Menachos 11:5 - 11:6

ארכו עשרה ורחבו חמשה – as it is written (Exodus 25:23): “[You shall make a table of acacia wood.] two cubits long, one cubit wide.” Rabbi Yehuda according to his reasoning that he stated of utensils that are five handbreadths [in width] (see also Tractate Kelim, Chapter 17, Mishnah 10).

נותן ארכו (one sets it lengthwise against the breadth of the table) – of the showbread corresponding to the width of the table.

וכופל – the bread, two-and-one-half handbreadths above at its height from here and there, and they are its horns/corners. But they were found equally bent at the rim of the table.

ונמצא ארכו ממלא רחבו של השלחן – and its width holds/contains half of the length of the table, and when he would set up another near it, it is found that the entire table is full.

ארכו שנים עשר – Rabbi Meir, according to his reasoning who stated that each cubit is six handbreadths, except for the Golden Altar and the horn of the outer altar and the gallery around the altar for the priest to walk on and the base of the altar. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Meir.

לחם הפנים ארכו עשרה – in this Rabbi Meir agrees (see Tractate Menahot, Chapter 11, Mishnah 4).

וטפחיים ריוח באמצע – between the two rows [of bread in the center]. For the width of the bread is not other than five [handbreadths], the two rows [of bread] sustain the ten handbreadths of the table to its length, subtract the two handbreadths of space between each row [of bread], so that the wind blows on them so that they don’t grow moldy.

אבא שאול אומר שם – in that space between each row/pile they place the dishes/vessels.

והלא כבר נאמר ונתת על המערכת – and on, actually by implication.

ועליו מטה מנשה – and that is near to it. Here also on nearby. And the Halakha is according to Abba Shaul.

מפוצלין – to give the heads of the branches the staves between the cakes of the shewbread heads shaped into forked branches [at the top], that as the number of the staves, so too the number of the forked branches.

ארבעה עשר לסדר זה – six loaves that were in the order of the arrangement on the pile of wood on the altar in the Temple. For four of them, each of them had three branches, there were twelve staves, but for the uppermost it only needed two because there is no burden upon it, hence [there are] fourteen. The lowest loaf did not need anything, because it was placed immediately on the golden table (see Tractate Menahot 97a).

לא סדור קנים – in a new pile of wood on the altar.

לא נטילתן – from the old [pile] supersedes the Sabbath.

נכנס מערב שבת ושומטן – from between each and every loaf, and he places them on the length of the table. And on the next day, he arranges the bread, and on Saturday night (i.e., after the Sabbath), he places the reeds between each bread according to the statute.

ארכן לארכו של הבית – from east to west they would be placed by their length, except for the Ark whose length is according to the width of the Temple, for the staves/poles that were in the Ark would protrude and press/squeeze the curtain and they are similar a woman’s two breasts, as it states (I Kings 8:8): “The poles projected so that the ends of the poles were visible in the sanctuary in front of the Shrine,” and the poles were placed according to the width of the Ark, for had they been according to the length of the Ark, there would not have been each pole other than the measurement of the width of the Ark which is a one-and-one-half cubits, and two men carry the Ark with two poles, two from one side and two from the other, and they would not be able to enter between each pole, it certainly was placed in their width, and they wee from east to west that they would press the curtain, so it is found that the Ark was according to the width of the Temple.