Commentaire sur Middot 1:18

בשלשה מקומות הכהנים שומרים – not because of fear of robbers and/or thieves, but that of the honor and splendor for the Temple, that it should not be without guards, and this guarding, its commandment is the entire night. And these three places that the Kohanim guard correspond to what is written in the Torah (Numbers 3:38): “Those who were to camp before the Tabernacle, in front – [before the Tent of Meeting, on the east – were Moses and Aaron and his sons,] attending to the duties of the sanctuary, as a duty on behalf of the Israelites,” as a hint to three watches in three places. For just as that in the Tabernacle, Aaron and his two sons were guarding in three places, even so in the Temple as well.

Introduction Tractate Middot opens with the same exact line as did Tamid a list of where the priests kept watch all night. However, the interest of the two tractates is a bit different. Middot is interested in the watch itself, whereas Tamid was more interested in locating the priests before their daily work began. The beginning of Numbers 18 states that the priests and Levites are to stand guard at the Tabernacle, an idea that was later applied to the Temple as well. It seems that this guarding could serve two functions: practical and ceremonial. The Temple is akin to a palace and a palace needs guard both for protection and protocol (think about the guards in front of Buckingham Palace). The idea that there were a total of twenty-four places in the Temple where either priests or Levites would stand guard is mentioned also in I Chronicles 26:17-18.

בית אבטינס ובית הניצוץ – two upper chambers were built on the side of the gates of the Temple courtyard, but the House of the Hearth was not upon it, but rather an arch , ARKVELT in the foreign tongue, which was made in the land, such was explained at the beginning of the Tractate Tamid (1:1).

In three places the priests keep watch in the Temple: in the chamber of Avtinas, in the chamber of the spark, and in the fire chamber. There were three places in the Temple where the priests would keep watch at night: The chamber of Avtinas, where they would prepare the incense. The chamber of the spark, where they kept the fire to light the fires on the altars. The fire chamber where they kept a large fire to keep the priests warm at night.

והלוים בעשרים ואחד מקום – that in twenty-four places they would need to guard the Temple, as it is written in [First] Chronicles [26:17-18): “At the east – six Levites; at the north – four daily; at the south – four daily; at the vestibule – two by two; at the colonnade on the west – four at the causeway and two at the colonnade,” that makes here twenty-four divisions of duty/watches, three of them were Kohanim as we stated in the opening clause [of the Mishnah], and twenty-one of them were Levites. But even though that Scripture did not state anything other than Levites, Kohanim are also called Levites , as it is written (Ezekiel 44:15): “But the Levitical priests descended from Zadok [who maintained the service of My Sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from Me – they shall approach Me to minister to Me.”

And the Levites in twenty-one places: Five at the five gates of the Temple Mount; Four at its four corners on the inside; Five at five of the gates of the courtyard; Four at its four corners on the outside; One at the offering chamber; One at the chamber of the curtain, And one behind the place of the kapporet. There were twenty-one places where the Levites kept watch: A: The five gates to enter the Temple Mount. B: The four inside corners of the walls surrounding the Temple Mount. Sort of like prison guards. C: There were seven gates to the courtyard (see mishnah four) but the Levites guarded only five of them. D: At the four corners inside the walls surrounding the Temple. E: The “offering chamber” was in the burning place. We will learn more about this place in mishnah six. F: Where the curtain was kept. G: This refers to behind the Holy of Holies.

חמשה – guards at the five gates of the Temple Mount.

מתוכו – from inside to the walls of the Temple Mount.

על חמשה שערי עזרה – this Tanna/teacher holds that there are only five gates for the Temple courtyards But even according to the one who states further on (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 1, Mishnah and Tractate Tamid 27a), he admits that there wasn’t a division of duty/guard other than on five [gates of the Temple courtyard – that the House of the Flame and the House of the Hearlth were watched by Kohanim or that the gates that were in the middle of the north and the south didn’t require special guarding, as they were guarded by those at the first and third gates].

על ארבע פנותיה מבחוץ – because there is no sitting in the Temple courtyard other than for only the kings of the House of David, and it was not possible for a guard to watch while standing all the night, therefore, the guards were in the corners of the Temple courtyard, and similarly, the guards in the gates of the Temple courtyard would guard from outside, in order that they would be permitted while sitting, and the Scriptural verse (First Chronicles 26:18) esd used as a support (i.e., they leaned their enactment against a Biblical text) – as it is written: “two at the colonnade,” towards the outside, meaning to say, outside the wall of the Temple courtyard.

