Kommentar zu Middot 3:14

המזבח היה שלשים ושתים אמה על שלשים ושתים אמה – he would bring a square frame made from four boards, each board is thirty-two cubits long and the board is one cubit wide, and it is the height of the frame, and he fills it with stones, lime and pitch/tar and molten lead, and it is made into one piece of thirty-two cubits by thirty-two cubits, one cubit high. And this is the foundation/base of the altar.

Introduction Chapter three begins with several mishnayot describing the outer altar, upon which the sacrifices were burned.

עלה אמה וכנס אמה (it rose by a cubit and drew in by a cubit – on every side) – after the foundation rose to the height of a cubit, he brings another frame whose length is the entire board is thirty cubits and a width of the board, that is the height of this frame is five cubits, and places it on the foundation/base, and fills it with stones, and lime and pitch/tar and lead like the first, and it is attached to the base and becomes one piece of thirty [cubits] by thirty cubits standing on the base/foundation. This is called the סובב/a sort of gallery around the altar for the priest to walk on. It is five cubits higher from the foundation. That is to say, he draws it in by a cubit, which he shortens from the base/foundation a cubit in each direction, and he goes back and a third frame, which is twenty-eight cubits by twenty-eight cubits, three cubits high, and places it in on the SOVEV, and fills it like the first, and this is the place of he the pile of wood on the altar of the Temple which is at the top of the altar. It is found the foundation/base protrudes and goes out from the SOVEV a cubit on each side, and the SOVEV protrudes from the place of the pile of wood on the altar of the Temple one cubit to each side. And afterwards, he brings a frame of one cubit by one cubit which is one cubit high and places it on the corner of the altar and fills it, and this is the corner of the altar, and similarly for the four corners.

The altar was thirty-two cubits by thirty-two. The mishnah begins to describe the altar from the very bottom. This area was 32 by 32 cubits.

מקום הילוך רגלי הכהנים – so that the Kohanim would not have to walk between the corners, but we leave one cubit free from the place of the corners and inwards for the walking of the feet of the Kohanim.

It rose a cubit and went in a cubit, and this formed the foundation, leaving thirty cubits by thirty. The foundation of the altar was an amah in length and ran the entire length on the north and west but not the south and the east. On the southwestern corner and northeastern corner it took up one amah, but did not run the whole length (this will be explained in section nine). The remaining square of the altar was 30 x 30 amot.

מתחילה – in the days of [King] Solomon.

It then rose five cubits and went in one cubit, and this formed the surround, leaving twenty-eight cubits by twenty-eight. On top of the foundation lies the surround (sovev). The sovev was five amot above the altar, and it was an amah in breadth. This left the altar with 28 x 28 amot.

לא היה אלא עשרים ושמונה על עשרים ושמונה – and they drew it in [by a cubit] and it rose [by a cubit] of he foundation/base and the SOVEV and the place of the corners and the place of the walking of the feet of the Kohanim until there remained the place of the pile of wood on the altar twenty [cubits] by twenty [cubits].

The horns extended a cubit in each direction, thus leaving twenty-six by twenty-six. The four corners/horns (same word in Hebrew) of the altar each took up an amah in each direction, leaving the altar with 26 x 26 amot.

וכשעלו בני הגולה והוסיפו ד' אמות וכו' – it is found that its foundation/base is thirty-two [cubits] by thirty-two [cubits], and the place of its pile of wood on the altar is twenty-four [cubits] by twenty-four [cubits].

A cubit on every side was allowed for the priests to go round, thus leaving twenty-four by twenty-four as the place for the wood pile [for the altar fire]. Along the sides there was an amah walkway left empty so that the priests could walk around the altar. This walkway was inside the area devoted to the horns. Thus, the final measurement of the altar is 24 x 24. It was on this space that they would set the wood for the fire.

ארבע אמות מן הדרום וארבע אמות מן המערב – we have the reading. And this is what I brought in [Tractate] Zevakhim in the Chapter קדשי קדשים/The Holy of Holies (Chapter 6, Mishnah 1 and Tosafot Tractate Zevakhim 61b s.v. ארבע אמות מן הדורם וארבע אמות מן המערב ).

