A Holy Bread

The Table of Showbread appeared both in the Tabernacle and the Temple of ancient Israel (Exodus 25:23-30; 2 Chronicles 4:19-22). God gives the instruction for preparing the bread in Leviticus 24:5-9. The ingredients called for choice flour and the priests would eat this bread, and it would have new loaves placed on the table each week. “Each of the loaves represented the 12 Tribes.” They would remain on the table all week, being given to incoming and outgoing priests. It’s estimated that between 400-500 people ate from the twelve loaves weekly.

Les Saidel, a veteran immigrant from South Africa, came to Israel 35 years ago. He and his wife today are preparing the ancient showbread for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. Having started a research center, The Showbread Institute in 2018, and teaching groups of tourists, Christians and Jews about showbread, he says that showbread “is an incredibly complicated bread that is filled with life lessons and symbolism.”

He explains how this began for him: “The showbread is the iconic bread of the Beit HaMikdash (the Temple). Of all the breads in Jewish history the only one that is Jewish is the showbread. All the others were copied and not originally Jewish. The showbread is historically unprecedented. It was a breathtaking bread.” He wants to reacquaint people with the showbread for another reason, “We are in the throes of the Moshiach (messiah). We have to learn how they did things in the Temple to prepare [for the Third Temple].”

Saidel has authored a book, “The Jewish Bread Bible,” that he expects will be published near the end of 2020.

Bread has been called the Staff of Life, the ideal food. Les Saidel and is wife are preparing the ancient showbread to serve and inform the modern time and people in Israel.

(Source: Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler)