In honor of the upcoming yom tov here is a custom minifig I built using Cinema 4d and Bricklink Studio.
Beis Hamikdash Topics
A collection of information, sources, and ideas about the design and use of the Second Temple
Sunday, September 20, 2020
High Holiday Custom Minifig
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Happy Tu B'Av!
On this day the Temple completed its annual harvesting of firewood. It was known as the Day of the Breaking of the Hatchet.
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
לבי במזרח ואנכי בסוף מערב
A quote from Yehudah HaLevi
(poet and philosopher, 1075-1141) as we approach the 1,950th Tisha B'Av still on the western side of the Wall.
Monday, July 13, 2020
Rebuilding A Personal Jerusalem

Tuesday, June 30, 2020
New Temple Mount Model
It has been nearly two thousand years since Mount Moriyah has seen a Jewish Temple, but thanks to the efforts of Yitzy Kasowitz and jbrick, we can now see the Temple and surrounding areas in miniature. As a follow-up to jbrick's successful Holy Temple model they are now offering an add-on model of the entire Temple Mount.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Yom Kippur Avodah Slideshow Excerpt
During this past Aseres Yemei Teshuvah I was invited by Rabbi Abba Zvi Naiman to bring my Yom Kippur Avodah slideshow to the Bais Medrash of Ranchleigh. In this presentation I walk through the daily schedule of the Beis Hamikdash on Yom Kippur and show what happened and where.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Monday, December 23, 2019
The Miracle of Chanukah
On Chanukah we celebrate the miraculous defeat of the Syrian-Greeks by the Chashmonaim. Part of the miracle was that the Jews found a single flask of oil still sealed with the mark of the Kohen Gadol. Opinions vary as to where this flask was actually discovered.
Monday, April 29, 2019
SRO in the Azarah on Erev Pesach
Once upon a time, toward the end of the Second Temple era, King Agripas wanted to take a census of the Jewish people. He told the Kohen Gadol to keep track of how many Pesach offerings were brought that year in order to estimate the number of people. The Kohen Gadol collected one kidney from each offering, and at the end of the day they found that they had counted six hundred thousand pairs of kidneys (1.2 million in total), which was double the number of people who left Egypt. Even this was not an accurate estimate, because it did not count those who were tamei or who were far away from the Beis Hamikdash (and did not participate in the korban Pesach). Furthermore, this was only a count of the korbanos, not the people, for there was not a single korban that did not have at least ten people in the group that was going to eat it. They called that year the “Crowded Pesach” because there were so many people.
(summarized from Pesachim 64b)
This Gemara indicates that on one particular year, over one million korbanos were processed in the Beis Hamikdash on erev Pesach. In this post I would like to examine how many people could reasonably fit in the Azarah at one time and how to reconcile the result with our Gemara.
Monday, April 15, 2019
Monday, November 26, 2018
Narrowing Windows in Lego®
The windows of the Sanctuary Building in the First and Second Temples were built backwards — they were wide on the outside and narrow on the inside. In this post I show what that might look like in Lego®.
Monday, November 19, 2018
LEGO® Model of the Minor Sanhedrin Courthouse
Now that I finished revising the minor sanhedrin courthouse I used Bricklink Studio to put together a Lego® version as well. Even though the Lego® version is just for fun, it did bring to light an important Kessef Mishnah in Hilchos Sanhedrin that sheds light on the seating arrangement of the court.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Meet the Maker: Jbrick Comes to Baltimore!

Monday, November 5, 2018
Supernatural Protection
The Temple was a place where miracles occurred on a daily basis. Although the physical structure of the Temple was taken from us, the supernatural essence of the Temple can still be accessed today.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Updates to the Sanhedrin Courthouses
In the last post I explained that something was not quite right about how I depicted the judicial scribes of the Temple's sanhedrin courthouses. Here are two updated images.
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