Rabbi Yose said: Originally, the complete area [occupied by the altar] was only twenty-eight cubits by twenty-eight, and it rose with the dimensions mentioned until the space left for the altar pile was only twenty by twenty. When, however, the children of the exile returned, they added four cubits on the north, and four on the west like a gamma, since it is said: “Now the hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve broad, square” (Ezekiel 43:16). Is it possible that it was only twelve cubits by twelve? When it says, “With four equal sides” (, this shows that he was measuring from the middle, twelve cubits in every direction. According to Rabbi Yose, the bottom square of the original altar was 28 x 28, leaving 20 x 20 for burning the wood, after room was left for the foundation, sovev, horns and walkway. This accords with the size of the altar built by Solomon according to II Chronicles 4:1. However, when the Israelites returned from the Babylonian exile, they built the altar larger than it was before. They added four amot to two sides of the altar, forming the shape of the Greek letter Gamma, which made the usable space of the altar 24 x 24. This number is derived from an interpretation of Ezekiel 43:16, according to which the altar was 12 x 12 amot. This number strikes Rabbi Yose as being impossibly small, probably because that would make it smaller than the altar of Solomon. Therefore, he posits that the measurements were taken from the center of the altar, and that 12 amot extended in each direction, leaving a space of 24 x 24.

כמין גמא – a Greek Gimmel which is similar to our inverted [letter] Nun. But there (i.e., Talmud Zevakhim 61b) it explains that because of the שיתין /a pit by the side of the altar into which the remainder of the libations was poured, which are the holds where the libations go down, they added to draw the altar to the south and to the west. For initially, during the days of [King] Solomon, they expounded, “[Make for me] an altar of earth [and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being]” (Exodus 20:21), filled up with earth, so that it will not be an empty cavity, and when they would offer libations on the Altar in the southwest corner of the altar, the libations would descend from the altar to the floor and flow gently to the pit that was dug there near the the southwestern corner near the altar, and there was not within the altar. But the members of the Exiles added to the building of the altar util there was that same pit/cistern intercepting/absorbing within the altar. And they opened perforations to the top of the altar opposite it so that the libations could descend there. For they would say that drinking is is like eating, for just as eating is consuming in the altar, that is, the burned sacrifices on the altar, so too the drink, that is, the libations would be absorbed by the altar. And the Biblical verse of “an altar of earth” (Exodus 20:21), is expounded that it would be attached to the ground, so that they would not build it on top of rocks nor on top of cavities/caves.

שנאמר והאריאל – this verse is in Ezekiel [Chapter 43, Verse 16] and he would prophesy on the measurements of the Second Temple and for the future times to come.

A line of red paint ran round it in the middle to divide between the upper and the lower blood. Some sacrifices had their blood spilt on the upper side of the altar, above the red paint (the animal hatat and bird olot) while the rest had their blood spilt on the lower side of the altar.

The foundation ran the whole length of the north and of the west sides, and it took up one cubit on the south and one on the east. This was explained above in section two.

ואריאל שתים עשרה – measurement of the place of the pile of wood in the altar is stated as twelve.

אל ארבעת רבעיו (in the four quarters thereof) – it teaches that from its middle, he measures twelve cubits in each direction, which are twenty four [cubits] by twenty-four [cubits].

וחוט הסיקרא חוגרו באמצע (and a red line goes around it in the middle) – the red thread was made around the altar in its middle at the end of five cubits of its heigh, which is one cubit below the top part of the SOVEV.

להבדיל בין דמים העליונים – the sin offering of cattle and the burnt offering of fowl whose blood is sprinkled above from the red thread.

לדמים התחתונים – for all of the rest of the sacrifices whose blood is sprinkled below from the thread.

ואוכל בדרום אמה אחת ובמזרח אמה אות – the entire altar was in the portion of Benjamin, except for one cubit on the surface of the length of the east that he would take hold of from the portion of Judah, but rather that there wasn’t a cubit that was in the east on the surface of all of the east, for when that would reach the northeastern corne, it would end within a cubit of the corner, and similarly, the consumption of the southern cubit would not go over the entire face of the south, for when it would reach the southwester corner, it would end a cubit near the corner. And it was found that three corners of the altar were in the portion of Benjamin, and the only the southeastern corner was in the portion of Judah. And because when Jacob blessed Benjamin (Genesis 49:27): “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he consumes the foe, [And in the evening he divides the spoil],” and we translate into Aramaic: “And in his lodging the Holy [Temple] will dwell,” something that is sanctified monetarily will not be other than in the portion of Benjamin, therefore, they did not make the foundation to the altar in the southeastern corner, because that of a tearer was not in his portion (see Talmud Zevakhim 53b), and money, and money would not be given to the tribe in that corner. But when they made the square framework for the base to fill it with stones, and lime and pitch/tar and lead as we stated, they would put wood or every kind of thing in that southeastern corner so that the corner would not fill up, and afterwards they would detach the wood and this corner would remain empty without a foundation. And because of this, it is called, the middle of the Altar SOVEV, because it surrounds and goes around all of the corners, which is not the case with the foundation/base.

