• Nowadays a person’s שולחן atones for him in place of the מזבח

The Gemara says that although the שולחן was plated with gold, its susceptibility to tumah was based on its status as a wooden utensil, דרחמנא קרייה עץ – because Hashem called it “wooden,” as the passuk says: המזבח עץ שלש אמות גבוה – the mizbeiach was wooden, three amos high, etc., and concludes: וידבר אלי זה השולחן אשר לפני ה' – and he said to me, “This is the Table which is before Hashem.” The Gemara asks that the passuk began with the term "מזבח" and concluded with the word "שולחן", and Rebbe Yochanan and Rebbe Elazar explain: בזמן שבית המקדש קיים – During the time when the Beis Hamikdash stood, מזבח מכפר על אדם – the mizbeiach would atone for a person. ועכשיו שאין בית המקדש קיים – But now that the Beis Hamikdash is not standing, שולחנו של אדם מכפר עליו – a person’s table atones for him (through the mitzvah of providing for guests).

• The arrangement and removal of the קנים supporting the לחם הפנים are not דוחה Shabbos

The Mishnah on the previous Daf taught that there were twenty-eight קנים – rods supporting theלחם הפנים, fourteen in each stack. Rav Ketina says "אשר יוסך בהן" – with which it shall be covered alludes to the קנים, שמסככין בהן את הלחם – with which we cover the bread. Rava asks, if the קנים are required מדאורייתא, why did the Mishnah say that the arrangement and removal of the קנים do not override Shabbos? However, Rava retracted his question, because Rebbe Akiva stated a rule: כל מלאכה שאפשר לה לעשותה מערב שבת – any labor which can be done on Erev Shabbos אינו דוחה את השבת – does not override Shabbos. Here, too, the קנים can be removed before Shabbos, and arranged back on the שולחן after Shabbos. The קנים’s purpose is דלא ליעפש לחם – so that the bread will not become moldy, and this short time without the קנים will not cause them to become moldy. A Baraisa teaches that the rods are removed before Shabbos and placed along the length of the שולחן. On מוצאי שבת, he enters the Heichal, מגביה ראשיה של חלה – lifts the edge of a loaf, ומכניס קנה תחתיה – and inserts the rod underneath it, and does the same with all the other קנים.

• Which amos in the Mikdash were five tefachim and which were six tefachim?

In the Mishnah, Rebbe Yehudah said that the שולחן, which the Torah describes as two amos long and one amah wide, was ten tefachim by five tefachim, and Rebbe Meir said it was twelve tefachim by six tefachim. This is based on their machlokes elsewhere: Rebbe Meir says that all the אמות of the Mikdash were בינוניות – medium אמות of six tefachim, except for the אמות of the מזבח הזהב, and of the קרן, סובב, and יסוד of the מזבח החיצון, which were five tefachim each. Rebbe Yehudah says all amos of the Mikdash structure were of six tefachim, while those of the כלים (including the שולחן) were of five tefachim.

The Gemara explains that their machlokes centers on how to interpret a passuk in יחזקאל. That passuk also describes the above-mentioned parts of the מזבח החיצון as being אמות of five tefachim, and the Gemara discusses at length whether this refers to their height or the width. It ultimately concludes that the [five-tefach] אמה of the יסוד refers to its height, the אמה of the סובב refers to its width, and the אמה of the קרנות can refer either to their height or width. It emerges that the מזבח’s surface was slightly more that 26 by 26 amos wide, and its height of ten amos was slightly less than sixty tefachim.

Siman – Chess Master. The eccentric chess master’s guest who ate at his table giving the chess master a כפרה just like the מזבח, was impressed that the chess master removed the rods on his elaborate שלחן chess set used to keep the pieces separate before Shabbos, and that the width of his one אמה table was exactly five tefachim like all keilim were, not like the אמות of the Mikdash structure which were six tefachim.