Lechem HaPanim Love Story – Shabbat Chol HaMoed
Megilat Shir HaShirim that we read on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach is an allegorical love story, between Am Yisrael and HKB”H. According to Rebi Akiva, it is the most elevated sefer in all of the כתובים –
שאין כל העולם כולו כדאי כיום שניתן בו שיר השירים לישראל, שכל הכתובים קדש, ושיר השירים קדש קדשים (משנה, מסכת ידיים ג, ה).
An integral part of this love story between HKB”H and Am Yisrael is the Beit Hamikdash and its various components. There are innumerable allegorical references to the various components of the Beit Hamikdash in Shir HaShirim, amongst them the Shulchan Lechem HaPanim.
In this shiur I have decided to gather together a few choice excerpts from Shir HaShirim that have one common denominator – they all appear in Sefer Meir Panim. They are proofs for various assertions made in the sefer and clearly illustrate the intricate connection between the psukkim of Shir Hashirim and the psukkim that deal with the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim.
סַמְּכוּנִי בָּאֲשִׁישׁוֹת רַפְּדוּנִי בַּתַּפּוּחִים כִּי חוֹלַת אַהֲבָה אָנִי (ב, ה).
The Shulchan and the Menorah in the Heichal stand side by side and the relationship between them is symbiotic. The Shulchan, the symbol of material abundances, derives spirituality of the Torah from the light of the Menorah סַמְּכוּנִי בָּאֲשִׁישׁוֹת. The Menorah’s lights (olive oil) are made possible by the material abundance of the Shulchan, רַפְּדוּנִי בַּתַּפּוּחִים (referring to the “swollen” תַּפּוּחִים loaves of the Lechem HaPanim - 1 tefach thick). It is a Zevulun-Yissachar relationship.
שְׂמֹאלוֹ תַּחַת לְרֹאשִׁי וִימִינוֹ תְּחַבְּקֵנִי (ב, ו).
The primary symbolism of the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim is a blessing for שפע and the source of this bracha is called גבורות גשמים. This is a complicated subject and deals with the spiritual origin of rain and Kabbalistic principle of the Ten Sfirot, specifically two of them – chessed (right) and gvura (left). See the shiur on Eikev. The Zohar Hakodesh (ח"ב קנ"ד ע"ב) says that water originates from the attribute of chessed (which is physically located on the right). The attribute of chessed is the source of simcha. The right (female/chessed) then passes the simcha of the right to the left (male/gvura), the source of חכמה, which then is influenced by this simcha. The simcha and the חכמה intermingle and are then passed back to the right, which then influences the right with the חכמה of the left. The left and right both now have a mixture of simcha and חכמה. It is a very deep concept, beyond the scope of the shiur. However, we have a practical example of this – netilat yadayim. The right hand fills the cup and then passes it to the left hand. The left hand pours it over the right hand and the right hand pours it over the left hand. This is repeated twice when washing before eating bread, or three times when washing upon awakening in the morning. The gematriya (nistar method) of שלחן is תְּחַבְּקֵנִי.
עַד שֶׁיָּפוּחַ הַיּוֹם וְנָסוּ הַצְּלָלִים סֹב דְּמֵה לְךָ דוֹדִי לִצְבִי אוֹ לְעֹפֶר הָאַיָּלִים עַל הָרֵי בָתֶר (ב, יז).
According to Rashi, this passuk is referring to Am Yisrael’s sins of the עגל הזהב and the מרגלים, that caused HKB”H to spring away like a gazelle, to the high mountains, removing His Divine protection from us.
How is this connected to the Lechem Hapanim? One of the miracles of the Lechem Hapanim is that it supposedly remained “warm” the entire week it was on the Shulchan. This is mentioned in the Gemara (Chagiga 26b) that quotes a passuk from Shmuel Alef (21, 7) לשום לחם חֹם ביום הלקחו. Almost an entire chapter of Meir Panim is devoted to proving that the miracle was not that it remained warm, rather that it remained fresh the entire week. When you gave the bread a “kvetch” with your hand after a week on the Shulchan, it was soft and spongy and sprang back. The Kohanim showed this miracle to the Olei Haregel when they brought out the Menorah and the Shulchan on the שלושת הרגלים by squeezing the bread.
The proofs for this in the chapter are mostly scientific, but then be’siyata di’Shmaya Hashem opened my eyes to an amazing source from the above passuk. The gematriya of חֹם ביום הלקחו is the same as דְּמֵה לְךָ דוֹדִי לִצְבִי – the bread “springs” back, like a gazelle.
כֻּלָּךְ יָפָה רַעְיָתִי וּמוּם אֵין בָּךְ (ד, ז).
