What was the weight of the beams of the mishkan? We are given the dimensions of the beams (10 amos) and we find that Chazal say Moshe stood them up by a miracle. Obviously they were very heavy. What would be the approximate weight of each of these beams?
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This is probably a math question more than a Judaism question– robevCommented Feb 20, 2022 at 20:24
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It depends what kind of tree "shittim" refers to,– Micha BergerCommented Feb 20, 2022 at 23:22
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1 Answer
As I agree with @robev, I came across an interesting article called "THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TABERNACLE" written by Ephraim M. Epstein. In this article, Epstein writes (The Monist Vol. 21, No. 4 (OCTOBER, 1911), pp. 567-623):
Nor can we rely on the sockets mentioned in the specification, for they weighed only a talent each of silver (see Ex. xxxviii. 27), being 93 3/4 pounds, and even though there were two sockets for each board, this amount of metal would not be a sufficient base to secure a board of 16 feet 8 inches high and 2/2 feet broad to stand upright against the gust of a desert wind
Epstein seems to refer to Shemos 38:27 where it writes:
The 100 talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets for the curtain, 100 sockets to the 100 talents, a talent a socket.
The Penei Moshe on Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 9a seems to explain that the "Talent" in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu was double of the weight of the talent in the time of the Romans, see here
Reference list:
Epstein, E. M. (1911). THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TABERNACLE. The Monist, 21(4), 567–623. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27900348
