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.
When visitors to the Ner Yisroel neighborhood now walk by the site of the yeshivah's annual Lag Ba'omer bonfire, they will see more than just scattered wood and charred logs. Some volunteers used a little imagination and a lot of hard work to transform those "spent firebrands" into a hands-on learning experience.
Here is another 4x4 micro diorama for Pesach whose full scale physical counterpart will, sadly, have to wait until next year.
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).
In Temple times the concept of tumah [ritual defilement] and taharah [ritual purity] was a daily concern, affecting people, utensils, and food. It was given special attention at this time of year as people began preparing to ascend to the Temple for the Festival of Pesach and needed to be tahor in order to do so. Tumah comes in many forms and its severity depends upon the source of the contamination. The most severe form of tumah is that which derives from contact with, or being under the same roof as, a human corpse. According to Jewish law the only way to become purified from corpse tumah is to be sprinkled with spring water which has been mixed with the ashes of a parah adumah [red cow]. Check out a new podcast that analyzes a poetic description of the parah adumah procedure.With the accessibility of 3D drawing and rendering tools nowadays, combined with fast hardware and free gaming engines, it has never been easier to create an immersive experience that really brings places and buildings to life. I imported the 3D models of the Beis Hamikdash that I used to create the illustrations for my book into the Unity game engine and have been tinkering with turning it into a full-fledged app that will, at the very least, allow people to walk around and explore the Mikdash at their own speed and interest.
The world of apps lets you do, basically, anything you can imagine. This Second Temple app could be leveraged as a Kohen training course, part of a school curriculum, or just plain old edutainment. Since I don't have a full team of artists and programmers working for me just yet, the progress has been slow. Below you can check out a small preview of what I've put together so far. If the idea catches the interest of the right people, it could speed up development and make this app a reality.
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.