איש הר הבית – appointed over all of the guards. [The story is told in Tractate Yoma 16a that Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, the first of two Tannaim of such a name, who was the friend of Rabbi Eliezer the Great/ben Hyrcanus – was the Tanna who taught Tractate Middot.

The officer of the Temple Mount used to go round to every watch, with lighted torches before him, and if any watcher did not rise [at his approach] and say to him, “Shalom to you, officer of the Temple Mount, it was obvious that he was asleep. Then he used to beat him with his rod.
And he had permission to burn his clothes. And the others would say: What is the noise in the courtyard? It is the cry of a Levite who is being beaten and whose clothes are being burned, because he was asleep at his watch. Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob said: once they found my mother's brother asleep, and they burnt his clothes.
Today’s mishnah describes the officer in charge of security on the Temple Mount who would go around and check to make sure no one was asleep on his watch. If he found anyone asleep he would beat them, and perhaps even burn their clothes. Don’t ask me what they would do without any clothes!
The mishnah is straightforward (although a bit harsh) and therefore doesn’t really need explanation.

משמשים כניסה ויציאה – that through them they would enter and leave the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount had five gates, which the mishnah now lists.

קינפונוס מן מערב – the gate of the Temple Mount that is on the western side Kiponos is its name, and of the north Tadi is its name.

There were five gates to the Temple Mount: Huldah was a prophetess mentioned in II Kings 22:14, but there is she found in Jerusalem, not necessarily at these gates. Perhaps these were the gates where she sat, albeit in the First Temple. We should note that one can still see these southern gates at the southern walls of the Temple. This seems to be the most common entrance and exit.

עליו שושן הבירה צורה – when they (i.e., the exiled Jews in Babylonia) went up from the Diaspora, the Kings of Persia commanded them to draw the form of Shushan the capitol on the gates of the temple, in order that there would be fear of the kingdom, and they drew it in the Eastern Gate.

The two Huldah gates on the south were used both for entrance and exit; We don’t really know who Kiponus was. It is possible that he was the man who donated the gate.

כהן גדול השורף את הפרה – Our Mishnah is [according to] Rabbi Meir who holds that the Red Heifer is not burned other by the High Priest. But it is not Halakha (see Tractate Parah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1).

The Kiponus gate on the west was used both for entrance and exit. The Taddi gate on the north was rarely used. One exception will be brought at the end of this chapter. Again, Taddi seems possibly to have been the man who donated the gate.

וכל מסעדיה (and all its attendants) – all of the Kohanim who are assisting and supporting the Kohen who burns it.

The Taddi gate on the north was not used at all. Over the eastern gate was a drawing of Shushan, Persia. This was in commemoration of the place where the Jews were during the exile. It might have also served as a tribute to Cyrus who let the Jews leave Persia to return to Israel. To the east of the Temple lies the Mount of Olives, where the red heifer was burned. The high priest and the other priests involved in this ceremony would go through this gate on their way to the Mount of Olives to burn the red heifer.

להר המשחה – to the Mount of Olives which is to the east of Jerusalem, there they would burn the [red] heifer.

שער הדלק (the Gate of Kindling) – because they would bring in through there the wood for the pile of the wood on the altar was brought in that burn on the altar, it is called, the Gate of Kindling.

There were seven gates in the courtyard: three in the north and three in the south and one in the east.
In the south: the Gate of Kindling, and next to it the Gate of the First-borns, and then the Water Gate.
In the east: the Gate of Nicanor. It had two chambers, one on its right and one on its left. One was the chamber of Pinchas the dresser and one the other the chamber of the griddle cake makers.
Today’s mishnah lists the seven gates in the Temple courtyard.
Section two: The Gate of Kindling was used to bring in the wood for the altar.
Through the Gate of the First-borns they would bring in first-born animals on their way to being slaughtered. The Water Gate was used to bring in the water used on Sukkot for the water libation (it’s the most famous gate in history, but for other reasons).
Section three: Mishnah Yoma 3:10, mentions Nicanor and the doors for his gate, which according to legend were brought miraculously from Egypt. This gate was on the eastern side of the courtyard. Within the gate itself there were two chambers. In one sat Pinchas who made the priestly clothing (see Shekalim 5:1) and in the other sat the priests who made the griddle cakes that the high priest would offer every day (see Tamid 1:3).