ובקרן מערבית דרומית – a cubit below the foundation, there were two perforations.

At the southwestern corner [of the foundation] there were two openings like two small nostrils through which the blood which was poured on the western side of the foundation and on the southern side flowed down till the two streams became mingled in the channel, through which they made their way out to the Kidron wadi. The blood of all sacrifices was either drained on the western side of the foundation (see Zevahim 5:1-2) or on the southern side (Zevahim 5:3). The blood would drain out through two holes shaped like nostrils, and then flow down to the channel that flowed through the Temple Courtyard. From there the blood would be flushed out to the Kidron wadi that flows below the Temple Mount.

שהדמים הניתמים על יסוד מערבי – as, for examples the remnants of the blood of the inner sin-offerings, which are afrer all of he gifts, he would pour the remnants of the blood on the western foundation.

ועל יסוד דרומי – the remnants of the blood of the outer [sacrifices (see Tractate Zevakhim, Chapter 5, Mishnayot 1-3).

יורדין – on the path of those perforations and mix in the water channel that is in the Temple court, an from there leave to the Kidron Valley. And the owners of gardens would purchase them from the treasures to manure the land (see Tractate Yoma, Chapter 5, Mishnah 6 and Tractate Taanit, Chaptet 4, Mishnah 1).

באותו הקרן – of the southwestern [corner].

On the floor beneath at that corner there was a place a cubit square on which was a marble slab with a ring fixed in it, and through this they used to go down to the pit to clean it out. The blood and refuse would flow down to the pit (called in Hebrew the “shit” wonder if that’s coincidental?). There was a trap door that would lead down to the pit and the priests would periodically clean it out of congealed blood so that it wouldn’t get clogged. That might not have been a job that they had to fight to get.

שבו יורדין לשית – to a cavity that is underneath the altar corresponding to the place of the libations (see Tractate Meilah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3).

There was an ascent on the south side of the altar, thirty-two cubits [long] by sixteen broad. The ascent was the ramp that the priests used to go up to the altar. It was long and quite broad.

וכבש היה לדרומו של מזבח – a kind of slanting bridge and it is made sloping for on it they ascend and descend from the altar. For it was not possible to ascend to it on the steps because it states (Exodus 20:23): “Do not ascend My altar by steps, [that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it].”

It had a square window in its western side where disqualified sin-offerings of birds were placed. Sin-offerings of birds had to be left somewhere until they would begin to rot. Then they could be burned outside the Temple. To this end the birds were left in a small window/cavity cut out of the ascent.

שלשים ושתים – its length was given from south to north, and its width from east to west, sixteen cubits.

ורבובה (a cavity in the ascent to the altar for deposit of ritually disqualified fowls) – it is a kind of hollow window. It was one cubit by one cubit. And it stood on the ramp to its western side.

רבובה – like hallow/נבוב , in the language of נבוב לחות (Job 11:12): “A hollow man will get understanding, [When a wild ass is born a man].”

מבקעת בית כרם – they would bring them [from the valley of Bet HaKerem].

Introduction Our mishnah deals with the stones used for the altar. Deuteronomy 27:5-6 states: “You should build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not wield an iron tool over them; you must build the altar of the Lord your God of unhewn stones.” These two verses and their fulfillment are the main topic of this mishnah.

מן הבתולה – land that was never dug there ever.

The stones both of the ascent and of the altar were taken from the valley of Bet Kerem. Bet Kerem is close to Jerusalem (today it is a neighborhood in Jerusalem).

והפגימה – invalidates the stones. בכל דבר – and even if they were not impaired/become defective [through contact] with iron.

They dug into virgin soil and brought from there whole stones on which no iron had been lifted, since iron disqualifies by mere touch, though a flaw made by anything could disqualify. If one of them received a flaw, it was disqualified, but the rest were not. The quarrying would begin in soil that had not been used. They would extract whole stones without using any iron tools. Any stone which had been touched by an iron tool is disqualified. If it was flawed by a different type of tool it is also disqualified, but other types of metal do not disqualify by mere touch. If one of the stones that were already in use received a flaw, it is disqualified but the other stones are still valid. They will have to replace the flawed stone.

ומלבנים אותן – with plaster, twice a year.