One of the two primary themes of Meir Panim is the principle of עבודת ה' בשמחה, the importance of smiling and maintaining a סבר פנים יפות. This is hinted to by the shape of the Lechem Hapanim which (for want of a better description), resembles a smiley bumper sticker. Not surprisingly then the gematriya of סבר פנים יפות is יפה רעיתי ומום אין. If everyone understood this principle it would kill the makeup industry and most likely abolish all the maladies that affect mankind, like war, jealousy, hatred, etc.
בָּאתִי לְגַנִּי אֲחֹתִי כַלָּה אָרִיתִי מוֹרִי עִם בְּשָׂמִי אָכַלְתִּי יַעְרִי עִם דִּבְשִׁי שָׁתִיתִי יֵינִי עִם חֲלָבִי אִכְלוּ רֵעִים שְׁתוּ וְשִׁכְרוּ דּוֹדִים (ה, א).
The Shulchan and Lechem Hapanim are intricately connected with the sin of Adam Harishon and are atonement for it. This is a central theme of Meir Panim. When Chava gave Adam to eat from the עץ הדעת it doesn’t say she gave him from the “fruit” of the tree, it says that she gave him from the tree נתנה לי מן העץ ואכל. In other words, Adam did not eat the fruit straight off the tree - it was a processed form of the fruit. Chava took the fruit (wheat) ground it into flour and from that she made a chametz bread. After eating it and realizing her sin, Chava was jealous that she would die and Adam would live and marry another woman, so she tricked Adam into also eating from this forbidden food. מן העץ (in the milui form מם נון הא עין צדי) in gematriya is עִם דִּבְשִׁי. The word יַעְרִי in gematriya is לחם חמץ מידך. For this reason it is forbidden to offer chametz and honey on the mizbeach.
שׁוּבִי שׁוּבִי הַשּׁוּלַמִּית שׁוּבִי שׁוּבִי וְנֶחֱזֶה בָּךְ מַה תֶּחֱזוּ בַּשּׁוּלַמִּית כִּמְחֹלַת הַמַּחֲנָיִם (ז, א).
Adam Harishon made the mistake of not being makpid with the “kashrut in his kitchen” and blindly trusted that whatever food Chava was giving him was Kasher Lemehadrin. In the end, Chava fed him from the עץ הדעת and thus destroyed Adam, who is also called חלתו של עולם. The passuk ותתן גם לאישה עמה ויאכל in gematriya is שׁוּבִי שׁוּבִי הַשּׁוּלַמִּית. The Midrash (Rabba) on that passuk notes that the word שׁוּבִי is written four times, referring to the four galuyot that we are suffering as a result of that sin.
מִי זֹאת עֹלָה מִן הַמִּדְבָּר מִתְרַפֶּקֶת עַל דּוֹדָהּ תַּחַת הַתַּפּוּחַ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלַתְךָ אִמֶּךָ שָׁמָּה חִבְּלָה יְלָדַתְךָ (ח, ה).
This passuk is especially pertinent to Pesach. According to most of the Mefarshim, it alludes to the נשים צדקניות in Egypt. After the men-folk returned after a back-breaking day of slave labor ready to collapse, the women would dress up and make themselves pretty and seduce their husbands under the "apple" tree and thus Am Yisrael multiplied exponentially despite their servitude.
The second primary theme in Meir Panim is that the Lechem Hapanim was atonement for the sin of the עץ הדעת and symbolizes our domination over the יצר הרע. Meir Panim explains that the above passuk is referring to Chava baking a risen (swollen/תפוח), chametz bread. HKB”H says, “In place of the sin of the sin of the עץ הדעת, I have awoken (forgiven) you" - תַּחַת הַתַּפּוּחַ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ. In that sin, your mother (Chava) sabotaged you שָׁמָּה חִבְּלַתְךָ אִמֶּךָ. Mida kenegged mida Chava was punished with pain in childbirth שָׁמָּה חִבְּלָה יְלָדַתְךָ.
The tikkun of Chava’s sin was facilitated by the pious women in Egypt who repaired the “birth impairment” and multiplied prodigiously. Similarly, as a tikkun for the sin of the עץ הדעת, referred to as שָׁמָּה, HKB”H sent a redeemer משה (by changing the order of the letters in the word (שָׁמָּה.
When HKB”H in Egypt forgave us for this sin – עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ, He did it by reducing our time in exile and by sending a redeemer, Moshe Rabbeinu. The gematriya of עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ is חשב את הקץ and אורו של המשיח, also referring to our future redemption.
Chag sameach and Shabbat Shalom