שני לו שער הבכורות – we have the read, for there they wold bring in the firstlings whose slaughtering took place in the south.

שער המים – in the book of Ezekiel (47:1-2): “[He led me back to the entrance of the Temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the platform of the Temple – eastward, since the Temple faced east – but the water was running out at the south of the altar (i.e., southeast), under the south wall of the Temple. Then he led me out by way of the northern gate and led me around to the outside of the outer gate that faces in the direction of the east;] And I found that water was gushing from [under] the south wall,” and that is the south, which is called, “right” as it is written “north and eastward” (Psalm 89:13). And see Ezekiel in the prophecy that the waters went out from the House of the Holy of Holies thinly like the proboscides of locusts and when they reach this game, they become like the fulness of the mouth of a small jug, and that is why they call them מים מהכפכים/waters gushing (see Ezekiel 47:2- “[Then he led me out by way of the northern gate and led me around to the outside of the outer gate that faces in the direction of the east;] and I found that water was gushing from [under] the south wall.”).

שער ניקנור which is explained in Tractate Yoma (38a and Chapter 3, Mishnah 10- concerning the miracles of Nicanor with regard to the doors – see the Bartenura commentary there).

פנחס המלביש – who was appointed to dress the Kohanim at the time of their [Divine] Service, and to strip them of their clothing after the [Divine] Service and to guard the clothing of the priests.

לשכת עושי חביתין – in there they would make the meal-offering that the Kohen Gadol would offer on each day, “half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening” (Leviticus 6:13; see Tractate Tamid, Chapter 1, Mishnah 3),t and because it is stated regarding it (Leviticus 6:14): “shall be prepared with oil on a griddle,” it is called, a sort of cake.

וכמין אכסדרה היה – two walls, one from this side and another from that side of the gate, they would protrude and go out from beyond the wall of he Temple courtyard to the side of the Temple Mount, and there was an upper chambr built from above on top of the two walls.

On the north was the Gate of the Sparks which was shaped like a portico. On the north there was the Gate of the Sparks. There were pillars on both sides, which made it look like a portico.

ופתח היה לו לחיל – in one of the walls there was an opening that would go out to the place within the fortification of the Temple, which is a place inside from the wall of the Temple Mount from outside the Temple courtyard and is called חיל/Khel, [as will be described in further detail in Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3].

It had an upper chamber built on it, and the priests used to keep watch above and the Levites below, and it had a door opening into the Hel. The Gate of the Sparks, unlike most gates, also had an upper chamber. The priests would stand on top and stand guard, as we learned in mishnah one. The Levites would stand below and guard (see also mishnah one). The Gate had a door that opened onto the Hel. The Hel was an area ten amot wide that went between the Soreg (a light fence) and the walls of the Courtyard. We will explain more about this later in 2:3.

שער הקרבן – there they would bring in the Holy of Holies, whose ritual slaughter was in the north.

Next to it was the Gate of the Sacrifice and next to that the fire chamber. To the east of the Gate of the Sparks was the Gate of the Sacrifice. Next to it was the fire chamber, mentioned above in mishnah one.

בית המוקד – because there were open fires burning there always to warm the Kohanim there because they walk barefoot, it is called, the House of the Hearth. And it was a large house, and in its four corners, there were four small chambers as will be explained further on [in the next Mishnah] (see also Tractate Tamid, Chapter One, Mishnah 1 as well).

כקיטוניות (small rooms/recesses) – like small rooms that open to a large house of kings, which is the reception room.

Introduction Our mishnah describes the fire chamber. This chamber is also described in Tamid 3:3. In the first mishnah of Middot (and Tamid) we learned that the fire chamber was called as such because it had a large fire which kept the priests warm at night. Today we learn that there were different rooms within the fire chamber, each of them serving a different purpose.

שתים בקודש ושתים בחול – as the House of the Hearth, part of it is built within the holy Temple courtyard and part of it on the unconsecrated ground.

There were four chambers inside the fire chamber, like sleeping chambers opening into a hall, two in sacred ground and two in non-holy, and there was a row of mosaic stones separating the holy from the non-holy. For what were they used? The chambers of the fire chamber were small rooms that opened into a larger hall. Two of them were inside the Temple on holy ground and two were outside the Temple. The ones on the outside of the Temple were in the Hel [in Hebrew Hel and hol (non-holy) are almost the same]. There was a fence made of mosaic stones that would separate the chambers inside the Temple from those outside.

