json/Mishnah/Rishonim on Mishnah/Bartenura/Seder Kodashim/Bartenura on Mishnah Middot/English/Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020.json

{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Bartenura on Mishnah Middot",
    "versionSource": "sefaria.org",
    "versionTitle": "Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020",
    "versionNotes": "",
    "shortVersionTitle": "Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
    "isBaseText": false,
    "isSource": false,
    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "ברטנורא על משנה מדות",
    "categories": [
        "Mishnah",
        "Rishonim on Mishnah",
        "Bartenura",
        "Seder Kodashim"
    ],
    "text": [
        [
            [
                "בשלשה מקומות הכהנים שומרים – not because of fear of robbers and/or thieves, but that of the honor and splendor for the Temple, that it should not be without guards, and this guarding, its commandment is the entire night. And these three places that the Kohanim guard correspond to what is written in the Torah (Numbers 3:38): “Those who were to camp before the Tabernacle, in front – [before the Tent of Meeting, on the east – were Moses and Aaron and his sons,] attending to the duties of the sanctuary, as a duty on behalf of the Israelites,” as a hint to three watches in three places. For just as that in the Tabernacle, Aaron and his two sons were guarding in three places, even so in the Temple as well.",
                "בית אבטינס ובית הניצוץ – two upper chambers were built on the side of the gates of the Temple courtyard, but the House of the Hearth was not upon it, but rather an arch , ARKVELT in the foreign tongue, which was made in the land, such was explained at the beginning of the Tractate Tamid (1:1).",
                "והלוים בעשרים ואחד מקום – that in twenty-four places they would need to guard the Temple, as it is written in [First] Chronicles [26:17-18): “At the east – six Levites; at the north – four daily; at the south – four daily; at the vestibule – two by two; at the colonnade on the west – four at the causeway and two at the colonnade,” that makes here twenty-four divisions of duty/watches, three of them were Kohanim as we stated in the opening clause [of the Mishnah], and twenty-one of them were Levites. But even though that Scripture did not state anything other than Levites, Kohanim are also called Levites , as it is written (Ezekiel 44:15): “But the Levitical priests descended from Zadok [who maintained the service of My Sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from Me – they shall approach Me to minister to Me.”",
                "חמשה – guards at the five gates of the Temple Mount.",
                "",
                "מתוכו – from inside to the walls of the Temple Mount.",
                "על חמשה שערי עזרה – this Tanna/teacher holds that there are only five gates for the Temple courtyards But even according to the one who states further on (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 1, Mishnah and Tractate Tamid 27a), he admits that there wasn’t a division of duty/guard other than on five [gates of the Temple courtyard – that the House of the Flame and the House of the Hearlth were watched by Kohanim or that the gates that were in the middle of the north and the south didn’t require special guarding, as they were guarded by those at the first and third gates].",
                "על ארבע פנותיה מבחוץ – because there is no sitting in the Temple courtyard other than for only the kings of the House of David, and it was not possible for a guard to watch while standing all the night, therefore, the guards were in the corners of the Temple courtyard, and similarly, the guards in the gates of the Temple courtyard would guard from outside, in order that they would be permitted while sitting, and the Scriptural verse (First Chronicles 26:18) esd used as a support (i.e., they leaned their enactment against a Biblical text) – as it is written: “two at the colonnade,” towards the outside, meaning to say, outside the wall of the Temple courtyard."
            ],
            [
                "איש הר הבית – appointed over all of the guards. [The story is told in Tractate Yoma 16a that Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, the first of two Tannaim of such a name, who was the friend of Rabbi Eliezer the Great/ben Hyrcanus – was the Tanna who taught Tractate Middot."
            ],
            [
                "משמשים כניסה ויציאה – that through them they would enter and leave the Temple Mount.",
                "קינפונוס מן מערב – the gate of the Temple Mount that is on the western side Kiponos is its name, and of the north Tadi is its name.",
                "עליו שושן הבירה צורה – when they (i.e., the exiled Jews in Babylonia) went up from the Diaspora, the Kings of Persia commanded them to draw the form of Shushan the capitol on the gates of the temple, in order that there would be fear of the kingdom, and they drew it in the Eastern Gate.",
                "כהן גדול השורף את הפרה – Our Mishnah is [according to] Rabbi Meir who holds that the Red Heifer is not burned other by the High Priest. But it is not Halakha (see Tractate Parah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1).",
                "וכל מסעדיה (and all its attendants) – all of the Kohanim who are assisting and supporting the Kohen who burns it.",
                "להר המשחה – to the Mount of Olives which is to the east of Jerusalem, there they would burn the [red] heifer."
            ],
            [
                "שער הדלק (the Gate of Kindling) – because they would bring in through there the wood for the pile of the wood on the altar was brought in that burn on the altar, it is called, the Gate of Kindling.",
                "שני לו שער הבכורות – we have the read, for there they wold bring in the firstlings whose slaughtering took place in the south.",
                "שער המים – in the book of Ezekiel (47:1-2): “[He led me back to the entrance of the Temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the platform of the Temple – eastward, since the Temple faced east – but the water was running out at the south of the altar (i.e., southeast), under the south wall of the Temple. Then he led me out by way of the northern gate and led me around to the outside of the outer gate that faces in the direction of the east;] And I found that water was gushing from [under] the south wall,” and that is the south, which is called, “right” as it is written “north and eastward” (Psalm 89:13). And see Ezekiel in the prophecy that the waters went out from the House of the Holy of Holies thinly like the proboscides of locusts and when they reach this game, they become like the fulness of the mouth of a small jug, and that is why they call them מים מהכפכים/waters gushing (see Ezekiel 47:2- “[Then he led me out by way of the northern gate and led me around to the outside of the outer gate that faces in the direction of the east;] and I found that water was gushing from [under] the south wall.”).",
                "שער ניקנור which is explained in Tractate Yoma (38a and Chapter 3, Mishnah 10- concerning the miracles of Nicanor with regard to the doors – see the Bartenura commentary there).",
                "פנחס המלביש – who was appointed to dress the Kohanim at the time of their [Divine] Service, and to strip them of their clothing after the [Divine] Service and to guard the clothing of the priests.",
                "לשכת עושי חביתין – in there they would make the meal-offering that the Kohen Gadol would offer on each day, “half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening” (Leviticus 6:13; see Tractate Tamid, Chapter 1, Mishnah 3),t and because it is stated regarding it (Leviticus 6:14): “shall be prepared with oil on a griddle,” it is called, a sort of cake."