They were whitewashed twice a year, once at Pesah and once at Hag, and the Sanctuary was whitewashed once a year, at Pesah. Rabbi says: they were whitewashed every Friday with a cloth on account of the blood stains. The stones of the altar were whitewashed with plaster twice a year, once on Pesah (their Pesah cleaning) and once on Sukkot. The mishnah seems to say that they whitewashed the Sanctuary with plaster once a year. However, this cannot be the intention of the mishnah because the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies were both covered with gold. Therefore, Albeck explains that this refers to the porch (the Ulam) that comes before the Sanctuary. Another explanation is that the word “Sanctuary” here actually refers to the whole Temple, including the courtyards. Rabbi [Judah Hanasi] holds that they would clean the altar once a week because of the blood stains. But they would only do so with a simple cloth.

רבי אומר כו' – He does not dispute against the first Tanna/teacher, but rather adds to state that on each Friday, they would clean them with a cloth because of the blood.

The plaster was not laid on with an iron trowel, for fear that it might touch and disqualify. When they put on the plaster, they did not use an iron trowel for fear that would disqualify the stones.

לא היו סדין אותו בכפים – He (I.e., Rabbi Judah the Patriarch) returns to something the first Tanna/teacher stated, that when they would clean them with plaster twice a year, they would not plaster them with builder’s trowels who were accustomed to plaster with them [which were made of iron]. (See Exodus 20:22: And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones, for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.”).

Since iron was created to shorten man's days and the altar was created to prolong man's days, and it is not right therefore that that which shortens should be lifted against that which prolongs. This section explains why iron disqualifies the stones of the altar. It is a nice midrash the material that is used to destroy life should be kept away from the altar, whose ultimate purpose is to provide and lengthen life.

וטבעות היו בצפונו של מזבח – because they would not tie the daily offering as is taught in the Mishnah in Tractate Tamid [Chapter 3, Mishnah 5],Yohanan the High Priest ordained/established that twenty-four rings for the twenty-four priestly divisions, and they would be arranged on the floor made like a bow, and when they would bring in the neck of the cattle at the time of the ritual slaughtering and would insert the head of the ring in the ground. And these were to the north of the north, because the Holy of Holies, their slaughter is in the north.

There were rings to the north of the altar, six rows of four each. And some say, four rows of six each. Upon them they used to slaughter the sacrificial animals.
The slaughter house was to the north of the altar, and on it were eight small pillars on top of which were blocks of cedar wood, in which were fixed hooks of iron, three rows in each, upon which they would hang [the sacrifice] and they would strip its hide on tables of marble that stood between the pillars. Section one: There were twenty-four rings on the north side of the altar, either in six rows of four, or four rows of six. They would put the animal’s head in the ring to slaughter it. Section two: The mishnah describes the slaughterhouse, especially the hooks on which they would hang the meat after the sacrifice was slaughtered. It is also describes the tables upon which the meat would be washed.
This mishnah describes the set-up used to slaughter the sacrifices. Some of this mishnah was also found in Tamid 3:5 (coincidental, I think, that the number of the mishnah is the same).

שמונה עודים ננסים (eighteen small columns) – columns of short stone.

ורביעין של ערז – square pieces of cedar wood were on the [small] columns.

ואונקליות (hooks) – like kinds of forks; in the foreign tongue, INTZINISH.

היו קבועין – in those square blocks of cedar wood, and they would suspend the cattle upon them.

ושלשה סדרים (three rows) – of hooks one above the other, were on each piece of wood, to suspend/hang a large animal or a small one.

על שלחנות של שיש – that on them they would rinse the innards, because the marble cools off and makes cold and preserves the meat so that it doesn’t spoil.

This is our reading. The height of each step was one-half of a cubit and the depth of each step was a cubit (see also Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3), a cubit and [another] cubit and the terrace was four cubits. Rabbi Yehuda states that the higher was a cubit and [another] cubit, and the terrace was five. Such is what my teacher/Rabbi Baruch wrote when he found exact older versions, and this is its explanation. רום – the height of the step is one-half of a cubit. Like it was for all of them.

Introduction The Mishnah continues to move in its description from the less holy places to the direction of the Sanctuary and the holiest places. Today we move from the outer altar to the Sanctuary.

ושלחה – that is, it pulled the width above, for this is the foothold which was a cubit/ And a second step and a third, each one, the depth of each step was a cubit; and this is the “cubit, cubit” as it is taught.

The laver was between the porch and the altar, a little to the south. The laver where the priests would wash their hands and feet was found between the porch and the altar (to the west of the altar), and a little bit south.

ורובד שלש (the terrace/landing was three cubits) – the fourth step was three cubits wide. And the terrace/landing that is taught, this is a row of the floor , like surrounding landings/terraces of stone, on the fourth terrace/landing that is in the Temple Courtyard. Because the floor was wide without a step, and because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) did not say that the depth of each step was three cubits, but rather that the landing was three cubits, meaning the row of the floor.

