Tour of the Temple: Class 3

Gates of the Temple Mount

A five-sided gateway of the Temple

   In each wall of the Temple Mount were one or more gateways, all of which conformed to a standard size of 10 cubits wide by 20 cubits tall. Instead of a traditional frame consisting of three parts (two doorposts and a lintel) the Temple gates had additional diagonal elements connecting the doorposts and lintel, resulting in a frame of five parts. 

   Jerusalem was located primarily to the south of the Temple and the majority of the population entered the Temple Mount from that side. To accommodate the large flow of pedestrian traffic two gates were built along this side, spaced evenly across the 500-cubit length of the Temple Mount. These were known as the Chuldah Gates, named after the prophetess Chuldah who delivered her prophesies to the masses just outside the southern wall of the Temple Mount during the First Temple era.

   Centered in the western wall of the Temple Mount was the Kiponos Gate. The name Kiponos may represent a contraction of the Greek words kepos (garden) and ponos (work or toil) to mean working the garden, a reference to the garden located just inside this gateway. In this garden, which occupied the area between the western wall of the Temple Mount and the western wall of the Courtyard opposite the Holy of Holies, the Kohanim cultivated all of the ingredients used in compounding the incense offered daily in the Temple.

   In the northern wall of the Temple Mount was the Tadi Gate. This gate was unique in that its lintel was not flat but consisted of two stones leaning against each other at an angle such that the top of the gate resembled a triangle.

   In the eastern wall of the Temple Mount was the Shushan Gate, so named for the depiction of the city of Shushan which appeared over the mantel of this gate. Shushan was the Persian capital which had hosted the Jews during their exile following the destruction of the First Temple. In appreciation of the ruling power and as a symbol of their allegiance the Jews placed the Persian emblem over this gate in the rebuilt Temple.

   In addition to the five gates listed thus far there are records of other gates in the Temple Mount walls. King Solomon built a gate for bridegrooms and a gate for mourners in the First Temple, the former with doors of white glass and the latter with doors of black jasper (a type of quartz). The locations of these gates are not given, so it is assumed that they were minor gates on the southern side of the Temple Mount. They were likely included in the design of the Second Temple as well.

Muchni Gears Animation

[Video has been removed. See this post for an updated version.]

This is a test animation of the Muchni (the wooden structure which raised and lowered the Kiyor) where I was trying to work out how the gears might have been arranged. The challenge in designing the Muchni is to find a way for a Kohen to raise a 5,000-pound object (see the earlier post for details) singlehandedly. In my design I use a counterweight on the back of the Muchni and reducing gears to make the task of lifting the Kiyor more manageable. This early animation only shows the gears moving but not the Kiyor or counterweight.

Tour of the Temple: Class 2

Walls of the Temple Mount

King Darius (wikimedia)

   Both the Temple Mount and the courtyards within it were surrounded by tall walls, 40 cubits (60 feet) in height. These walls stood 5 cubits (7½ feet) thick at their base and tapered slightly as they rose to give them greater stability. In King Solomon's First Temple the walls were composed of a repeating pattern of three courses of stone followed by one course of wood. In the Second Temple, the Persian king Darius — who was the one to grant the Jews permission to rebuild the Temple — commanded that the walls mimic that original design but with the following changes: 1) the walls should begin with one course of wood and then three courses of stone, 2) the wood should not be set completely within the walls, and 3) the wood should not be covered with plaster. No mortar was used to hold the massive stones together rather they were carefully fitted to one another and then locked into place with iron braces.

Line of sight from the Mount of Olives
to the opening of the Sanctuary Building

   The eastern wall of the Temple Mount was much lower than the others and stood less than 26 cubits (39 feet) high. The reason for this was a Scriptural requirement connected to the Parah Adumah [red heifer, whose ashes have the ability to purify people and objects from corpse-tumah]. The Parah Adumah was prepared on the Mount of Olives, located due east of the Temple, and the Torah writes that while the Kohen is carrying out the preparations he must have a direct line of sight to the opening of the Sanctuary. From his vantage point in the east the Kohen would look over the lower eastern wall of the Temple Mount, through the eastern gate of the Women's Courtyard, and through the Nikanor Gate to the opening of the Sanctuary.

