Bread of Faces, Bread of Presence, Shewbread, Showbread. Presence Bread. What is the significance of the table of Shewbread to the Jewish people in the tabernacle?
Friendly Jew here! First I think you mean Showbread or לחם הפנים (lechem haPānīm) which literally means bread (lechem) of the presence (haPānīm). This was also wasn’t the bread you think of, it was Matzah. A specific type of bread that lacks yeast and is air dried for a week, never leavening. [1]
The bread being laid there is an actual mitzvah, coming from Exodus 25:30, “Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.” [2] Leviticus 24:5-9 goes into a lot of detail, covering the weight of the bread, to the specific day that it should be brought in. I’m not going to list it all here but here’s a link to the passages. here
What they looked like is up to debate as is all things with Rabbis. Rabbi Chanina said they were to look like open arks while Rabbi Yochanan said they were to look like “dancing ships”. [3] Rabbi Yitzchaki said that these open arks would look like upside chets while Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon argued that only the upper edges of the loaves were turned in. [1] Now we can get to the dancing ship. Rabbi Yitzchaki stated that this looked like the shape of a ship whose hull is narrow where it touches the water, but wider towards the top, but in the Ba’alei HaTosefot it is described a very narrow V. [4]
Now to what was done with this bread. The bread was placed in two stacks of six loaves separated by reeds. Every Shabbat after the afternoon sacrifice, the old loaves were replaced by the newer ones and the old ones given to the Kohanim or the Priests, specifically those who are patrilineal descents of Aaron. [1]
While the exact reason for being this is debated amongst Rabbis, the central theme is the material abundance that G-D sends to the Jewish people. During the three main pilgrimages to the Holy Temple, the Kohanim would say “Look at how beloved you are by G‑d!” While pointing to the Bread of Presence. [5]