וראשי פספסין (ends of flag-stones the pavement/blocks on the ceiling; cut and polished stone block) – the heads of beams that come out from the wall until the place which is sanctified, in order to know which is sanctified/holy and which is unconsecrated (i.e., north of the room of the hearth) and to consume Holy Food in sanctity.

The one on the southwest was the chamber of sacrificial lambs, The chamber on the southwest was used to store lambs. This chamber was mentioned in Arakhin 2:5, “there were never less than six inspected lambs in the chamber of lambs.”

לשכת טלאי קרבן – there were there lambs which passed examination for the daily-offerings, as is taught in the Mishnah (see Tractate Arakhin, Chapter 2, Mishnah 5): There should be no less than six examined lambs in the Chamber of the Lambs.”

The one on the southeast was the chamber of the showbread. In the chamber on the southeast they would knead and bake the showbread.

לשכת עושי לחם הפנים – the House of Garmu would make the shew bread there.

In the one to the northeast the Hasmoneans deposited the stones of the altar which the kings of Greece had defiled. The northeastern chamber was used to store the stones from the altar that the Greeks had defiled by offering foreign sacrifices on it. According to I Maccabees 1:54 (a non-canonical book) when the Maccabees tore down the altar that had been defiled by the Greeks, they deposited the stones until a prophet would come along and tell them what to do with them (see 4: 43-46). In Tamid 3:3 this chamber is called “the chamber of seals.”

ששקצום מלכי יון – that they offered upon it (i.e., in the northeastern corner) for Idolatrous worship. But in the Tractates Shekalim (see actually Tractate Yoma 15b as the Bar Ilan project has shown me that it is not found in Shekalim at all) and Tamid (see Chapter 3, Mishnah 3), they call it the Chamber of the Seals.

Through the one on the northwest they used to go down to the bathing place. In the floor of the northwestern chamber there was an opening through which the priests would go down to bathe. In Tamid this is called “the fire chamber” for it was in this chamber that they would keep the fire.

בה יורדין לבית הטבילה – in that chamber, the Kohen would go down when he observed an emission and he would go with pardon [it must say, that is under] the Temple to the House of Immersion, and there is a fire that warms the Kohen after he immersed and came out and dried off, and it is called the Chamber of the Hearth, because it is open to a large House of the Hearth.

אחד פתוח לחיל – the opening that is in the north of the House of the Hearth was open to the Khel/the place within the fortification of the Temple, and the one in the south was open to the Temple courtyard.

The fire chamber had two gates, one opening on to the Hel and one on to the courtyard. Rabbi Judah says: the one that opened on to the courtyard had a small opening through which they went in to search the courtyard. On the northern side of the fire chamber there was a gate opening to the Hel, the corridor that ran outside the courtyard. On the southern side there was a gate opening into the courtyard.

פשפש קטן (a small wicket) – a small gate within the large gate [by which they entered to patrol].

Every morning they would check the courtyard to make sure everything was in its proper place. This procedure was described in Tamid 1:3. The gate to the courtyard had a small opening through which they would enter the courtyard.

שבו נכנסים לבלוש את העזרה (to patrol the Temple courtyard) – that they would enter each morning on the path of the same wicket to examine/search over each of the Temple vessels that were in the Temple courtyard that all of them were in their [appropriate] place. For this is taught in the Mishnah of Tractate Tamid [Chapter 1, Mishnah 3]: “He took the key and opened the wicket and entered from the House of the Hearth into the Temple courtyard, etc.,” – these walk on the covered place in front o the house in an easterly direction and those walk on the covered place in front of the house in a westerly direction. They would examine and go until they meet to the place where they make the cakes, they arrived, both sets say “Shalom; everything is peaceful/in order,” meaning to say, that all the Temple vessels are in their places in peace/in order.

לבלוש – it is the Aramaic translation of “and he searched,” and examined.

בית המוקד כיפה – the building of the House of the Hearth was not an upper chamber, but rather an arch, ARKUVLAT in the foreign language made on the land.

Introduction This mishnah appears word for word in Tamid 1:1. My explanation here is the same as there.

מוקף רובדים של אבן (surrounded by stone pavements between steps in the Temple hall, landing) – porticos/colonnades of hewn stone around were sunk in the wall and came out from the wall into the House of the Hearth to the side of the ground, and on top of them were other short stones than then that also came out from the wall, and they were similar to steps one on another.