            ],
            [
                "וכמין אכסדרה היה – two walls, one from this side and another from that side of the gate, they would protrude and go out from beyond the wall of he Temple courtyard to the side of the Temple Mount, and there was an upper chambr built from above on top of the two walls.",
                "ופתח היה לו לחיל – in one of the walls there was an opening that would go out to the place within the fortification of the Temple, which is a place inside from the wall of the Temple Mount from outside the Temple courtyard and is called חיל/Khel, [as will be described in further detail in Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3].",
                "שער הקרבן – there they would bring in the Holy of Holies, whose ritual slaughter was in the north.",
                "בית המוקד – because there were open fires burning there always to warm the Kohanim there because they walk barefoot, it is called, the House of the Hearth. And it was a large house, and in its four corners, there were four small chambers as will be explained further on [in the next Mishnah] (see also Tractate Tamid, Chapter One, Mishnah 1 as well)."
            ],
            [
                "כקיטוניות (small rooms/recesses) – like small rooms that open to a large house of kings, which is the reception room.",
                "שתים בקודש ושתים בחול – as the House of the Hearth, part of it is built within the holy Temple courtyard and part of it on the unconsecrated ground.",
                "וראשי פספסין (ends of flag-stones the pavement/blocks on the ceiling; cut and polished stone block) – the heads of beams that come out from the wall until the place which is sanctified, in order to know which is sanctified/holy and which is unconsecrated (i.e., north of the room of the hearth) and to consume Holy Food in sanctity.",
                "לשכת טלאי קרבן – there were there lambs which passed examination for the daily-offerings, as is taught in the Mishnah (see Tractate Arakhin, Chapter 2, Mishnah 5): There should be no less than six examined lambs in the Chamber of the Lambs.”",
                "לשכת עושי לחם הפנים – the House of Garmu would make the shew bread there.",
                "ששקצום מלכי יון – that they offered upon it (i.e., in the northeastern corner) for Idolatrous worship. But in the Tractates Shekalim (see actually Tractate Yoma 15b as the Bar Ilan project has shown me that it is not found in Shekalim at all) and Tamid (see Chapter 3, Mishnah 3), they call it the Chamber of the Seals.",
                "בה יורדין לבית הטבילה – in that chamber, the Kohen would go down when he observed an emission and he would go with pardon [it must say, that is under] the Temple to the House of Immersion, and there is a fire that warms the Kohen after he immersed and came out and dried off, and it is called the Chamber of the Hearth, because it is open to a large House of the Hearth."
            ],
            [
                "אחד פתוח לחיל – the opening that is in the north of the House of the Hearth was open to the Khel/the place within the fortification of the Temple, and the one in the south was open to the Temple courtyard.",
                "פשפש קטן (a small wicket) – a small gate within the large gate [by which they entered to patrol].",
                "שבו נכנסים לבלוש את העזרה (to patrol the Temple courtyard) – that they would enter each morning on the path of the same wicket to examine/search over each of the Temple vessels that were in the Temple courtyard that all of them were in their [appropriate] place. For this is taught in the Mishnah of Tractate Tamid [Chapter 1, Mishnah 3]: “He took the key and opened the wicket and entered from the House of the Hearth into the Temple courtyard, etc.,” – these walk on the covered place in front o the house in an easterly direction and those walk on the covered place in front of the house in a westerly direction. They would examine and go until they meet to the place where they make the cakes, they arrived, both sets say “Shalom; everything is peaceful/in order,” meaning to say, that all the Temple vessels are in their places in peace/in order.",
                "לבלוש – it is the Aramaic translation of “and he searched,” and examined."
            ],
            [
                "בית המוקד כיפה – the building of the House of the Hearth was not an upper chamber, but rather an arch, ARKUVLAT in the foreign language made on the land.",
                "מוקף רובדים של אבן (surrounded by stone pavements between steps in the Temple hall, landing) – porticos/colonnades of hewn stone around were sunk in the wall and came out from the wall into the House of the Hearth to the side of the ground, and on top of them were other short stones than then that also came out from the wall, and they were similar to steps one on another.",
                "זקני בית אב – the priestly division of duty/guard was divided into seven priestly divisions according to the days of the week, each one working his day, and the elders of the priestly division of that day would sleep there on those stone pavements.",
                "ופרחי כהונה – young men whose hair of their beards begins to flower, and they were guards.",
                "איש כסתו בארץ – that they were not permitted to lie there on beds, but rather onl on the ground, in the manner that the guards of the courtyards of the kings would do.",
                "כסתו – the language of pillows and cushions."
            ],
            [
                "הגיע זמן הנעילה – to lock the gates of the Temple courtyard.",
                "הכהן מבפנים ובן לוי יושב לו מבחוץ – that the Levites were secondary to the Kohanim, as it is stated, (Numbers 18:2): “[You shall also associate with yourself your kinsmen the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe,] to be attached to you and to minister to you, [while you and your sons under your charge are before the Tent of the Pact].” Therefore, in the House of Avtinas and in the House of the Spark, which were upper stories, the Kohanim who guarded were above and the Levites were below. But the House of the Hearth which was not other than an arch on the land, there was a Kohen on the inside and a Levite on the outside.",
                "במסבה (winding staircase) – in a cavity/underground places, he walks underneath the Temple (see Talmud Yoma 2a for another interpretation) , for the cavity/underground places was underneath the Temple, and all of the Temple is called בירה /the capitol, as it is written (I Chronicles 29:19): “and to build this Temple for which I have made provision.” But because he had had a nocturnal emission,, he would not walk on the path of the Temple courtyard, but rather on the path in the underground , for we hold that the cavities/underground places were not sanctified.",
                "והנרות דולקים – in the underground cavities from here and there.",
                "במסבה ההולכת תחת החיל – he departs, and does not return to the House of the Hearth because he is a someone who has immersed but must wait until sunset until he is ritually pure. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, but rather, as it is taught in the beginning of Tractate Tamid. He came and sat with his brethren, the Kohanim in the House of the Hearth until the gates open when he can go on his way, for even though someone who has immersed but must wait until sunset until he is ritually pure, it is forbidden to enter into the Women’s courtyard, which is the camp of the Levites, for this, they were lenient, because he had been defiled inside."