Between the porch and the altar there were twenty-two cubits. Between the altar and the porch there were twenty-two cubits, which were taken up by steps. Each step was half a cubit above the previous step. The breadth of each step was a cubit, but some steps had some extra floor space in between them.

ואמה אמה – meaning to say, the fifth and sixth steps, each one [of the steps] had a depth of one cubit.

There were twelve steps there, each step being half a cubit high and a cubit broad. There was a cubit, a cubit and a level space of three cubits, then a cubit, a cubit and a level space of three cubits, then at the top a cubit, a cubit and a level space of four cubits. The first two steps were a cubit broad, and then there was a level space of three cubits before the next step began. This set-up occurred three times for a total of nine steps, and fifteen cubits. The final set had a level space of four cubits, bringing the total to twenty-one cubits. In addition there was another cubit between the altar and the first step, for a total of 22 cubits between the altar and the Sanctuary.

ורובד שלש – and the seventh step was three cubits wide.

Rabbi Judah says that at the top there was a cubit, a cubit and a level space of five cubits. Rabbi Judah holds that the extra cubit was in the level space after the last step. There was no space of a cubit between the altar and the first step.

העליונה אמה אמה ורובד ארבע – the Explanation: the highest step which is the twelfth after the four steps that were a cubit each, the highest step was four cubits wide until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple. It was found that all the steps are nineteen cubits from the first until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple. And three cubits wide of the floor, part of which was from the altar until the beginning of the steps, there are twenty-two cubits between the hall leading to the interior of the Temple and the altar.

ר' יהודה אומר העליונה ורובד חמש – until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple, for he (i.e.., Rabbi Yehuda) held that at the end of two cubits of the altar begins the steps.

חמש אמלתראות (five main-beams of the ceiling/projecting outside the house) – painted and tiled/cemented beams.

Introduction Today’s mishnah deals with the doorway that opened onto the Porch (Oolam in Hebrew).

של מילת – of trees that grow on them gall-nut (i.e., a species of oak tree, while Kahati calls it an ash tree, which Jastrow rejects), as we state in [Tractate] Gittin [19a], we are concerned lest it (i.e., the Jewish bill of divorce/Get) was written in a solution of gall-nuts (for a tanned ink will not take on a tanned hide)

The doorway of the porch was forty cubits high and its breadth was twenty cubits. As we noted above in 2:3, the doorway to the Porch was larger than all of the other doorways in the Temple. It was forty cubits high, whereas all other doorways were twenty cubits high.

התחתונה – the lowest beam lies on the lintel of the opening to the width of the opening which is twenty-cubits wide, and the beam overhangs on the opening a cubit from this side ad a cubit from that side, and the second beam that is above it overhangs on he first a cubit from this side and a cubit from that side, so that its length is twenty-four [cubits]. And the third is twenty-six cubits, and the fourth is twenty-eight cubits, and the fifth is thirty cubits.

Over it were five main beams of ash [wood]. The lowest projected a cubit on each side beyond the doorway. The one above projected beyond this one a cubit on each side. Thus the topmost one was thirty cubits long. The lowest beam that went over the doorway would have been 22 cubits in breadth. The next was 24, the third was 26, the fourth was 28 and the fifth was thirty cubits long.

ונדבך (a course of stones/layer) – a row, like (Ezra 6:4): “with a course of unused timer for each three courses of hewn stone.”

There was a layer of stones between each one and the next. Between each beam there was a layer of stones.

בין כל אחת ואחת (between every two beams) – these five beams do not touch each other, but rather a row of a structure of stones was between this [beam] and that [beam].

שלא יבעטו (so that the walls would not bulge)- so that the walls would not bend/incline to fall from the weight of their height, and these [cedar] beams would continue from this wall to that wall support the two walls (of the hall containing the golden altar and the hall leading to the interior of the Temple).

ורואין את העטרות – in the windows of the hall containing the golden altar (i.e., Hekhal).

כל מי שהוא מתנדב – [donating] gold to the hall containing the golden altar (i.e., Hekhal), and he wants that the gold that he donated will be placed in the Heikhal because it was entirely covered in gold., he made from that gold that he donates in the image of a single berry or a leaf or a cluster [of grapes] and hangs it on it.

ונמנו עליה שלש מאות כהנים – because of the heaviness of the gold was great that was there, three-hundred Kohanim were needed to carry it and to remove it from place to place. And this is one of the places tha,t the Sages spoke of in the language of exaggeration in rhetorical speech (see Talmud Hullin 90b), and not exactly three-hundred Kohanim, but Rabbi Eliezer B’Rabbi Tzadok did not intend other than to inform that there was a lot of gold that was donated there.