The fire chamber was vaulted and it was a large room surrounded with stone projections, and the elders of the clan [serving in the Temple] used to sleep there, with the keys of the Temple courtyard in their hands. The fire chamber was vaulted, and surrounded by rows of stones. On these rows of stones the priests serving in the Temple at the time (the Temple guard was split into 24 houses) would sleep, while holding the keys to the Temple courtyard.

זקני בית אב – the priestly division of duty/guard was divided into seven priestly divisions according to the days of the week, each one working his day, and the elders of the priestly division of that day would sleep there on those stone pavements.

The young priests did not get to sleep on the rows of stones. They had to put their bedding down on the ground and sleep on the floor.

ופרחי כהונה – young men whose hair of their beards begins to flower, and they were guards.

איש כסתו בארץ – that they were not permitted to lie there on beds, but rather onl on the ground, in the manner that the guards of the courtyards of the kings would do.

כסתו – the language of pillows and cushions.

הגיע זמן הנעילה – to lock the gates of the Temple courtyard.

There was a place there [in the fire chamber] one cubit square on which was a slab of marble.
In this was fixed a ring and a chain on which the keys were hung.
When closing time came, the priest would raise the slab by the ring and take the keys from the chain.
Then the priest would lock up within while the Levite was sleeping outside.
When he had finished locking up, he would replace the keys on the chain and the slab in its place and put his garment on it and sleep there.
If one of them had a seminal emission, he would go out by the winding stair which went under the Birah, and which was lighted with lamps on both sides, until he reached the bathing place.
Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob says: he descended by the winding stair which went under the Hel and he went out by the Taddi gate.
Our mishnah deals with the locking of the Temple gates at night.
Section four: There are two explanations for “the Levite was sleeping outside.” Either it means that the Levites sat outside the courtyard and guarded from the outside. Or this refers to the locking of the fire chamber. In the fire chamber the priests were inside and the Levites outside.
Section six: Tamid 1:1 also discusses what would happen if a priest had an emission in the middle of the night and needed to purify himself. According to Deuteronomy 23:11 such a person must leave the “camp”, which the rabbis interpret to be parallel to the Temple. The priest would exit the Temple by using a set of underground stairs. It was forbidden for him to walk through the courtyard, or even on the Temple mount because he was impure. These stairs were lit so that he could see his way. He would then come to the ritual bath.
Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob says that when he was coming out of the ritual bath, he would not go back to the fire chamber. Rather he would go under the Hel and end up on the Temple Mount near the Taddi gate. Note that Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob does not disagree with the halakhah in our mishnah but rather with the halakhah in Tamid 1:1, according to which the priest the priest would return to the fire chamber.

הכהן מבפנים ובן לוי יושב לו מבחוץ – that the Levites were secondary to the Kohanim, as it is stated, (Numbers 18:2): “[You shall also associate with yourself your kinsmen the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe,] to be attached to you and to minister to you, [while you and your sons under your charge are before the Tent of the Pact].” Therefore, in the House of Avtinas and in the House of the Spark, which were upper stories, the Kohanim who guarded were above and the Levites were below. But the House of the Hearth which was not other than an arch on the land, there was a Kohen on the inside and a Levite on the outside.

במסבה (winding staircase) – in a cavity/underground places, he walks underneath the Temple (see Talmud Yoma 2a for another interpretation) , for the cavity/underground places was underneath the Temple, and all of the Temple is called בירה /the capitol, as it is written (I Chronicles 29:19): “and to build this Temple for which I have made provision.” But because he had had a nocturnal emission,, he would not walk on the path of the Temple courtyard, but rather on the path in the underground , for we hold that the cavities/underground places were not sanctified.

והנרות דולקים – in the underground cavities from here and there.

במסבה ההולכת תחת החיל – he departs, and does not return to the House of the Hearth because he is a someone who has immersed but must wait until sunset until he is ritually pure. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, but rather, as it is taught in the beginning of Tractate Tamid. He came and sat with his brethren, the Kohanim in the House of the Hearth until the gates open when he can go on his way, for even though someone who has immersed but must wait until sunset until he is ritually pure, it is forbidden to enter into the Women’s courtyard, which is the camp of the Levites, for this, they were lenient, because he had been defiled inside.