            ]
        ],
        [
            [
                "הר הבית היה מחש מאות אמות – surrounded by a wall all around (based, according to Ezekiel 42:20 on: “Thus he measured it on the four sides: it had a wall completely surrounding it, five hundred [cubits] long and five hundred [cubits] wide to separate the consecrated from the unconsecrated.).",
                "רובו מן הדרום שני לו מן המזרח – meaning to say, the distance that there is from the wall of the Temple Mount to the wall of the Temple courtyard to the south side, is more than the distance that there is between them from the eastern side. But the distance that there is between them from the eastern side is greater than the distance that is between them to the north side, and the north side is greater than the west."
            ],
            [
                "נכנסים דרך ימין ומקיפין דרך שמאל – as, for example, those who enter on the path of the gates of Huldah (on the south – see Tractate Middot, Chapter One, Mishnah Three) which are from the right, makse a circuit on the path of the gate of the Tadi (on the north).",
                "שאני אבל – he was asked: “What difference is it to you to make a circuit to the left?,” and he states, “I am a mourner.” They say to him: “ He who dwells in this House, may He comfort you.”",
                "עשיתן כאילו עברו עליו את הדין (as if they had treated him too severely/arbitrarily) – if they say to him, “yes,” it appears as if his fellows have perverted the judgment and excommunicated him not in accordance with the Halakha.",
                "יתן בלבך שתשמע לדברי חבירך – for now, he performed justice not in accordance with the law and he requires doing repentance/Teshuva. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi."
            ],
            [
                "לפנים – from the wall of the Temple Mount (surrounding the inner area containing the Women’s court and the Temple courtyard).",
                "סורג (lattice-work -name of one of the approaches of the Temple fortification) – a partition made of perforations/holes like straps drawn in a bed stead (i.e., a zig-zag) with ropes, and it is made from long and short boards/planks of wood that are grafted this on top of that crosswise.",
                "וגזרו כנגדם שלש עשרה השתחויות – when he reaches opposite each and every breach, he prostrates and gives thanks on the destruction of the Greek kingdom.",
                "לפנים – from this Soreg was a free place of ten cubits, and it was called the Khel (a place within the fortifications of the Temple)/rampa.",
                "ושתים עשרה מעלות היו שם – in order to ascend from there to the Women’s court.",
                "רום מעלה – every step of them was higher than its neighbor by one-half of a cubit. And similarly the first step/ascent was one-half a cubit high off the ground.",
                "מthe place of the treading of the foot was one-half cubit.",
                "חוץ משל אולם (except for those of the hall leading to the interior of the Temple) – except for the steps that are between the hall leading to the interior of the Temple/porch and the altar, for not all of them were like this, as is taught further on in Chapter 3 [Tractate Middot, see Mishnah 6].",
                "חוץ מפתח של אולם – as it is taught in the Mishnah further on (Chapter 3, Mishnah 7 of Tractate Middot), that its height was forty cubits and its width twenty.",
                "היו להן שקופות (they had arches/lintels with posts) – a stone placed on two doorposts that the door is arched/bent upon. And the word שקפות is from the language of משקוף/lintel, cross-piece (see Exodus 12:7: “[They shall take some of the blood] and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses [in which they are to eat it].”)",
                "מפני שנעשה בהן נס – like it is explained in [Tractate] Yoma, chapter 3 [38a] (at the top of the page and the accompanying Mishnah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 10).",
                "מצהיבות (because the bronze has the appearance of gold) – like מזהיבות/glittering like gold, that their appearance was similar to gold, therefore, it was not necessary to make them of gold."
            ],
            [
                "כל הכתלים שהיו שם – in all of the buildings of the Temple Mount.",
                "היו גבוהים – very [high] , until all of the entrances/openings that were in them were twenty-cubits tall, alone from what was on the openings.",
                "חוץ מכותל מזרחי – this is the lowest of the legs of the Temple Mount (see Ezekiel 40:5: “Alongside the outside of the Temple [area] ran a wall on every side. The rod that the man held was six cubits long, plus one handbreadth for each cubit, and hen he applied it to that structure, it measured one rod deep and one rod high.”",
                "שהכהן השורף את הפרה עומד בהר המשחה – this is the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem from the east, and the Kohen is facing to the west and he intends and sees from above the height of the top of the the wall towards the gates that are inside from it the opening of the hall containing the golden altar, when he springles the blood, as is it written (Numbers 19:4): “[Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger] and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.” But if the wall was high, even though the gates are all corresponding one to another, the gate of the Temple Mount opposite the the Gate of the Women’s Court, and the Gate of the Women’s Court opposite the Gate of the large Courtyard, and the Gate of the Large Courtyadr opposite the opening of the Hall containing the golden altar, one would not be able to see the opening of the Hall of the golden altar through the openings, because the Mount continually gets higher and ascends until the the opening of the Hall of the golden altar is [twenty-two] cubits more than the ground of the feet of the Temple Mount, and it is such that the lintel/threshold of the Hall containing the golden altar is higher than the lintel of of the opening of the Temple Mount by two cubits, for the opening of the Temple Mount was not higher than twenty, as is taught above (see Mishnah 3 of this chapter), And it is found that the Kohen who is slaughtering the [red] heifer is not able to see the cavity of the opening of the Hall containing the golden altar through the path of that entrance/opening."
            ],
            [
                "אורך – from the east to the west.",
                "על רוחב – from the north to the south.",
                "קטורות אלא שאינן מקורות – from the language (Genesis 19:28): “[and, (Abraham) looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, he saw] the smoke of the land [rising like the smoke of a kiln],” meaning to say, smoke rising, because they didn’t have a roof.",
                "ומשלחים תחת הדור – to burn them in fire that is underneath the cavity in the gound laid out with clay/kettle where they cook the peace offerings/sacrifice of well-being, as it is written (Numbers 6:18): “[and take the locks of his consecrated hair] and put them on the fire that is under the sacrifice of well-being.”",
                "And inside for the giving of wood on the altar of the Temple.",
                "לשכת מצורעים = for there the lepers immerse on the eighth [day] of their purification which he comes to put his hand inside for the giving of wealth [for the giving of blood and oil] -, and even though he had immersed [in a ritual bath] from the evening.",
                "אמר ר' אליעזר בן יעקב שכחתי מה היתה משמשת – it follows, that the entire first segment [of this Mishnah], Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said it. And this is proved in the Gemara of [Tractate] Yoma (16a), that an anonymous Mishnah of [Tractate] Middot is Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov (the first).",
                "וחלקה היתה בראשונה – Maimonides explained, broken through/breached, that it was not surrounded by a partition.",
                "כצוצטרא – like a balcony/כזוזטרא – that surrounded the women’s court (see Tractate Sukkah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1), that the women who were standing above on the balcony and the men were below to see the Rejoicing of the House of the Water-Drawing, in order that they would not come to frivolity.",
                "חמש עשרה מעלות – the height of the ground of the Israelite court from the Women’s Court.",
                "לא היו טררוטות (they weren’t half-closed, round) – long and filled with corrrners like the path of all the steps, but rather round like a round half-circle."