   The Temple was not squarely centered within the four walls of the Temple Mount but was offset towards the northwest corner. Although in many models of the Temple the Temple Mount is shown as a large, open expanse of space, this is not accurate. The space between the walls of the Temple Mount and the Temple itself was packed with numerous chambers, storehouses, workshops, and offices which were necessary for the day-to-day operation of the Temple. Since we do not know the names and locations of these many chambers they are often omitted from the depictions of the Temple.

Just inside the walls of the Temple Mount ran a cedar-covered portico supported by marble columns, each of which was hewn from a single block of stone and adorned with flowered capitals. The columns stood 25 cubits tall and each measured “as wide as three men can reach.” A man’s reach is about 4 cubits, thus the columns had a circumference of 12 cubits and a diameter of 3.8 cubits. The columns were spaced approximately 15 cubits apart and arranged in three rows along the walls of the Temple Mount, with the first row of columns set into the walls. 

   The cedar roof covering this portico extended 30 cubits from the inside of the Temple Mount walls. It was carved with flower designs and had a fence on top to prevent anyone who might be walking there from falling off. The entire area of the portico was set upon a raised platform a few steps higher than the floor of the Temple Mount and, like the entire expanse of the Temple Mount, was paved with marble stones.

Tour of the Temple: Class 1

Preparing the Temple Mount

   One of the first steps taken in the construction of the Second Temple was a massive earth-moving operation. The entire area of the Temple Mount, which measured 500 cubits by 500 cubits (one cubit measures approximately 18 inches), was completely excavated all the way down to solid bedrock to clear the site from possible graves. Since tumah [ritual contamination] from a grave rises up through the ground all the way to the heavens it would have rendered anyone standing on the ground above the grave tamei [ritually contaminated].

   When the First Temple was built, no such excavations were carried out. King Solomon relied upon the fact that since there was no reason to suspect the presence of tumah on the Temple Mount the land was presumed tahor [ritually pure]. However, when the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the Temple they discovered a skull beneath the site of the Altar and this forced them to retract the default tahor status originally granted to the Temple Mount. In such a case where tumah is suspected the land must be excavated down to virgin soil or bedrock (whichever comes first) to verify that no sources of tumah are present. The builders of the Second Temple certainly wanted to avoid any shadow of a doubt and thus dug down beyond the virgin soil all the way to the bedrock; historically, we also know that Herod dug down to the bedrock to provide a sturdy foundation for the immense weight of the walls.

   A two-level network of arches was built over the bedrock which further protected against possible tumah. The tumah of a grave is prevented from rising further when it encounters a covered airspace of one handbreadth, thus an arch will protect the ground above it from such tumah. One level of arches would not have been sufficient since any tumah directly under one of the solid support columns would continue to rise. Therefore, a second level was needed with support columns placed over the airspaces of the first level. Although, according to the letter of the law, the excavations alone rendered the entire area of the Temple Mount tahor, it was nonetheless felt that for the sake of the Holy Temple an additional precaution of the double arches should be employed to rule out the remote possibility of an unknown grave within the bedrock itself.

   Having excavated down to the bedrock and installed the arches, the Temple could have been built on the now-level plane directly atop the arches. Instead, the elevations of the various courtyards matched the original – and Divinely fashioned – contours of Mount Moriah prior to the excavations. Rather than regaining the original elevations by back-filling the area over the arches with dirt, a system of vaulted tunnels was constructed under the entire Temple complex. The lowest level of tunnels supported the floor of the Temple Mount; above this was another level, 6 cubits high, which supported the area under the Women's Courtyard and Main Courtyard ; a third level, 7½ cubits high, supported the floor of the Courtyard itself.

New Class: Tour of the Temple

Starting after Pesach I will be giving a 15-part email class called Tour of the Temple on the basic structure of the Beis Hamikdash. This class is being given in conjunction with Project Genesis and you can find a link to the information page here. Click Subscribe at the top of the page to sign up. Each class will also be posted to this blog.

Eating Chametz and Matzah Together

In the Mah Nishtanah at the Pesach Seder one of the questions asked is why on this night we eat only matzah whereas on other nights we eat both chametz and matzah. The question about this question is when, exactly, do we eat chametz and matzah together? Was this so common that a child would see the lack of chametz at the Seder as unusual and be moved to ask about it?

