Shalom and thank you for your question! You wish to clarify how acacia trees could supply the planks that were used for the Mishkan. While your assessment of the measurements converted to feet and inches seems to be correct, there is much to say about the type of tree we are discussing. The Hebrew name for the trees from which the planks of the Mishkan were made is “Atzei Shittim’. This has been translated variously as acacia or cedar. The botanical description I found on the internet explains that it is a “genus that contains some 750 types of tree and shrub, whose spread covers tropical and sub-tropical region ” Thus, there is the possibility that the type of trees which were used to build the Mishkan were of a kind that grew larger than those we know of today, as you suggested.
Our forefather Yaakov (Jacob,) had prophetic vision and foresaw that the Jews would not only be enslaved, but they would also be redeemed, as G-d promised our forefather Abraham. He knew that they would need to build a Mishkan, and he planted cedar trees in Egypt. He brought these trees from Israel, planted them in Egypt, and instructed his children to take them along when they would be redeemed. Since the trees came from Israel, they came from the Holy Land, and were not part of the less-than-moral Egyptian society of that era. Yaakov, more than two hundred years before the sojourn in the desert, had forseen that building the Mishkan in that barren place would be challenging, so he provided a good way to start.
The cedar trees symbolize very deep concepts. In Psalms, 92:13, King David likens the righteous person to a cedar tree “sprouted in the house of G-d, in the courtyards of our L-rd”.
Chassidic teaching explains that the Hebrew term “Atzei Shittim” is connected to the same root as the Hebrew word for folly, ‘shtut,’ and also to the word ‘listot,’ to turn aside. This is not coincidental. The Sages of the Talmud teach that the only way a person can commit a sin, is if a spirit of folly enters him. In other words it is not rational to commit a sin. The cedar/acacia trees provided a lesson to be internalized by the Jewish people in the desert, that affected not only the building of the Mishkan in the desert, but the building of our personal sanctuaries throughout the generations. To build a dwelling place for G-d we must be aware of the delicate line between serving G-d and serving ourselves. If we swerve from the path, following the ‘spirit of folly’, we are not enabling ourselves to be a sanctuary for G-dliness.
The cedar trees of Lebanon described in the Psalm are tall and impressive, like the righteous people who are above the folly of the world.
May we internalize these lessons and refine our personal sanctuaries, our spiritual awareness, until the time when “Nation shall not lift sword against nation,” and all the peoples of the earth will live together in peace and harmony, and “knowledge of G-d will cover the earth as water covers the sea…”