            ],
            [
                "וראשי פספסין (the tops of the flag-stones in the pavement) – the tops of the beams that protrude and come out from the wall to distinguish between the Israelite Courtyard and the Priest’s Courtyard.",
                "מעלה היתה שם (a step) – in the Israelite Courtyard.",
                "וגבוהה אמה – and its length was as the length of he entire Courtyard.",
                "והדוכן (platform) – of the Levites is built upon it and is made like a kind of portico/balcony, and the height of the platform is a cubit-and-a-half.",
                "ובו שלש מעלות של חצי חצי אמה – that they ascend upon them to the platform.",
                "כל העזרה – from the beginning of the Israelite Court until eleven cubits is a free space that was behind the House of the cover of the Holy Ark.",
                "על רוחב – from north to south.",
                "שלשה עשר שערים – as he considers them and then moves on. And the one who states that there were seven gates in the Temple courtyard (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 4) gives the reason for the thirteen prostrations corresponding to the thirteen breaches that the Grecian kings made in the Soreg/one of the approaches of the Temple fortification, as we stated above in our Chapter (see Mishnah 3). And all of our Mishnah is explained in the first chapter [of Tractate Middot]."
            ]
        ],
        [
            [
                "המזבח היה שלשים ושתים אמה על שלשים ושתים אמה – he would bring a square frame made from four boards, each board is thirty-two cubits long and the board is one cubit wide, and it is the height of the frame, and he fills it with stones, lime and pitch/tar and molten lead, and it is made into one piece of thirty-two cubits by thirty-two cubits, one cubit high. And this is the foundation/base of the altar.",
                "עלה אמה וכנס אמה (it rose by a cubit and drew in by a cubit – on every side) – after the foundation rose to the height of a cubit, he brings another frame whose length is the entire board is thirty cubits and a width of the board, that is the height of this frame is five cubits, and places it on the foundation/base, and fills it with stones, and lime and pitch/tar and lead like the first, and it is attached to the base and becomes one piece of thirty [cubits] by thirty cubits standing on the base/foundation. This is called the סובב/a sort of gallery around the altar for the priest to walk on. It is five cubits higher from the foundation. That is to say, he draws it in by a cubit, which he shortens from the base/foundation a cubit in each direction, and he goes back and a third frame, which is twenty-eight cubits by twenty-eight cubits, three cubits high, and places it in on the SOVEV, and fills it like the first, and this is the place of he the pile of wood on the altar of the Temple which is at the top of the altar. It is found the foundation/base protrudes and goes out from the SOVEV a cubit on each side, and the SOVEV protrudes from the place of the pile of wood on the altar of the Temple one cubit to each side. And afterwards, he brings a frame of one cubit by one cubit which is one cubit high and places it on the corner of the altar and fills it, and this is the corner of the altar, and similarly for the four corners.",
                "מקום הילוך רגלי הכהנים – so that the Kohanim would not have to walk between the corners, but we leave one cubit free from the place of the corners and inwards for the walking of the feet of the Kohanim.",
                "מתחילה – in the days of [King] Solomon.",
                "לא היה אלא עשרים ושמונה על עשרים ושמונה – and they drew it in [by a cubit] and it rose [by a cubit] of he foundation/base and the SOVEV and the place of the corners and the place of the walking of the feet of the Kohanim until there remained the place of the pile of wood on the altar twenty [cubits] by twenty [cubits].",
                "וכשעלו בני הגולה והוסיפו ד' אמות וכו' – it is found that its foundation/base is thirty-two [cubits] by thirty-two [cubits], and the place of its pile of wood on the altar is twenty-four [cubits] by twenty-four [cubits].",
                "ארבע אמות מן הדרום וארבע אמות מן המערב – we have the reading. And this is what I brought in [Tractate] Zevakhim in the Chapter קדשי קדשים/The Holy of Holies (Chapter 6, Mishnah 1 and Tosafot Tractate Zevakhim 61b s.v. ארבע אמות מן הדורם וארבע אמות מן המערב ).",
                "כמין גמא – a Greek Gimmel which is similar to our inverted [letter] Nun. But there (i.e., Talmud Zevakhim 61b) it explains that because of the שיתין /a pit by the side of the altar into which the remainder of the libations was poured, which are the holds where the libations go down, they added to draw the altar to the south and to the west. For initially, during the days of [King] Solomon, they expounded, “[Make for me] an altar of earth [and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being]” (Exodus 20:21), filled up with earth, so that it will not be an empty cavity, and when they would offer libations on the Altar in the southwest corner of the altar, the libations would descend from the altar to the floor and flow gently to the pit that was dug there near the the southwestern corner near the altar, and there was not within the altar. But the members of the Exiles added to the building of the altar util there was that same pit/cistern intercepting/absorbing within the altar. And they opened perforations to the top of the altar opposite it so that the libations could descend there. For they would say that drinking is is like eating, for just as eating is consuming in the altar, that is, the burned sacrifices on the altar, so too the drink, that is, the libations would be absorbed by the altar. And the Biblical verse of “an altar of earth” (Exodus 20:21), is expounded that it would be attached to the ground, so that they would not build it on top of rocks nor on top of cavities/caves.",
                "שנאמר והאריאל – this verse is in Ezekiel [Chapter 43, Verse 16] and he would prophesy on the measurements of the Second Temple and for the future times to come.",
                "ואריאל שתים עשרה – measurement of the place of the pile of wood in the altar is stated as twelve.",
                "אל ארבעת רבעיו (in the four quarters thereof) – it teaches that from its middle, he measures twelve cubits in each direction, which are twenty four [cubits] by twenty-four [cubits].",
                "וחוט הסיקרא חוגרו באמצע (and a red line goes around it in the middle) – the red thread was made around the altar in its middle at the end of five cubits of its heigh, which is one cubit below the top part of the SOVEV.",
                "להבדיל בין דמים העליונים – the sin offering of cattle and the burnt offering of fowl whose blood is sprinkled above from the red thread.",
                "לדמים התחתונים – for all of the rest of the sacrifices whose blood is sprinkled below from the thread.",
                "ואוכל בדרום אמה אחת ובמזרח אמה אות – the entire altar was in the portion of Benjamin, except for one cubit on the surface of the length of the east that he would take hold of from the portion of Judah, but rather that there wasn’t a cubit that was in the east on the surface of all of the east, for when that would reach the northeastern corne, it would end within a cubit of the corner, and similarly, the consumption of the southern cubit would not go over the entire face of the south, for when it would reach the southwester corner, it would end a cubit near the corner. And it was found that three corners of the altar were in the portion of Benjamin, and the only the southeastern corner was in the portion of Judah. And because when Jacob blessed Benjamin (Genesis 49:27): “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he consumes the foe, [And in the evening he divides the spoil],” and we translate into Aramaic: “And in his lodging the Holy [Temple] will dwell,” something that is sanctified monetarily will not be other than in the portion of Benjamin, therefore, they did not make the foundation to the altar in the southeastern corner, because that of a tearer was not in his portion (see Talmud Zevakhim 53b), and money, and money would not be given to the tribe in that corner. But when they made the square framework for the base to fill it with stones, and lime and pitch/tar and lead as we stated, they would put wood or every kind of thing in that southeastern corner so that the corner would not fill up, and afterwards they would detach the wood and this corner would remain empty without a foundation. And because of this, it is called, the middle of the Altar SOVEV, because it surrounds and goes around all of the corners, which is not the case with the foundation/base."
