One of the most important components of the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple was the golden shulchan, upon which the twelve loaves of the weekly shewbread (also spelled showbread) were placed. The word shulchan is commonly translated as “table,” and refers to a flat surface upon which food is put down. In the 21 times that the word shulchan appears throughout the Pentateuch, it always refers to the ritual shulchan found in the Tabernacle. However, in the other 50 times that this word appears in the Bible, it can also refer to a general “table” upon which a king or important person eats and feeds the members of his household. In this essay, we encounter three words in Rabbinic parlance that also mean “table” and are understood to be equivalent to the Biblical Hebrew shulchan — petora, taka, and tavla.

Ibn Janach (990–1055) and Radak (1160–1235) trace the word shulchan to the triliteral root SHIN-LAMMED-CHET (“to dispatch,” “to send away,” “sword”), but exactly how it connects to the meanings derived from that root are not readily apparent. Menachem Ibn Saruk (920–970) in Machberet Menachem sees shulchan as derived from its own quadriliteral root SHIN-LAMMED-CHET-NUN. Either way, the Targumim consistently render the Hebrew word shulchan into Aramaic as petora. Conversely, Rashi (to Beitzah 29b) defines the Aramaic word petorah (when it appears in the Talmud) as shulchan.

There is another parallel between shulchan and its Aramaic equivalent petorah: In Mishnaic Hebrew, the term shulchani refers to a “moneychanger” (Maaser Sheini 4:2, Bava Metzia 2:4, 3:114:6, 9:12, Shavuot 7:6, Meilah 6:5, Keilim 12:5), as those who served in that occupation typically worked from behind a shulchan (“table/desk”), upon which they would place the money. Just like petorah in Aramaic means the same thing as shulchan in Hebrew, so does petora’ah in Aramaic mean the same thing as shulchani in Hebrew — “moneychanger” (see Rashi to Chullin 54b).

When Balak sought out the services of the evil sorcerer Balaam to put a hex on the Jews, the Bible relates that Balak sent messengers “petorah” (Num. 22:5), which literally means “to Pethor.” In line with the above, the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah §20:7, Tanchuma Balak §4) and Rashi (to Num. 22:5) explain that when the Bible associated Balaam with petorah, this means he functioned, after a fashion, like a moneychanger, as all the different kings ran over to Balaam to “do business” with him, just like those involved in commerce might chase after a moneychanger to “do business” with him. The Matnot Kehunah explains this connection by noting (as we already explained) that petora in Aramaic means “table,” and the Hebrew term for moneychanger in the Mishnah is shulchani, which derives from the Hebrew word shulchan.

Rabbi Avraham Menachem Rappaport (1520–1596) in Minchah Belulah (to Num. 22:5) offers two more exegetical ways of interpreting the word petorah used in connection with Balaam: Firstly, he connects petorah to the word pitaron (“interpretation/explanation”) as a reference to Balaam’s........

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