The Show Bread
HaShem continued, “Make a Shulchan, a wooden table. Completely cover the Shulchan in pure gold, with a decorative gold rim all around the edges.”
On the table were special trays for the 12 loaves of lechem hapanim – the special bread. These 12 loaves were baked every Friday, before Shabbos, and remained there for an entire week, until the following Shabbos, when they were given to the group of Kohanim who were working that week in the Mishkan. At the exact moment the 12 loaves from the past week were removed from the shulchan, 12 new loaves were placed on the shulchan. So it ended up that the shulchan was never empty of its 12 loaves of lechem, not even for one second.
Miraculously, while the 12 loaves of bread were replaced with new bread – the “old” bread stayed perfectly fresh!
Years later, when Bnei Yisrael entered the land of Israel, they would visit the Beis HaMikdash 3 times a year – Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos. During those visits, to demonstrate this great miracle, the Kohanim would lift up the “old” loaves of bread and proudly proclaim to everyone, “Look how much HaShem loves us! See this bread baked a week ago? It’s soft and fresh, as if it came out of the oven just now!”
This is why it’s called “The Show Bread,” showing Bnei Yisrael the awesome miracle of HaShem.
