construction of the Mishkan, the central role of the Ark is clear: it houses the Tablets of Testimony and safeguards the Torah at the heart of Israel’s covenant.
Rabbeinu Bachaya explains that even the Kaporet (cover) and Keruvim (cherubs) serve a clear spiritual function, revealing the Divine encounter that takes place above the Ark. Yet, when the Torah turns to the Shulchan (Table), Rabbeinu Bachaya raises a striking question: what does a table do in the House of Hashem, and why would the Mishkan and Mikdash require such an object? His question is not merely technical, but deeply spiritual. If the Mishkan is meant to reveal that Hashem dwells among us, the Ark would seem to suffice.
Yet precisely here the Torah unveils a foundational principle: the Ark represents Torah as Divine truth, but the Shulchan represents Torah as lived reality – the way holiness enters the material world and becomes embodied within the rhythms of ordinary life. A Torah that remains sealed in the Ark is magnificent, but it has not yet become nourishment.
ספר שמות פרק כה פסוק כג וְעָשִׂיתָ שֻׁלְחָן עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים אַמָּתַיִם אָרְכּוֹ וְאַמָּה רָחְבּוֹ וְאַמָּה וָחֵצִי קֹמָתוֹ:
“And you shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits its length, one cubit its width, and one and a half cubits its height” (Shemot 25:23).
The Shulchan declares that Torah is not meant only to be guarded; it is meant to be carried into the human realm where bodies eat, hands work, homes function, and lives are built. The fact that the Shulchan is placed next to the Ark quietly proclaims that the Torah does not float above life. It descends into life. It enters the kitchen, the market, the table, and the place where human need is most primal. The Shulchan therefore does not compete with the Ark; it complements it – translating revelation into sustenance, covenant into blessing, and holiness into the practices of everyday life (Rabbeinu Bachaya; Shiftei Kohen; Tzror HaMor, Shemot 25:23). In simple, practical terms, this hints at what our Sages taught: “Three who ate at one table and spoke words of Torah upon it – it is as if they ate from the table of the Omnipresent” (Pirkei Avot 3:3), as it is stated: “He spoke to me: This is the table that is before Hashem” (Yechezkel 41:22), as explained by the Chida in (Chomat Anach, Shemot 25:23).
Why does the Mishkan Need the Physical Showbread – What is its Purpose?
Rabbeinu Bachaya’s answer is startling in its simplicity: the Shulchan was needed as a “root” – a מקום שורש, a grounded point in the physical realm upon which blessing can rest and from which it can spread outward. Hashem’s blessing, of course, is infinite and not dependent on objects. Yet the Divine Will is that blessing enters the world through vessels. Even miracles, he explains, generally unfold as “yesh mi’yesh” – increase that expands from an existing substance – rather than “yesh mi’ayin,” creation from nothing, which belongs only to Hashem in the act of creation itself. The prophets, too, worked within this pattern: Elisha’s miracle required a remaining jar of oil (II Melachim 4:2), and Eliyahu’s miracle required a remaining jar of flour (I Melachim 17:16). The blessing did not appear ex nihilo; it took hold of what existed and multiplied it beyond its natural limit.
Similarly, in the Mishkan, the bread placed upon the Shulchan becomes the earthly point where the Divine ‘sending’ of sustenance is revealed. This is why Rabbeinu Bachaya writes, the Shulchan is called שֻׁלְחָן/Shulchan – because Hashem שׁוֹלֵחַ /sholeach – ‘sends’ His blessing into the bread, and from there the blessing is sent forth, until the physical world is filled with abundance. The Lechem HaPanim (showbread) is therefore not simply bread for Kohanim. It is bread that testifies that physical nourishment is not self-contained; it is a channel of Divine flow. And because blessing rests upon it, the bread itself becomes miraculous nourishment – so that even a small portion could satisfy many Kohanim, as Chazal testify, whoever received even a minimal share became satiated (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 39a). The Shulchan thus teaches that the holiness of the Mishkan is not only the holiness of transcendence but the holiness of provision – Hashem’s presence as the One who feeds and sustains, not only the One who commands and reveals (Rabbeinu Bachaya; Tur HaAroch; Toldot Yitzchak, Shemot 25:23).
What is the Deeper Meaning of the Measurements of the Table?
The Shulchan is not described in vague or symbolic terms, but through precise measurements, defined borders, and deliberate structure. Rabbeinu Bachaya notes that its length corresponds to two cubits and its width to one, and that it was positioned lengthwise within the Sanctuary, emphasizing order, alignment, and intentional placement rather than ornamentation (Rabbeinu Bachaya, Shemot 25:23). This precision suggests that the Shulchan is not merely furniture, but a spiritual blueprint – a physical form designed to embody inner order.
