L'autel était de trente-deux [ amah ] par trente-deux [ amah ]. Il a augmenté d'un amah et indenté un amah . Ce [niveau] s'appelait le yesod [base]. Nous trouvons donc [qu'à ce niveau, l'autel était] de trente par trente [ amot ]. Il a augmenté de cinq autres [ amot ] et un retrait [ amah ]. Cela s'appelait le sovev [rebord]. Nous trouvons donc [qu'à ce niveau, l'autel était] vingt-huit sur vingt-huit [ amot ]. La zone pour les cornes [aux coins de l'autel] était d'un amah de ce côté et d'un amah de ce côté. Nous trouvons ainsi [qu'à ce niveau, l'autel était] de vingt-six sur vingt-six [ amot ]. La zone désignée pour que les Kohanim se promènent [le sommet de l'autel] était une amah de ce côté et une amah de ce côté. Nous trouvons ainsi [qu'à ce niveau, l'autel était] vingt-quatre sur vingt-quatre [ amot ] qui était la zone du bûcher. Rabbi Yosi a dit, dans le premier [dans le premier Temple] la base [de l'autel] n'était que de vingt-huit sur vingt-huit [ amot ], se levant et se creusant dans le même modèle jusqu'à ce que nous trouvions que la superficie du bûcher était de vingt par vingt [ amot ]. Quand les Juifs sont revenus de l'exil [de Babylone], ils ont ajouté quatre amot au sud et quatre amot à l'ouest en forme de [la lettre grecque] gamma [en forme de L], comme il est dit: «Et le foyer avait douze amot de large et douze heures de long, un carré »(Ézéchiel 43:16). On aurait pu penser qu'il [l'autel] n'était que de douze sur douze [ amot ]. Cependant, quand il dit «à ses quatre quadrants», il nous apprend que la mesure a été prise à partir du centre de l'autel et qu'il était de douze [ amot ] dans toutes les directions. Et il y avait une ligne rouge qui encerclait [l'autel] qui était la ligne de séparation [à mi-chemin] entre l'endroit où le sang [qui devait être placé] sur la moitié supérieure de l'autel et [ceux qui devaient être placés] sur la moitié inférieure [de l'autel]. La base faisait le tour de tout le côté nord et ouest de l'autel et prenait [seulement] un amah du côté sud et un amah du côté est.
Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
Introduction
Chapter three begins with several mishnayot describing the outer altar, upon which the sacrifices were burned.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
מתחילה – in the days of [King] Solomon.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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 ).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
ואריאל שתים עשרה – measurement of the place of the pile of wood in the altar is stated as twelve.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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].
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
להבדיל בין דמים העליונים – the sin offering of cattle and the burnt offering of fowl whose blood is sprinkled above from the red thread.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
לדמים התחתונים – for all of the rest of the sacrifices whose blood is sprinkled below from the thread.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Middot
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.
