Broken Boxes

The service of the lechem hapanim, or show breads, is described in the end of the Parasha [Vayikra 24:5-9]. When describing what the loaves looked like, Rashi tells us [commenting on Shemos 25:29] that they were similar to a box or crate with two of it's sides broken open – resembling a loaf that has two 'faces' that seem to peer in each direction.

Why use an analogy of a broken item to describe the holy loaves of temple sacrifice ? Could we not have figured out a different, more respectful way to refer to them ? And how, exactly, are we to understand the sharp contrast this forms with the mizbeach, whose animal sacrifices had to be perfect and without blemish. Or even the Menorah, whose oil was to be the purest of the pure ?

Rashi, it seems, is emphasizing an important aspect of the lesson we are meant to derive from the lechem hapanim.

The lechem hapanim symbolized the ability to serve Hashem through wealth. As the gemara states [Bava Basra 25b] "One who wishes to become wealthy should focus his prayers on the north" ( because the Shulchan was in the North of the Mishkan).

If it represents monetary wealth, what exactly is the shulchan doing in the mishkan to begin with ? Well, there are many ways to serve G-d, it is easy to serve out of poverty – for if you voluntarily accept poverty in your dedication then you must be doing it for G-d. But we are left in confusion as to the nature of service through wealth – do I just acquire money and pay a lip service ? Do I employ a righteous zeal and attempt to amass great wealth in the name of G-d ?

We can perhaps compare serving Hashem through wealth with serving Hashem by eating, in much the same way that divine service through poverty is akin to fasting. What does 'eating for G-d' mean ? It means that I acknowledge that G-d is the source of all of this bounty (the easy part), and I only indulge for the sole purpose of experiencing His beneficence so that I might praise Him more devotedly (The difficult part).

Now we understand the challenge the Shulchan presents – but our clarity still falls short regarding the analogy of the lechem hapanim to broken boxes.

While service through wealth is difficult, it is by no means impossible ( See Dovid HaMelech or Rav Yehudah HaNassi ). But this service differs in one more important way from other forms of Avodas Hashem. It is fundamentally lacking. While the prayers we say and the Torah we learn, and even the tears we cry, have an eternal quality about them and they will remain forever attached to our immortal souls; the physical wealth we amass, even in a sincere act of divine dedication, will still return to dust as our bodies do after our time on this earth is up.

So, in recognition of the value that their inherent temporariness gives these items that are used in acts of divine service Rashi connotes them as 'broken boxes'.

May we be zocheh to serve Hashem truly, with our wealth as well as our deprivation, but may we never forget the eternal nature of the purely spiritual side to our worship and the temporality of the physical one.

Hatzlacha !