In the times of the Beis Hamikdash when people regularly brought korbanos they were used to following the regulations regarding the consumption of sanctified food. All those partaking of the food had to be tahor and the food had to be eaten within a certain period of time. Now, for most korbanos, the amount of food that had to be eaten, and the time limit for eating it, was quite manageable. There was one exception, however, and that was the Todah [thanksgiving] offering. This offering was accompanied by 40 loaves, 30 of which were unleavened (matzah) and 10 of which were leavened (chametz) and all of these had to be eaten in one day! The Torah purposely made it difficult for the person bringing a Todah to eat it all himself, forcing him to invite many friends and family members to the meal to help him consume all of the sanctified food in time. During the meal he would share the story of why he was bringing a Todah offering and this would lead to a sanctification of God's Name since so many people would recognize the kindness that God showed this individual.

Now, a child at the Seder would see a large group of people gathered for the consumption of an offering (the Korban Pesach, in this case) but would notice that only matzah was being served. He would find this odd, since at all the other large gatherings he had attended throughout the year when offerings were being consumed (namely, when his family was invited to someone's thanksgiving meal) there had been both chametz and matzah on the table at the same time. Hence the question.

(I do not have a direct source for this. Someone just told it to me in shul this Shabbos. Any ideas?)

Lego® Mizbeach Models

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to bring my Lego^® brick models of the Mizbeach to my son's fourth grade class at the Talmudical Academy. They had just finished learning about the Mishkan and so I came to show them what the Outer Mizbeach of both the Mishkan and Beis Hamikdash looked like and to point out some of the differences and similarities. The boys really enjoyed the talk and asked lots of good questions. One of them even offered to bring me a whole bag full of Lego^® bricks so that I can build more of the Beis Hamikdash!

Lego^® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site

A Fuller Picture of the Kiyor

   The Kiyor [Laver] was a copper vessel which held the water used by the Kohanim to sanctify their hands and feet in preparation for the sacrificial service. It was used in the Tabernacle as well as in the First and Second Temples, although this Kiyor is not described in any great detail in the Scriptural or Talmudic sources.

   In the First Temple Solomon constructed ten additional lavers which are described as containing 40 bas (a volume equivalent to 9 cubic amos — Ralbag) of water and standing 4 amos tall (I Kings 7:38). Malbim provides further details of these lavers: the top section of the laver was cylindrical, 1¾ amos in diameter and 2½ amos tall; the bottom section was square, 1¾ amos wide and 1½ amos tall (all the numbers given here are the outer dimensions). Now, Rashi (to II Chronicles 4:6) writes that that these ten lavers were built "in addition to that of Moses," which to me implies that they were exact replicas of the Kiyor that Moses made for the Tabernacle, just as Solomon's ten copies of the Menorah and Shulchan [Table] were exact copies of the originals. I therefore model the Kiyor of the Second Temple after Malbim's description of Solomon's lavers. Here is an image of what the Kiyor would have looked like:

View of Goolah Chamber

This is the interior of the Goolah Chamber located near the northeast corner of the Courtyard. A bucket was lowered via a pulley into a cistern to bring up sweet, clean water which the Kohanim would pour into a basin ("goolah") and then use for drinking and cooking. I (mistakenly) included a stool in the lower left corner of this rendering, although Kohanim were actually not permitted to sit here since this chamber was within the consecrated confines of the Courtyard. The only people allowed to sit in the Courtyard are kings descended from the House of David.

Model Mikdash in Mexico City

I just came across this site which features a large-scale model of the Beis Hamikdash built in Mexico City. The site is in Spanish but you can have Google translate it for you, or just look at the pictures.

Formula page for slope of temple walls

These are the formulas that belong in the original post right after the diagram. I couldn't find a way to copy and paste the formulas from my OpenOffice document into the post field so I have a link to the formula page here.

Maseches Middos Mefureshes

I was recently introduced to this sefer called מסכת מדות מפורשת (Bnei Brak, 5765) written by R' Meir Yehoshua Bogard.
   It contains the text of the Mishnah with a running commentary anthologized from a few sources, primarily Tiferes Yisrael. The author also adds some more in-depth insights along the bottom on certain topics discussed in the main commentary. Inside the front and back covers are some nice photos of two recent models of the Mikdash (along with contact info) and in the back of the sefer are floorplans of the Mikdash, including a reprint of the floorplan from an old Yachin and Boaz Mishnayos.
   Although not everything in the commentary is annotated to my liking, it does give a good explanation of the masechta and would be a step up for someone who already went through the Kehati.

View of the music chambers

Here is a rendering of the music chambers located beneath the Courtyard. The Leviim would store their musical instruments here and also practice their singing and playing.

