Now he moves to measure the northern gate. As you recall, we enter through the eastern gate. When we enter through the eastern gate, to our right is the northern side. Let me draw this again for us: we enter from the east, meaning from the direction of the Mount of Olives, where the gate was. The northern gate is the gate now facing north. The southern gate is the gate facing south, meaning toward the direction from which we enter today by car, for example, toward the Kotel, that is the side called the southern gate. So now, when he enters, he comes from the eastern side, from the direction of the Mount of Olives, and first he has a turn to the right, and the right is the northern side. Now he will measure the northern gate. The Malbim explains why he first turns toward the north, beyond the principle that all your turnings should be to the right. He says that since he had already measured the northern side, as we saw in the previous pasuk, for he measured from wall to wall and thereby also measured the northern side, he began with the north. He measured east and afterward approached the north. So he now continues to the northern gate. Now look: the things we learned above will repeat themselves at every gate. Therefore we will not need to begin detailing and elaborating on everything we learned above, since here we have only a reference point, only a reminder of what we saw above. We will mention the matters, but there is no need to elaborate, since this is essentially a copy of what we saw at the eastern gate through which he entered.
And the gate whose face is toward the north to the outer court, he measured its length and its width. And its cells, three on this side and three on that side, and its jambs and its porch were according to the measure of the first gate: fifty amot its length and twenty five amot its width. And its windows and its porch and its palm trees were according to the measure of the gate whose face is toward the east, and by seven steps they would go up to it, and its porch was before them. And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the gate to the north and to the east, and he measured from gate to gate one hundred amot. And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the gate to the north and to the east. Now he lifts his eyes to the inner court. And he notices that it is aligned opposite the outer gate. What does aligned mean? It means that if I stand at the outer gate and look straight ahead, I can see all the way inside. Because the gate of the inner court too is straight in such a way that I can look all the way in. And then he measures from gate to gate one hundred amot. He measures from gate to gate one hundred amot. The Malbim says: but we already saw that there was a prior measurement from wall to wall. If there was a prior measurement from wall to wall of 100 amot, why does he now need to tell me that the measurement is from gate to gate 100 amot? We seemingly arrived at the same result. The Malbim says: this measurement was meant to prove that the gates are aligned opposite one another. Listen, he says something wonderful here. The Malbim says: for if the gate had leaned slightly to the right or slightly to the left, the gate opposite it would no longer be 100 amot. Because any leaning lengthens it. Any leaning adds a few centimeters. Now, if I measure from wall to wall and find 100 amot, and then measure from gate to gate 100 amot, it must be that the inner gate is aligned opposite the outer one. Because if it were not aligned, it would lean slightly to the right, and that would lengthen it. If it leaned much to the right, it would lengthen even more. So it would not be 100 amot. The 100 amot of the measurement between gate and gate was meant to prove that in fact the gates, what we call today lined up exactly, are aligned opening opposite opening precisely.
And he brought me toward the south, and behold a gate toward the south, and he measured its jambs and its porch according to these measures. After he finished with the northern gate, he now enters the southern gate. And he walks within the outer court, from the east to the south, and he sees another gate there. And he measures its jambs and its porches, as we saw above. The Malbim says: note here, it does not mention that he measured the cells. But this is included in what we will see shortly in the next pasuk. And it had windows, and its porches all around, like these windows, fifty amot length and twenty five amot width. The Malbim says: here you see that there were also cells, because the 50 amot is as we saw above, that if I measure the gate itself which is 10 amot, and the cells to the right another 40 amot, I get together 50 amot. The same too if I measure from the left, 50 amot from here, 50 amot from here. And its windows and its porches and its palm trees were according to the measure of the gate whose face is toward the east, and by seven steps they would go up to it, and its porches were before them. Its porches, this refers here to the pillars that were on the right and left. And its windows and its porches and its palm trees. Its palm trees are the markings, a kind of engraving or a special design of date palms, like palm branches, that were on the jambs. The jambs are essentially the pillars on the right and left. Everything was like the measure of the gate whose face is toward the east, meaning the eastern gate. And by seven steps they would go up to this gate, the gate that was on the northern side. And its porches were before them. What are its porches, what we are speaking of here? It means that two jambs stood before the steps, on this side and on that side, for adornment. Note, says the Malbim, that here two things were added that we did not see at the eastern gate. At the eastern gate he did not mention that there were steps beforehand. That he did not mention at all. He also did not mention that before the steps there were also pillars. This is what he mentions as its porches, yes, jambs, these pillars that were on the right and left. Where are the steps? Where are the pillars? Why did you not mention this at the eastern side? The answer, says the Malbim, is that there, as soon as he entered, he immediately began measuring the threshold of the gate. And he did not first begin measuring the steps and the jambs. When he reaches the northern gate, he then notices that before the gate there