Middos, Chapter 4, Mishnah 3. This chapter is walking us through the Heichal building itself, and our mishnah turns to the storage cells that surrounded it. Built up against the outer walls of the Heichal, on three levels, one above the other, were small chambers called ta'im, and in them the treasures and valuable vessels of the Beit Hamikdash were kept. The mishnah now tells us exactly how many there were, how they were distributed, and how one moved from one to another.
"Ushloshim ushmonah ta'im hayu sham" - thirty eight cells were there, built into the three stories that ringed the Heichal and used for storing the precious property of the Beit Hamikdash.
The mishnah then distributes them around the three sides of the building. "Chamishah asar batzafon" - fifteen of the cells were set along the northern wall. "Vachamishah asar badarom" - a matching fifteen ran along the southern wall. "Ushmonah bama'arav" - and the remaining eight stood behind the Heichal, at its western end.
How the Cells Were Stacked
"Shebatzafon veshebadarom" - as for the northern and southern rows, the mishnah describes their vertical arrangement: "chamishah al gabei chamishah", a row of five chambers at the bottom with another row of five resting on top of them, and then "vechamishah al gabeihen", a third row of five above the second. Each of those two sides therefore held fifteen chambers, and the two sides together account for thirty.
The western end followed a different scheme. "Veshebama'arav" - there the mishnah tells us "sheloshah al gabei sheloshah", a lower row of three with a second row of three built over it, and then only "ushnayim al gabeihen", a top row of two rather than three. That yields eight for the west, which added to the thirty of the north and south produces the total of thirty eight with which our mishnah began.
Three Openings in Each Cell
The mishnah now describes how these chambers connected to one another. "Ushloshah petachim hayu" - three entrances were made "lechol echad ve'echad", for each and every one of the cells. Where did they lead? "Echad lata min hayamin" - one gave access to the neighboring chamber on the right. Then "ve'echad lata min hasmol" - a second gave access to the chamber on the left. And finally "ve'echad lata she'al gabav" - a third opened upward, into the chamber resting directly overhead. The result was a single connected network: a person inside any cell could move sideways to its neighbors and vertically to the story above.
Naturally, the mishnah is describing the general design rather than an absolute rule. A cell on the topmost story had nothing built above it, so it could not have an opening upward. The mishnah means that wherever such an opening was possible, that is, in the cells of the lower two levels, it was there.
The Cell at the Northeast Corner
"Ubekeren mizrachit tzefonit" - at the northeastern corner of the Heichal there was one exceptional chamber, situated in the middle of the three stories, of which the mishnah says "hayu chamishah petachim", that it had five entrances and not the usual three. The reason is that this particular chamber stood where several distinct areas met, so it functioned as a crossroads.
"Echad lata min hayamin" - the first opened on the western side, into the adjacent chamber on its right. "Ve'echad lata she'al gabav" - the second opened upward, into the chamber of the top story. "Ve'echad lamesibah" - the third opened on the north, toward the mesibah, the spiral ramp. That ramp was built outside the outer wall of the northern chambers; it began down at ground level and rose in a circuit until it emerged on the roof above the cells. Since our chamber sat on the middle story, one used a ladder to go down and join the ramp.
"Ve'echad lapishpash" - the fourth opened on the eastern side, leading to the pishpash, the little wicket gate set into the Ulam. "Ve'echad laHeichal" - and the fifth opened on the south, letting one step directly into the Heichal.
This single chamber, then, was the point from which one could reach the adjoining cell, the cell above, the ramp leading to the roof, the small entrance in the Ulam, and the Heichal. Because so much converged there, it alone was given five openings instead of the standard three.