Calculating the Wine Libations

On Succos in the Beis Hamikdash they famously offered 70 bulls corresponding to the seventy nations of the world. Along with each bull came a wine libation of 6 lugin per bull, which is a volume equal to about 3 liters (or one and a half soda bottles, for those of us in the US). This comes to about 210 liters in all, and that is not even counting the wine libations of all of the other communal offerings that were brought over the holiday. What was the fate of all that wine?

Rashi to Bava Metzia 33a About the Route to Open the Heychal Gateway

On Bava Metzia 33a Rashi gives a description of the route taken by the Kohen as he opens the doors of the main Heychal gateway. I get the impression that these lines of Rashi have troubled many a student of the Gemara, judging by the number of people who have come over to me and asked me to explain what Rashi means here. In honor of Daf Yomi reaching this sugya I will present my elucidated version of Rashi's words as I understand them.

Yoma 26b – 28b: The Slope of the Azarah Walls

The Gemara states that Avraham davened Minchah “when the [eastern] faces of the walls begin to darken,” i.e., immediately after solar noon. Now, we know that our prayers correspond to the Tamid-offerings, and that the time period allowed for the Minchah prayer is identical to that allotted for the afternoon Tamid. It should emerge that the afternoon Tamid may be brought “when the [eastern] faces of the walls begin to darken” yet we find that the earliest permissible time for the afternoon Tamid is not until half an hour past noon!

Animals on Erev Pesach

The Gemara (Pesachim 65b) states that on erev Pesach the Kohanim were walking around on the floor of the Beis Hamikdash up to their ankles in the blood of the festival offerings. How many animals would it take to produce that much blood?

The Terry Elan Memorial Lecture 2023: House of Shadow and Light

To mark my father's yahrtzeit on 29 Shevat I delivered a new slideshow titled House of Shadow and Light. This shiur explores the relationship between the path of the sun and the structure of the Beis Hamikdash. The slideshow covers some topics from earlier blog posts, some ideas discussed in my book, as well as some brand new material.

The video now has closed captions thanks to the efforts of Martha Goodman and the Disability and Inclusion Services, Macks Center for Jewish Connections in Baltimore, MD.

Plumbing [in] the Depths of the Temple 2.0

The following is an updated version of this post that was newly prepared for print in the Beis Medrash of Ranchleigh Pesach Kuntress 5782:

    The procedure of the Korban Pesach was identical whether performed on a weekday or on Shabbos, except that [on Shabbos] the Kohanim would rinse the floor of the Azarah against the will of the Sages (Mishnah, Pesachim 64a).

Moving a Door in the Beis Hamoked

The Beis Hamoked was a large structure built into the northern Azarah wall. Half of it was inside the Azarah and half was over the Har Habayis. It also contained four smaller chambers that were used for different purposes. The Mishnah does not tell us the actual size of the Beis Hamoked and it would appear that this structure could be made as large as needed. However, a careful reading of Middos 1:7 might constrain the size of the Beis Hamoked after all.

So Close Yet So Far Away (Part 2 of 2)

This is the continuation of last week's post:

The answer emerges from a curious ambiguity in the laws governing the sanctity of the Beis HaMikdash. The Mishnah (Keilim 1:8-9) teaches that the various parts of the Beis HaMikdash possessed increasingly higher levels of sanctity as one progressed inward toward the Kodesh HaKodashim. We learn, for example, that the Har HaBayis — the large, outer portion of the Beis HaMikdash complex that measured 500×500 amos (Middos 2:1) — was restricted to certain types of tahor people, whereas the Main Azarah — an area measuring 135×187 amos (Middos 5:1) — had an even higher level of sanctity. Although these areas are clearly defined physically in Tractate Middos and spiritually in Tractate Keilim, we are not told the dimensions or status of the thickness of the walls dividing these areas. Thus, as a person walks from the Har HaBayis into the Azarah through one of its gates, at what point is he considered to be “in” the Azarah — when he crosses the threshold of the gateway at the outer edge of the wall or when he enters the Azarah proper?