            ],
            [
                "ובקרן מערבית דרומית – a cubit below the foundation, there were two perforations.",
                "שהדמים הניתמים על יסוד מערבי – as, for examples the remnants of the blood of the inner sin-offerings, which are afrer all of he gifts, he would pour the remnants of the blood on the western foundation.",
                "ועל יסוד דרומי – the remnants of the blood of the outer [sacrifices (see Tractate Zevakhim, Chapter 5, Mishnayot 1-3).",
                "יורדין – on the path of those perforations and mix in the water channel that is in the Temple court, an from there leave to the Kidron Valley. And the owners of gardens would purchase them from the treasures to manure the land (see Tractate Yoma, Chapter 5, Mishnah 6 and Tractate Taanit, Chaptet 4, Mishnah 1)."
            ],
            [
                "באותו הקרן – of the southwestern [corner].",
                "שבו יורדין לשית – to a cavity that is underneath the altar corresponding to the place of the libations (see Tractate Meilah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3).",
                "וכבש היה לדרומו של מזבח – a kind of slanting bridge and it is made sloping for on it they ascend and descend from the altar. For it was not possible to ascend to it on the steps because it states (Exodus 20:23): “Do not ascend My altar by steps, [that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it].”",
                "שלשים ושתים – its length was given from south to north, and its width from east to west, sixteen cubits.",
                "ורבובה (a cavity in the ascent to the altar for deposit of ritually disqualified fowls) – it is a kind of hollow window. It was one cubit by one cubit. And it stood on the ramp to its western side.",
                "רבובה – like hallow/נבוב , in the language of נבוב לחות (Job 11:12): “A hollow man will get understanding, [When a wild ass is born a man].”",
                "נותנין פסולי חטאת העוף – that they will be there until they are brought to [become] left-overs (after the time permitted for it to be eaten; if one consumes it, one is punishable by extirpation. The Sages rendered these leftovers as ritually impure, so that the priests would be meticulous in their removal), and afterwards, they would go out to the House of the Burning."
            ],
            [
                "מבקעת בית כרם – they would bring them [from the valley of Bet HaKerem].",
                "מן הבתולה – land that was never dug there ever.",
                "והפגימה – invalidates the stones. בכל דבר – and even if they were not impaired/become defective [through contact] with iron.",
                "ומלבנים אותן – with plaster, twice a year.",
                "רבי אומר כו' – He does not dispute against the first Tanna/teacher, but rather adds to state that on each Friday, they would clean them with a cloth because of the blood.",
                "לא היו סדין אותו בכפים – He (I.e., Rabbi Judah the Patriarch) returns to something the first Tanna/teacher stated, that when they would clean them with plaster twice a year, they would not plaster them with builder’s trowels who were accustomed to plaster with them [which were made of iron]. (See Exodus 20:22: And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones, for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.”)."
            ],
            [
                "וטבעות היו בצפונו של מזבח – because they would not tie the daily offering as is taught in the Mishnah in Tractate Tamid [Chapter 3, Mishnah 5],Yohanan the High Priest ordained/established that twenty-four rings for the twenty-four priestly divisions, and they would be arranged on the floor made like a bow, and when they would bring in the neck of the cattle at the time of the ritual slaughtering and would insert the head of the ring in the ground. And these were to the north of the north, because the Holy of Holies, their slaughter is in the north.",
                "שמונה עודים ננסים (eighteen small columns) – columns of short stone.",
                "ורביעין של ערז – square pieces of cedar wood were on the [small] columns.",
                "ואונקליות (hooks) – like kinds of forks; in the foreign tongue, INTZINISH.",
                "היו קבועין – in those square blocks of cedar wood, and they would suspend the cattle upon them.",
                "ושלשה סדרים (three rows) – of hooks one above the other, were on each piece of wood, to suspend/hang a large animal or a small one.",
                "על שלחנות של שיש – that on them they would rinse the innards, because the marble cools off and makes cold and preserves the meat so that it doesn’t spoil."
