Showbread

The לחם הפנים, or, the showbread that existed in the Temple, was quite an amazing phenomenon. It allowed people to witness miracles every single week.

The Lechem Hapanim was changed once a week during Shabbat. At that time, there was a changing of the guard among the Kohanim. They worked in shifts that lasted one week.

When the new Showbread was put in its place on the Shulchan, with its twelve loaves, the old bread was shared by the outgoing and incoming shifts of Kohanim. The miracle was that the bread remained hot and fresh the entire week!

Since non-Kohanim were not allowed to enter the Heichal, the building that housed the Menorah, Shulchan, and Holy Ark, the Kohanim would sometimes lift the table that contained the לחם הפנים, and bring it to the entrance of the Heichal, so that others would witness the miracle as well.

The message here was to teach that “man does not live by bread alone.” One’s livelihood and possessions all came from G-d.

This was an incidental detail of what went on when the Temple was standing. This is why people loved being there, as it allowed them to feel, from up close, the Presence of Hashem. It helped keep everyone focused on what was real and permanent and what was unimportant and temporary.