The Mystery of the Tabernacle's Silver Sockets: Unraveling the Math Behind Them

In the portion of Bamidbar, the counting of the Israelites is mentioned. The Israelites were numbered through the half-shekel contributions each person gave. The half-shekels from 603,550 individuals amounted to a hundred talents of silver. From these talents, the sockets of the Tabernacle were cast, "a talent per socket," as the Torah states. These sockets served as bases into which the boards were slotted. The boards stood side by side, forming the walls of the Tabernacle. At the lower end of the boards, "legs" were carved, which were inserted into the sockets, holding the structures stable and contributing to the Tabernacle's grandeur—they were made of silver.

This description is depicted in drawings and models of the Tabernacle. The challenge begins when one tries to compute the size of these sockets.

A half-shekel amounts to 8 grams of silver, as explained by Rambam. Multiplying by 600,000 and dividing by 100, we find each talent weighs less than 50 kilograms of silver. 48 kg of silver contains 4571 cm³, which is hardly sufficient for making a socket a cubit high to support a board of one and a half cubits in width, as Rashi and the Midrash describe it, a cubit by one and a half. This quantity doesn't match the required size!

Some propose resolving this according to Ramban's approach—that the sockets indeed measured a cubit by one and a half, but their thickness was minimal, and the "legs" extended almost across the entire width of the board. In this method, the sockets were more like coverings or silver plating, not wide bases that could stabilize the board.

The late rabbi, Chaim Kanievsky ztz"l, offers that the sockets were indeed the described size but hollow. They weren't solid silver blocks but silver boxes. This too raises a question. Silver is a flexible and very soft metal, prone to dent with any touch, much like the silver cups we may have at home. Some suggest filling the sockets with sand after placement, to make them stable. The compromise remains...

Another solution suggests that the talent measurement wasn't the size of each socket; instead, a talent was symbolically allocated for each person from the Israelites' contributions, signifying their support for the Tabernacle, a talent per socket. However, additional material was added to create large and sturdy sockets. This explanation follows the idea that the Israelites donated separate silver as described in the Terumah portion, and there was no other use for silver in the Tabernacle aside from the sockets.

Furthermore, it should be noted that pure silver is not very practical, which is why it is typically alloyed. It's possible that a large quantity of alloy was used for the sockets, providing the needed strength and volume.