שמות, פרק כ״ו, פסוק כ״ז

The wooden framework of the Tabernacle required a robust system of support to remain stable and upright. To hold the individual boards together as a single, unified structure, a specific arrangement of connecting bars was designed for the walls on the second side and the western rear.

Commentators agree that five bars were assigned to each side of the structure, but they differ on how these bars were arranged and what function they served. The primary approach among commentators [רש״י, ריב״א ושטיינזלץ] is that the five bars actually formed three horizontal rows of reinforcement. The top and bottom rows each consisted of two shorter bars inserted into external rings. Each short bar extended to the center of the wall, where it met its counterpart. These four external bars effectively linked the two halves of the wall. The fifth bar, known as the middle bar, was threaded directly through the hollow center of the wooden boards, running continuously from one end of the wall to the other.

A different perspective [רשב״ם] suggests that there were five complete external bars passing through external rings, stacked one above the other, with an additional internal middle bar providing immense structural strength. However, other scholars [הכתב והקבלה על פי הזוהר] reject the concept of a sixth bar. They maintain that the middle bar was simply the central piece of the five, functioning much like the middle finger of a human hand, surrounded by four full length external bars. This view is supported by the specific phrasing used later in the text, which indicates that the middle bar was indeed one of the original five.

Another discussion surrounds the exact length and shape of this central middle bar. A straightforward understanding [רש״י וריב״א] suggests that the middle bar simply ran straight through a single wall from one end to the other. In contrast, an ancient tradition [ריב״א ורשב״ם] teaches that the middle bar actually encircled all three walls of the Tabernacle simultaneously. According to this account, the bar passed through the hollow interior of the boards and miraculously curved at the corners of the building, seamlessly uniting all the walls into one solid, unbreakable unit.