These measurements teach the Torah’s approach to material blessing: abundance must be real and grounded, structured and bounded, rather than excessive, inflated, or driven by ego (Ohr HaChayim, Shemot 25:23). Blessing, in the Torah’s vision, does not flow through chaos or indulgence, but through vessels that know their limits.
The Kli Yakar reads the Shulchan as an expression of מַלְכוּת/malchut – the “table of kings,” associated with dignity, wealth, and worldly success. Yet the Torah deliberately designs the Shulchan with a broken measure: its height, rather than measuring two full cubits or one, must be one and a half cubits. From this measurement, we can hear the whisper of inner discipline: “Do not allow prosperity to lift your heart too high. Even when a person eats from ‘the table on high,’ he must restrain his appetite, without fulfilling every desire, leaving space within his body and soul. Likewise, discipline yourself to cultivate humility by avoiding eating until you are full, as the blessing expands precisely where the self is contracted” (Kli Yakar, Shemot 25:23).
This message is sharpened further by the Torah’s command to make a frame around the Shulchan:
ספר שמות פרק כה פסוק כה וְעָשִׂיתָ לּוֹ מִסְגֶּרֶת טֹפַח סָבִיב וְעָשִׂיתָ זֵר זָהָב לְמִסְגַּרְתּוֹ סָבִיב:
“You shall make for it a frame a handbreadth wide all around, and you shall make a gold molding for its frame all around” (Shemot 25:25).
Malbim explains that the frame around the Table teaches us not to indulge in physical pleasures without a proper boundary. The golden crown on the frame indicates that only those who live according to proper boundaries (the frame) are worthy of honor and dignity.
How do the Shulchan’s Dimensions Teach Us to Maintain Purity Around Our Table?
The Shulchan’s dimensions have a deeper underlying meaning. Its length (2 cubits), width (1 cubit), and height (1½ cubits) total four and a half cubits. A cubit (amah) equals six handbreadths (tefachim). These dimensions amount to twenty-seven handbreadths, the gematria of זַךְ/zach – ‘purity.’ This suggests that our table must be refined, guarded from unholy talk and empty speech, so that eating does not descend into coarseness (Yismach Yisrael; Shiftei Kohen, Shemot 25:23).
Even the Shulchan’s placement in the north carries meaning: the ‘north’ is associated with hiddenness and stored treasure, alluding to the concept that the reward is “stored away” for those who fear Hashem – not only in this world, but in the world to come (Tehillim 31:20).
In this light, the Shulchan’s borders, rings, poles, and crown do not merely describe portability. They teach restraint, boundaries, and the capacity to carry holiness through movement – to maintain a sanctified relationship to food wherever one goes. The Torah’s precision here teaches that holiness does not avoid the material world; it shapes it, measures it, and gives it form (Shemot 25:23).
What is the Connection Between the Shulchan and the Mashiach?
One of the most striking allusions embedded in the Shulchan is that it is not only a vessel of provision, but a mirror of our spiritual state in exile and redemption. In exile, eating is often entangled with fear, distortion, and imbalance – whether through grasping, indulgence, numbness, or relentless anxiety around lack. These patterns belong to the domain of the Sitra Achra, the impure side of the serpent, alluded to by the fact that the word שֻׁלְחָן/Shulchan is composed of the same letters as לְנָחָשׁ/le’nachash – “for the serpent.” When nourishment is ruled by the serpent, sustenance becomes a site of struggle rather than blessing.
The Shulchan of the Mikdash represents the opposite reality: sustenance that is ordered, blessed, and directly connected to Hashem. שֻׁלְחָן/Shulchan is also the gematria of לְמָשִׁיחַ/le’Mashiach – “for Mashiach,” for all the vessels of the Temple service that were hidden away are destined to return in the days of Mashiach. This reveals a profound spiritual principle: redemption is not merely the rebuilding of walls or the return of prophecy, but the rectification of the material world so that it can once again serve as a stable vessel for Divine blessing. In the redeemed reality, the serpent will no longer dominate the realm of sustenance; nourishment itself will become an arena where Hashem’s kingship is revealed. ‘Shulchan’ is also the gematria of זֶה שָׁלוֹם/zeh shalom – “this is peace” – for when sustenance is received with humility, gratitude, and generosity in our home, there is joy and peace (Chomat Anach, Shemot 25:23).
In the days of Mashiach, when דַּעַת/da’at will fill the world (Yeshayahu 11:9), our relationship to physicality will be healed. The table will no longer be a battlefield of appetite and ego; it will become a place where the Divine is recognized within the mundane. If we listen carefully, the Shulchan is already whispering that the world is meant to be fed – not only biologically, but spiritually – until the hunger beneath hunger is answered.