            ],
            [
                "This is our reading. The height of each step was one-half of a cubit and the depth of each step was a cubit (see also Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3), a cubit and [another] cubit and the terrace was four cubits. Rabbi Yehuda states that the higher was a cubit and [another] cubit, and the terrace was five. Such is what my teacher/Rabbi Baruch wrote when he found exact older versions, and this is its explanation. רום – the height of the step is one-half of a cubit. Like it was for all of them.",
                "ושלחה – that is, it pulled the width above, for this is the foothold which was a cubit/ And a second step and a third, each one, the depth of each step was a cubit; and this is the “cubit, cubit” as it is taught.",
                "ורובד שלש (the terrace/landing was three cubits) – the fourth step was three cubits wide. And the terrace/landing that is taught, this is a row of the floor , like surrounding landings/terraces of stone, on the fourth terrace/landing that is in the Temple Courtyard. Because the floor was wide without a step, and because of this, it (i.e., the Mishnah) did not say that the depth of each step was three cubits, but rather that the landing was three cubits, meaning the row of the floor.",
                "ואמה אמה – meaning to say, the fifth and sixth steps, each one [of the steps] had a depth of one cubit.",
                "ורובד שלש – and the seventh step was three cubits wide.",
                "העליונה אמה אמה ורובד ארבע – the Explanation: the highest step which is the twelfth after the four steps that were a cubit each, the highest step was four cubits wide until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple. It was found that all the steps are nineteen cubits from the first until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple. And three cubits wide of the floor, part of which was from the altar until the beginning of the steps, there are twenty-two cubits between the hall leading to the interior of the Temple and the altar.",
                "ר' יהודה אומר העליונה ורובד חמש – until the hall leading to the interior of the Temple, for he (i.e.., Rabbi Yehuda) held that at the end of two cubits of the altar begins the steps."
            ],
            [
                "חמש אמלתראות (five main-beams of the ceiling/projecting outside the house) – painted and tiled/cemented beams.",
                "של מילת – of trees that grow on them gall-nut (i.e., a species of oak tree, while Kahati calls it an ash tree, which Jastrow rejects), as we state in [Tractate] Gittin [19a], we are concerned lest it (i.e., the Jewish bill of divorce/Get) was written in a solution of gall-nuts (for a tanned ink will not take on a tanned hide)",
                "התחתונה – the lowest beam lies on the lintel of the opening to the width of the opening which is twenty-cubits wide, and the beam overhangs on the opening a cubit from this side ad a cubit from that side, and the second beam that is above it overhangs on he first a cubit from this side and a cubit from that side, so that its length is twenty-four [cubits]. And the third is twenty-six cubits, and the fourth is twenty-eight cubits, and the fifth is thirty cubits.",
                "ונדבך (a course of stones/layer) – a row, like (Ezra 6:4): “with a course of unused timer for each three courses of hewn stone.”",
                "בין כל אחת ואחת (between every two beams) – these five beams do not touch each other, but rather a row of a structure of stones was between this [beam] and that [beam]."
            ],
            [
                "שלא יבעטו (so that the walls would not bulge)- so that the walls would not bend/incline to fall from the weight of their height, and these [cedar] beams would continue from this wall to that wall support the two walls (of the hall containing the golden altar and the hall leading to the interior of the Temple).",
                "ורואין את העטרות – in the windows of the hall containing the golden altar (i.e., Hekhal).",
                "כל מי שהוא מתנדב – [donating] gold to the hall containing the golden altar (i.e., Hekhal), and he wants that the gold that he donated will be placed in the Heikhal because it was entirely covered in gold., he made from that gold that he donates in the image of a single berry or a leaf or a cluster [of grapes] and hangs it on it.",
                "ונמנו עליה שלש מאות כהנים – because of the heaviness of the gold was great that was there, three-hundred Kohanim were needed to carry it and to remove it from place to place. And this is one of the places tha,t the Sages spoke of in the language of exaggeration in rhetorical speech (see Talmud Hullin 90b), and not exactly three-hundred Kohanim, but Rabbi Eliezer B’Rabbi Tzadok did not intend other than to inform that there was a lot of gold that was donated there."
            ]
        ],
        [
            [
                "פתחו של היכל. שתים בפנים – in the thickness of the wall that is towards the inside.",
                "ושתים בחוץ – in the thickness towards the outside, for the thickness of the wall of the hall leading to the golden altar (Hekhal) was six cubts, and at the end of the outer cubit of the thickness of the wall, there were the outer doors, one to the right of the opening and one to the left, each of these doors was five cubits wide, and when they were locked, the would touch each other and close the width of the cavity of the opening whose width was ten cubits, and when they were opened towards the inside, they cover five cubits of the thickness of the walls. But two other doors were like these measurements which were fixed at the end of the thickness of the walls towards the inner side, and when they were opened, they cover five cubits from here and five cubits from there from the width of the wall of the sanctuary/Heikhal inside, and there was no wall plastered with gold like in the rest of the Temple, because it was not visible.",
                "אצטברמיטה (pivots, pins at top and bottom of a door turning in sockets) – boards of joints attached on the handles of the links and they are opened, and when he desires, they are bent and folded one on top of the other. Such were all of these doors, whether towards the inside or towards the outside, which were attached through these links, and at the end, one-half a cubit of the thickness of the wall they were fixed, between the doors that are inside and those that are outside, and five cubits of the thickness of the wall interrupt between the outer doors to the inner doors. But each door was five cubits attached from the two boards; each board was two-and one-half cubits, and when the outer door opened towards the inside, its half was bent and folded one on top of the other, and covers from the thickness of the wall two-and half cubits, and similarly, the door that is fixed on the inside, when it is opened to the outer side, it also was bent and folded and covers the two-and -one-half cubits that remained from the thickness of the wall.",
                "שנאמר ושתים דלתות לדלתות שתים – so we see that each and every door was divided into two."
            ],
            [
                "ושתי פשפשין – two small openings, one from the right of the large gate of the Hekhal and one from its left, slightly distant from the gate. The one that is from the south, it is written (Ezekiel 44:2 – regarding the outer gate of the Sanctuary that faced eastward that was shut): “[And the LORD said to me:] This gate is to be kept shut and not to be opened! [No one shall enter by it because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut],” of the future, for undefined, such it was in the Jerusalem Temple.",
                "ופתח את הפשפש ונכנס משם לתא – and this is one small chamber that is open to the Hekhal, and from the compartment back of the Holy of Holies, he enters into the Hekhal, and walks in the open space of the Hekhal until the large gate that is at the end of the thickness of the wall from the inside, and he opens it and comes to the second gate that is at the end of the thickness of the wall from the outside, and stands inside and opens it.",
                "רבי יהודה אומר בתוך עוביו של כותל היה מהלך – he holds that from the compartment back of the Holy of Holies he would not enter into the Hekhal, but from the compartment, he would walk along the thickness of the wall until he finds himself standing between the two gates, and he opens the doors of the outer gate from the inside and the doors or the inner gate from the outside."