Slope of the Temple Walls

   The Gemara (Yoma 28b) states that the earliest time we may recite the Minchah prayer is "when the [eastern] faces of the walls begin to darken." At face value this means that the prayer may be recited immediately after solar noon, for at that point the sun has passed into the western half of the sky which causes a shadow to fall over the eastern faces of the walls, thus "darkening" them. The Gemara goes on to demonstrate that in practice, however, this is not the case. We have as a general principle that our prayers correspond to the tamid offerings brought in the Temple, and that the time period allowed for the Minchah prayer is identical to that allotted for the afternoon tamid offering (Berachos 26b). If so, the afternoon tamid may also 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 half an hour past noon. [When the Gemara speaks of "half an hour," it refers not to standard 60-minute hours but to שעות זמניות, solar hours. A solar hour is calculated by dividing the total amount of daylight hours — sunrise to sunset — into twelve parts, and each part represents one solar hour.] The Gemara (Yoma loc. cit.) suggests that there is no contradiction here because — unlike standard walls — the eastern faces of the Temple walls only fell into shadow at half an hour past noon. Rashi explains that this resulted from the Temple walls being thicker at their base than at their top; since they tapered as they rose, the sun continued to shine on their eastern faces even past noon, and only at half an hour past noon did the eastern faces finally darken in shadow.

   The commentators explain that the Temple walls were purposely built in this fashion to ensure that the afternoon tamid offering not be brought too early (see Tos. Yeshanim to Yoma loc. cit. and Rabbeinu Tam, Sefer Hayashar §308.). [They understand that the tamid offering could, in theory, be brought immediately after noon. By building the Temple walls as described above, it created a buffer of half an hour to safeguard against bringing the offering earlier than noon.] Since the movement of the sun varies with the seasons, the length of a solar hour also changes throughout the year. One might think that the walls must be designed so that their eastern faces will darken at half (of a solar hour) past noon on any day of the year. This is not necessary, for the only time that the tamid offering was permitted to be brought as early as half past noon is when erev Pesach falls out on Friday and enough time must be allowed after the tamid for the multitude of Pesach offerings to be brought and roasted before the onset of Shabbos. As a result, the Temple walls were designed to darken at half past noon specifically on the fourteenth of Nisan (the approximate date of the Spring equinox). [Although this phenomenon was meant to be observed on interior of the Courtyard 's western wall – for the benefit of those standing in the Courtyard – the text of the Gemara indicates that all of the walls were designed in the same fashion.]

   The position of the sun at half an hour past noon on the Spring equinox in Jerusalem is a readily-quantifiable phenomenon, making it possible to estimate the slope of the walls of the Temple.

Background

   Sunrise and sunset times can be generated mathematically for any date and location on earth, and from this data it is possible to calculate the time of solar noon as well as the length of the solar hours. Dividing the length of a solar hour in half and adding it to the time for solar noon yields the time of day (in local time) at which the sun is at half past noon.

   It is also possible to mathematically pinpoint the position of the sun in the sky relative to any given location on earth for any time and date. This position is given by two angles, azimuth and elevation, where azimuth is the angle between true north and the point on the horizon directly below the sun, and elevation is the angle between the line to the center of the sun and the horizontal plane. See diagram:

Knowing the azimuth and elevation angles of the sun at half past noon will allow the slope of the Temple walls to be calculated.

(I could not paste the formulas into this post, but they appear here)

Data for Jerusalem

   The following set of data was generated/calculated for Jerusalem using the coordinates of the Temple Mount of 31° 46’ (31.7781) N and 35° 14’ (35.2353) E and an elevation angle at sunrise/sunset of -0.8° on the Spring equinox (actual date used was March 21, 2007):

Sunrise¹ 5:42

Sunset¹ 17:51

Solar Noon² 11:46

Half past noon² 12:16

Azimuth at half past noon¹ 193.9º

Elevation at half past noon¹ 57.6º

¹ Generated from U.S. Naval Observatory (http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/alt-az-world, accessed 9-26-10)

² Calculated

Results

   Using a relative azimuth angle of 13.9º (193.9 - 180) for α and an elevation angle of 57.6º for δ, the slope of the Temple walls is calculated to be 8.67º from the vertical.

View of the Chamber of Receipts

This is a view of the interior of the Chamber of Receipts located within the Hall of the Fire (Beis Hamoked). Here the Kohanim would sell receipts which entitled the purchaser to certain amounts of oil, flour, and wine which accompanied their sacrifices.