Tamid Photo Essay in Lego® #24

The Shot

Good Vibrations

The magrepha hits the floor with a resounding clang.

The Story

As the Kohanim made their way toward the Heychal Building to offer the ketores [spices], one of them threw the magrepha down onto the floor between the Mizbeyach and the Ulam. The word magrepha means shovel, and this instrument was shaped like a shovel and was meant to make a loud noise when dropped. It was so loud, in fact, that people in Yerushalayim could not hear each other in conversation when the magrepha was sounded. This noise served as a signal for the Kohanim who were not in the Azarah to come and bow down with their brethren and it signaled the Leviim to prepare to sing the daily song.

The Setup

This shot is modeled and rendered in Bricklink Studio with depth of field added in Photoshop (read more about this process in my introduction). For the magrepha I used a Technic pin with 2L bar extension as the handle and a minifig hand fan (93553) as the business end of the thing. The Kohanim standing around are so shocked that their hats nearly flew off their heads, an effect carried out using the time-honored technique of representing flying or floating objects by raising them up with clear pips. Also, who knew that Lego made so many different Scared faces?

The Mayim Gate in the background would have been open by this point in the day. To represent the curtain that would be pulled across the gateway I hastily arranged a row of 1x8 blue tiles balanced carefully on their short ends (thank you Studio magic) and turned them backward to offer more texture. To the left of the gate is a smaller, open doorway that keen readers of this series will recognize as the door to the Chamber of the Keilim.

The side studs in the wall of the Mizbeyach's main ramp hold the side ramp to the Yesod, temporarily removed, and there are bricks missing from the railing wall of the Ulam steps for reasons not known even to me.

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