            ],
            [
                "תאים – chambers/compartments.",
                "חמשה עשר בצפון – further on in our chapter (see Mishnah 7), when it considers that from the north to the south is seventy cubits, it teaches that the wall of the winding staircase leading ‘to a well] under the Temple (see also the fifth Mishnah of this chapter as well as Tractate Tamid, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1), that the winding staircase was five [cubits] and the winding staircase was three [cubits], the wall of the compartment was five [cubits] and the compartment/chamber was six [cubits]. And corresponding to them we consider the south. And this is not to say that the thickness of the wall of the winding staircase and the thickness of the wall of the compartment/chamber and the thickness of the wall of the of the Hekhal that is to the north side was that, but rather, the thickness of the wall with the empty cavity that is between it and the second wall he is counting, but the five [cubits] of the wall of the winding staircase and the three [cubits] of the winding staircase, and the five [cubits] of the wall of the chamber /compartment and the six [cubits] of the chamber/compartment and the six [cubits] of the wall of the Hekhal, in each one of them, the five [cubits] was the one chamber which is a compartment, hence there are five chambers in the north. And opposite them [a similar number] in the south. And on these five, they would build five others, and another five on top of the, hence, fifteen compartments to the north and fifteen compartments to the south. And similarly, in the west which we consider further on in our chapter (see Mishnah 7 once again) that the wall of the Heikhal was six [cubits] and the compartment was six [cubits] and the wall of the compartment was five [cubits], in each one of them there was a there was a chamber, for the wall was not six [cubits] thick other than the wall with the chamber/compartment that was in it that was six [cubits], for the one compartment that was outside of it was six [cubits] and the wall of the the other compartment that is outside of them with the compartment within it was five [cubits], hence three chambers. And three other chambers were built on top of these three, and two [chambers] on top of them, that makes the eight compartments for the west [side].",
                "ואחד לפשפש – for the compartment that has in it the northern wickets that are in that compartment that one enters into the Hekhal. But the anonymous Mishnah is according to the Rabbis who stated above (Mishnah 2) that one enters the compartment and from the compartment to the Heikhal, and not like Rabbi Yehuda who stated (in Mishnah 2 of this chapter) that he would walk along the thickness of the wall."
            ],
            [
                "התחתוה חמש – from outside the wall of the winding staircase which is the outer wall of the Holy [of Holies], there were extensions/wings of the building, which are balconies surrounding the Temple from three directions – west, north and south, and these extensions/wings of the building were at the bottom, second story and third decks (see Genesis 6:16 – and the construction of Noah’s ark) . The lowest (i.e., bottom) wing/extension was five cubits wide, and the paved level space/terrace that was on it, which is the ceiling that was over the lowest, which is the floor of the lowest/bottom deck , six [cubits] by a cubit wide, because the wall of the winding staircase would go and become narrower towards the top, for when it reached to the paved level space between steps in the Temple/the landing/terrace, that is on top of the lowest deck, it would enter inwards by one cubit, and on that cubit that protrudes, they would place the beams of the extension/wing of the building, it was found that the lowest extension/wing was wider one cubit more from the bottom, that is, that one cubit that enters the wall inside. And similarly, when he reaches the landing/terrace that is upon the middle [wing], which is the floor of the third [level], the wall would become narrow and enter inwards one cubit, in order that the head of the beam would be placed on that cubit, that the middle wall protrudes and goes outside more than the upper wall, and it is found that the upper extension/wing is one cubit wider from the middle one and two cubits wider than the lowest one. And that is what is stated (I Kings 6:6): “for he (i.e., Solomon) had provided recesses around the outside of the House so as not to penetrate the walls of the House,” meaning to say that he would lessen and deduct in the thickness of the walls by one cubit from outside in the terrace/landing of the middle floor, and another cubit in the terrace/landing of the highest, in order that there would be room for him to place the heads of the beams of the landing/terrace, in order that he would not have to hold on to the walls of the house to make holes in the wall and to insert there the heads of the beams."
            ],
            [
                "ומסבה (winding staircase) - like a cavity and a cave.",
                "שבה היו עולים לגגות התאים – and because the one who ascends upon it goes up through the path of a circumference and descends through the path of a circumference, which is called a מסבה/winding staircase.",
                "ולולין (small passageways in the loft which mechanics were lowered in boxes/closed elevators) – where apertures in the roof looking to the ground floor that they make in the upper stories.",
                "משלשלים את האומנים – they lower them by rope in chests/boxes, in order that they will not benefit from seeing the House of the Holy of Holies, but rather only repair what is needed and re-ascend."
            ],
            [
                "מאה על מאה – [the hall containing the golden altar/Hekhal] - one-hundred [cubits] long and one-hundred [cubit] wide [and at a height of one-hundred cubits].",
                "אוטם (substructure/filled with earth, foundation) – a filled up/obstructed and closed building to be the foundation of the Temple, upon which we place the walls.",
                "אמה כיור (one cubit for the paneling work – tablature of the ceiling in the Stemple) – the lowest beam of the ceiling had the thickness of a cubit, and because it was coated with gold and embroidered with nice embroidery, it is called a כיור/panel (abacus).",
                "ואמתיים בית דלפה (two cubits – the receptacle of drippings – name of the second roof of the Stemple made for protection against an eventual leak in the upper roof) -the upper beams that lean upon the lower beam, their thickness is two cubits, and they are called: “The House/Receptacle of Dilfa/Drippings, because the boards of the ceiling are attached by them. The [Aramaic] translation of במחברת / joining or fastening - is the place of coupling/borders. But one cannot wonder/be amazed how the the lower beam was that everything leaned upon them was only one cubit thick, for the upper beams that do not handle a burden on this was two cubits thick, because the lower beam , since it was wider in thickness by a cubit was strong and healthy and could receive the building that was upon it, but the upper beams that were not wider than a handbreadth or less, need to be of greater thickness. Alternatively the upper beams were two cubits thick in order to distance the ceiling from the lower beam, because it was embroidered with nice embroidery, and if the ceiling was near it, the embroidery would not be seen and recognized so much.",
                "תקרה – planed boards that they put on the beams were one cubit thick.",
                "מעזיבה (a concrete of stone chippings/clay – used for paving floors- pavement covering the ceiling of the lower story and serving as flooring to the upper story) – he plaster and stones and plaster that they place on the boards.",
                "כלה עורב (“keeping off the raven” – an arrangement of iron points on the roof the Temple/scarecrow)- a foil/plate of sharp iron similar to a sword and it was a cubit in height and was placed on top of the railing, in order that the birds would not rest upon it, therefore, it was called a “scarecrow,” that keeps back the ravens from there."