So Close Yet So Far Away (Part 1 of 2)

The following post first appeared in the Beis Medrash of Ranchleigh Pesach Kuntress 5781: 

     Mordy was late. There had been that last-minute dithering over whether to purchase a goat or a lamb for his Korban Pesach, and then a crowd of foreign tourists created a massive backup at the Chuldah Tunnel. Only by detouring to the Kiponos Gate in the west did Mordy stand of chance of joining the third and final shift of people entering the Azarah to offer their korban.

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.

Immersing the Paroches Curtain Revisited

Every Temple vessel was immersed in a mikveh to sanctify it prior to its first use. In a previous post I discussed how the very large Paroches curtains of the Sanctuary Building would be immersed. In certain circumstances these curtains would have to be immersed again, and sometimes this was done within the Courtyard. The challenge is finding a mikveh large enough to contain them.

Water Conservation in the Pre-Muchni Days

In the Second Temple era a Kohen Gadol named Ben Katin devised a machine that was used to lower the Kiyor [laver] into a well of water each night and then raise it again in the morning. This prevented the water inside from becoming disqualified and unfit for Temple use. The Sages praised Ben Katin for this great innovation that saved the Temple wasted water and the effort of refilling the Kiyor every morning. The question is, what did they do before the Muchni was invented?

Wall Thickness Between the Tauim Part 2

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SUMMARY After seeing a first printing of Tiferes Yisrael's commentary to the Mishnah, it was necessary to come up with a new, reduced wall thickness for the tauim.

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In the previous post I set out to find an early printing of Tiferes Yisrael's commentary to the Mishnah in order to resolve a question about the wall thickness between the tauim. Unfortunately, first printings of Tiferes Yisrael's commentary are not all that common and sell at auction for a small fortune.

Wall Thickness Between the Tauim

Very few details are provided by the Mishnah for the dimensions of the tauim (small rooms surrounding the Sanctuary Building). In the key to his Temple Diagram, Tiferes Yisrael states what he believes to be the length of the various tauim. Based on his results it is possible to make a reasonable guess as to the thickness of the walls that separated the tauim from each other.

Elevation of the Kohen on the Mount of Olives

The Kohen standing on the Mount of Olives had to be able to see the entrance of the Sanctuary as he sprinkled the blood of the Red Cow. The Gemara explains that to do so he would need to look over the eastern gate of the Temple Mount, because if he looked through that gate the elevations of the Temple were such that he could not see the Sanctuary entrance. It can be shown, however, that there is a very simple way to see the Sanctuary entrance by looking through the gate.

Locating the Courtyard Upon the Temple Mount

Even though Tractate Middos does contain a lot of detailed measurements for the Second Temple, one of the places where the Tanna is vague is when he describes the location of the Courtyard upon the Temple Mount. The Mishnah does not give explicit numbers but rather states that the southern area (that is, the area between the southern Temple Mount wall and the Courtyard) was larger than the eastern area, and the eastern area was larger than the northern area, and the smallest area was in the west. I looked for a simple mathematical way to calculate the range of possible locations where the Courtyard could have been placed, but I didn't find one.

The Nivreshes as an Indicator of Zman Kriyas Shema

How did a golden candelabra mounted on top of the Sanctuary Building let the people of Jerusalem know that it was time to recite the morning Shema?

Thickness of the Courtyard Walls

Nowhere in tractate Middos does the Mishnah mention the thickness of the walls surrounding the Temple Mount or the Courtyard, yet some suggest that this measurement is hinted to in the Torah itself.

Wall Thickness of the Chambers of the Knives — בית החליפות

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SUMMARY Using the standard Talmudic ratios of wall thickness to height it is possible to calculate a minimum wall thickness for the Chambers of the Knives.

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Showing the Table to the Masses

The Gemara on Menachos 96b states that on the three Festivals the Kohanim would raise the Golden Table of the Showbread for the people [gathered in the Courtyard] to see that the bread was as fresh as the day it was baked. This Gemara assumes that the bread could not be seen without the Table being raised and I was curious what the sight line would have looked like from the Israelites' Courtyard where the public would be gathered.