I am having trouble understanding the different shitot for the mishcan.

1. Rashi on chumash has a different shitah than in shabbat as to the placement of the pegs in the adonim. what is the difference?
2. What is Rashi talking about shaving off one side of the peg and then another?
3. The Ramban doesn't agree with Rashi. What is his shitah?



Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

kerashim 02 the rods

Would like an explanation of the three system for the rods.

Rashi two outside rods two and half amot from top and bottom. one central rod in the middle of the board
Problem with this as the middle bar hits the end peices, they would not allow crossing. Maybe they were not in line?
Rashbam there were five bars two upper, two lower and one central.
A midrashic solution with something about how the bars miraculously bend around three side as one peice. Did I get that right?

Is the any basis in the text for the little knobs on the side of the boards (tenon joint)which fit into each other in the text (braita beniat hamiskan.

Are there any web sites out there to explain this. I couldn't find one (heb or eng).

Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

kerashim 03

http://www.rashiyomi.com/ex26-15b.htm

OK lets do this the hard way step by step

Verse 17: Each plank shall have two pegs.
Rashi
He cut out the bottom of the plank at its middle to the height of an amoh. He left one fourth of its width on one side and another fourth of its width on the other side and these [protrusions are called] the pegs. The cut out part [was equal to] half the width of the plank in the center.

If the width is 1.5 amot, and I cut out the center part a half amah, this leaves half cubit on each side of wood. If I then cut in from each side 1/4 of a cubit, I am left with 1/4 cubit of wood to stick into to the 1/4 cubit slot. This would be the rashi in Shabbat 98. The rashi on the chumash indicates that one half of the width is cut in the center (1.5/2 equals 6/8 cubits, leaving 3/8 cubits or 1/4 on either side. Of this 3/8 cubit, the outside is cut away to 1/4 cubits of wood, meaning 1/8 cubits is cut from the side.
To reconcile the text, Russel Hendel finds a different girsah in the Rashi, "Our interpretation of Rashi is based on the Hebrew book,
Nachalat Yaakov who interprets Rashi as we have (he re-interprets The words >QUARTER boards< in Rashi to refer to >quarter-cubits<--this is actually a textual emendationof Rashi as we have it)." This would work.

I still don't understand the Ramban's problem.

Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

kerashim 04
OK I think I can understand the rods

Brichim
The basic problem is that the pasuk says that there are five bars, however only one bar the middle bar goes from end to end.
There are three solutions.
Rashi on the chumash says there were really just three bars. The upper and lower outside bars, were four, as each bar covers just one half of the wall since they can not go end to end. The fifth bar went end to end inside of the wall of the board.
Now in the gemara (Shabat 98ab), it is written that the middle bar stood by a miracle. Rashi explains that one bar went through the north wall, western wall and southern wall, bending a each corner, something a craftsman could not do. The Oznaim L’torah says if this is what is meant by end to end, then there is no reason that there can not be four (or five) bars on the outside.
The question of four or five bars, is whether the pasuk about five bars includes the middle bar or not. Most commentators do but the Rashbam says that the five outer bars do not include the middle bar.
Now both the tosephot and the meiri object the the idea that one bar went through the three sides since the braita melechit hamishcan (or the mishnat hamiscan, as the meiri calls it), says that the were three central bars with the four half bars on the outside of each of the three walls which is the Rashi on the chumash. They explain the miracle part of the middle bars in that putting a bar in and out of a middle piece of wood a number of time would be almost impossible as the wood warps or that the bar hung in the air within its space.

Remaining questions
My little booklet says that the three bar solution that the two outside bars were 2.5 from the top and bottom respectively. This may be logical but I don't see his source. For the four or five outside solution, I don't see anyone suggesting how they were spaced.

The braita melechet hamiscan is familiar to the meiri and tosephot. However no such braita is mentioned in the talmud or in the gaonic literature. When did this little manuscript show up?

Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

kerashim 05

OK I see the Ramban's problem.

if a board is 1.5 amot = 3/2 amot = 6/4 amot =12/8 amot.

if I cut out one half of the board in the middle, I have cut out 6/8 amot to handle two adonim, each adon rim must be 3/8 amot.
This leaves 6/8 on for both sides or 3/8 amot. If, and this is the big if, the adonim rims are just as thick in the middle than on the sides, that is 3/8 amot, there is nothing left for the keresh itself.

Solution 1
the spaces were asymetrical in the center there was a space of 3/8 amot but on the side the space was only a 1/8 of cubit leaving 1/4 of cubit for the actual peg.

Solution 2 was given already. Rewrite the rashi to read quarters.

Solution 3 I have to go back to shul to read daat hmikreh again.

Cheers,

Aryeh Shore

kerashim 06

well the third solution isn't that much different from the second. Rashi means to say that the remaining keresh after carving is one forth of the width

The asymetrical solution is from the ram (mizrachi)

I also asked what is the basis for the melechet hamishcan describing the snibim. The Ramban says this is meaning of shluvot. Now Handel translates snibim as boltpins. I would translate them as dowel joints but I think a carpenter should decide.

Sof

Aryeh Shore