            ],
            [
                "כותל האולם – thickness of the wall of the hall leading to the interior of the Temple to the eastern side was five cubits, and similarly, the wall of the Hekhal (the hall containing the golden altar, its thickness was six [cubits] to the eastern side.",
                "ותוכו (its substructure) – the cavity of the Hekhal was forty cubits.",
                "ואמה טרקסין (the two cedar-covered partitions – with a vacant space between – separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy and occupied the space of one cubit) – the wall that separates between the Heikhal/the hall with the golden altar and the Holy of Holies is called טרקסין, in that it closes over the Ark and the th Tablets that were given at Sinai. טרק in the Aramaic language is closing in/enclosure like [Tractate Berakhot 28a] טרוקי גלי/close the [college] doors. The [suffix] סין is Sinai. And the thickness of this wall was a cubit. But the Sages did not cast the deciding vote if its holiness is like the inner holinesss or like the outer holiness, therefore, during the Second Temple, they made two curtains, one outer and the inner, and between them the space of a cubit, to protect between them the airspace of the place of the wall that was one cubit thick [during the time of the First Temple].",
                "כותל ההיכל שש – we have already explained above that there was no wall of the Hekhal on the western side of a thickness of six cubits, but rather, the thickness of the wall of the Hekhal with the free space that is between it and the second wall that is outside of it was six cubits. And the thickness of the second wall that is called a תא/compartment with the the free space that is between it and the fourth outer wall was five cubits. But the three free places that were between four walls were תאים/compartments. And upon them were other compartments , as we taught above (see Mishnah 3 of this chapter) that were in the west three on top of three, and two on top of them. And similarly, from the from the north to the south, the wall of the winding staircase was five cubits, etc., all of them with the cavity that is between one wall and another, it is all as I have explained above.",
                "חמש עשרה אמה מן הצפון – the wall of the hall leading to the interior of the Temple its thickness is five cubits, and the hall is ten cubits to the north and similarly to the south.",
                "בית החליפות – on account of the knives that they hide there, it is called בית החליפות for in the Roman language, they call the large knives חלפים/HALAFIM.",
                "צר מאחוריו – to the western side, and wide from before him to the eastern sine. But it was not explained to me how, for there was one-hundred [cubits] by one-hundred [cubits] for what it was worth. \\"
            ]
        ],
        [
            [
                "כל העזרה – all the circumference of the Temple courtyard , that is within that circumference that the Temple was built to its western side and the courtyard and the and the altar on its eastern side.",
                "ארוך מאה ושמונים ושבע – from the east to the west.",
                "על רוחב מאה ושלשים וחמש – from the north to the south.",
                "מקום דריסת רגלי ישראל – and it was called the Courtyard of the Israelites, and the place of the treading of the feet of Kohanim was called the Courtyard of the Kohanim.",
                "המזבח שתים ושלשים – this is explained at the beginning of chapter three (Mishnah 1).",
                "ההיכל מאה אמה – the thickness of the wall of the hallway leading to the interior of the Temple, and the vacant space of the hall, and the thickness of the wall of the Hekhal and empty/vacant space, and the cubit of the Traksin, and the empty space of the House of the Holy of Holies and the wall of the Hekhal to the west, and the compartment and wall of the compartment, all of it is one-hundred cubits as was explained in the chapter above (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 4, Mishnayot 6 and 7).",
                "ואחת עשרה אמה אחורי בית הכפורת – from the outer wall of the Hekhal to the western side until the western wall of the Temple courtyard there was eleven cubits of empty space with the thickness of the wall, which is called the back wall of the innermost of the Temple/the Holy of Holies."
            ],
            [],
            [
                "לשכת הפרוה (the chamber of Parva, a Persian builder and magician; see also Tractate Yoma, Chapter 3, Mishnayot 3 and 6) – a magician whose name was PARVA built this compartment through sorcery, and it is called by his name. Such I have found. But Maimonides wrote that he would dig into the wall in order to see from there how the Kohen would perform the Sacred Service and he was killed there.",
                "ועל גגה היה בית הטבילה לכהן גדול ביו הכיפורים – the Kohen Gadol would engage in five [ritual] immersions on Yom Kippur (see Tractate Yoma, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3) when he would change from the golden clothing to white clothing and from what clothing to golden clothing. But the coming immersions on account of Yom Kippur, we require in a holy place, as it is written (Leviticus 16:24): “He shall bathe his body in water in the holy precinct [and put on his vestments; then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, making expiation for himself and for the people].” Except for the first immersion that does not come for Yom Kippur, for even the rest of the days of the year, a ritually clean person does not enter the Temple courtyard until he immerses, therefore, the first immersion was on the weekday on top of the Gate of the Water, which is the third gate that is in the south, and there was a spring/fountain of water there in the coming cubit, the spring of Etam, and there, he would perform his first immersion.",
                "מסיבה – a stone building with a round ascent which goes around to ascend to the roof to the House of Parveh (see above) through the path of a winding staircase."
            ],
            [
                "לשכת הגולה – on account of the name of the well that those who came up from the Exile dug.",
                "אבא שאול אומר – that chamber of wood was the chamber of the High Priest. This is the chamber of the assessors that is taught in the Mishnah the beginning of [Tractate] Yoma (Chapter 1, Mishnah 1): Seven days prior to Yom Kippur, they would separate the High Prieest from his home to the Chamber of Parhedrin/Palhedrin.",
                "וגג שלשתן שוה – one arched ceiling for all three (i.e., the Chamber of the Wood, The Chamber of the Exile and the Chamber of the Hewn Stones).",
                "שם היתה סנהדרי גדולה של ישראל יושבת – at the sides of the unsanctified area that is within/ Because the Chamber of Hewn Stones was half in the sacred [area] and half in the unconsecrated [area]. But in the half of the sacred [area], it was not possible for the Sanhedrin to sit [and meet], for there was no sitting in the Temple courtyard other than for the kings of the House of David alone, as it is written (Second Samuel 7:18): “Then David came and sat beore the LORD.”"
            ]
        ]
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Chapter",
        "Mishnah",
        "Comment"
    ]
}