À la fin du premier jour de la fête, ils descendraient dans l'enceinte des femmes, où ils institueraient une grande ordonnance. [Ils l'entourèrent de balcons et placèrent des femmes au-dessus et des hommes en dessous afin qu'ils ne viennent pas à la légèreté.] Il y avait là des menorahs d'or (candélabres), avec quatre bols d'or sur la tête de chacun, quatre échelles à chaque menorah, et quatre de jeunes prêtres avec des cruches d'huile dans leurs mains de cent vingt bûches, qu'ils versaient dans chaque bol.
Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
תקון גדול – they would surround it with balconies (see Talmud Sukkah 51b), and would place the women above and the men from below, in order that they would not come to act with irreverence.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
Introduction
This mishnah begins to describe the Simchat Bet Hashoevah ritual. The ritual seems to be centered around fire, which has led some scholars to suggest the Simchat Bet Hashoevah really means “The Celebration of Fire.”
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sukkah
בראשיהן – at the top of each Menorah/candelabrum.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
At the conclusion of the first festival day of Sukkot they descended to the Women’s Court (Ezrat and they would make there a great enactment. As we learned in yesterday’s mishnah, they did not celebrate the Simchat Bet Hashoevah on either Shabbat or on the festival. They would not begin until after the first festival day was completed. The celebration would start with the people going into the “Women’s Court.” This was a section in the Temple into which both men and women could enter, but it was as far as women could go in the Temple. Hence it was called the “Women’s Court.” The mishnah says that they would make their a “great enactment” but does not explain what this was. The Talmud explains that they separated the men and women, putting the men below and the women up into the balcony so that they wouldn’t mix. The fear was that in the midst of such a raucous occasion the mixture of men and women together could lead to transgression. Hence they separated between the sexes. However, on normal occasions men and women seem to have been together in the Women’s Court.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sukkah
And golden candlesticks were there, and four golden bowls on the top of each of them and four ladders to each, and four youths drawn from the young priests, and in their hands there were jars of oil containing one hundred and twenty logs which they poured into the bowls. The first thing they would do was light an enormous menorah. On each candlestick there were four golden bowls according to tomorrow’s mishnah, there was enough light to light up all of Jerusalem! Children would climb ladders to light the menorah and they would use 120 logs of oil, which is the equivalent of fifteen liters of oil. This works out to about half a liter of oil for each bowl.