are also steps, and before the steps there are the jambs, two more pillars with palm trees upon them, all kinds of forms of date palm branches. The Malbim says: and from this you also conclude that it was so at the eastern gate too, since they were similar in all their matters. And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the gate to the south and to the east, and he measured from gate to gate one hundred amot. And there was a gate to the inner court opposite the gate to the north and to the east. Now he lifts his eyes to the inner court. And he notices that it is aligned opposite the outer gate. What does aligned mean? It means that if I stand at the outer gate and look straight ahead, I can see all the way inside. Because the gate of the inner court too is straight in such a way that I can look all the way in. And then he measures from gate to gate one hundred amot. He measures from gate to gate one hundred amot. The Malbim says: but we already saw that there was a prior measurement from wall to wall. If there was a prior measurement from wall to wall of 100 amot, why does he now need to tell me that the measurement is from gate to gate 100 amot? We seemingly arrived at the same result. The Malbim says: this measurement was meant to prove that the gates are aligned opposite one another. Listen, he says something wonderful here. The Malbim says: for if the gate had leaned slightly to the right or slightly to the left, the gate opposite it would no longer be 100 amot. Because any leaning lengthens it. Any leaning adds a few centimeters. Now, if I measure from wall to wall and find 100 amot, and then measure from gate to gate 100 amot, it must be that the inner gate is aligned opposite the outer one. Because if it were not aligned, it would lean slightly to the right, and that would lengthen it. If it leaned much to the right, it would lengthen even more. So it would not be 100 amot. The 100 amot of the measurement between gate and gate was meant to prove that in fact the gates, what we call today lined up exactly, are aligned opening opposite opening precisely.
If it is amot as we explained, that is 40 amot of cells on the right together with the gate itself, and 40 amot of cells on the left together with the gate itself, you arrive at cells of 50 amot, so that in fact even though the cells are not explicitly mentioned here, see that in the measurement he essentially mentions them. And besides this there were also windows, as we saw these windows already in the pesukim above at the eastern gate.
Rashi brings here a derashah of Rabbi Tanchuma. It is written here "and to its porches all around like these windows." What is "like these windows"? There is no way to write the definite article inside a word; rather the definite article normally precedes the word. Right? Today, whoever hears many expressions used especially by those of Ashkenazi origin, in books you can see "and he learned in the-books." Right? But this is generally not the accepted and correct usage; "and he learned in books." The bet is already the definite bet, I do not need another hei, "and he learned in the-books that were brought to him" - no, we do not say "in the-books," we say "in books." And so here too the expression is a strange one, "all around like these windows," "like these windows," the kaf is the definite kaf.
Rabbi Tanchuma says: what is "kehachalonot"? Dim windows. As if it were written kehei chalonot, dim windows. Dim windows. It is not only today that people seek cars with tinted windows; there were dim windows there. What are dim windows? Not in the sense we think today, that the window is dimmed. No, dim windows means windows that are wide on the outside and narrow on the inside. Even though the usual way was always to do the opposite, that the window be narrow on the outside and wide on the inside, so that it lets in the light better, nevertheless in the Beit HaMikdash it was the opposite, to show that He does not need its light. The Holy One does not require light coming from outside, since the Beit HaMikdash itself is the light of the world.
And seven steps were its ascents, and its porches were before them. And it had palm trees, one on this side and one on that side, upon its jambs. And seven steps were its ascents, meaning the ascent there, to the southern gate, as you recall, is by seven steps, seven stairs, and its porches were before it, there were the jambs of the steps, as we explained above that the jambs of the steps were the pillars that stood before the steps, and upon them, upon these steps, they had palm trees, an adornment of date palms, like date trees above them.
And there was a gate to the inner court toward the south, and he measured from gate to the gate toward the south one hundred amot. The inner court also had a gate toward the south, and he measures one hundred amot, as we saw that from gate to gate they measure one hundred amot, and then he also knows that the gate is aligned. Note, here the Malbim says, he did not need two measurements, since he had already learned that the gates are aligned. When he measured the northern gate he already saw that the gates, the eastern gate, he saw then that the gates are aligned. Therefore here only one measurement sufficed for him, a measurement from gate to gate. Above we saw that a measurement from wall to wall was also needed, and only then does the measurement from gate to gate truly prove that the gates are aligned exactly one hundred amot. But here he had already learned that it is aligned, and therefore only one measurement was needed.
And he brought me to the inner court at the southern gate, and he measured the southern gate according to these measures. Now he enters from the southern side. Note, everything we did until now was outside. This is what is called the outer court. Now, after the outer court, when he comes from the southern side he already enters inward, for we said that the gate is aligned. He now enters inward into the inner court. The inner court is the place where the altar was, where the Court of Israel and the Court of the Priests were; that is called the inner court.
From here on we are now inside. And its cells and its jambs and its porches were according to these measures, and it had windows, and its porches all around, fifty amot length and twenty five amot width. And the Malbim says that there too the width of the gate opening was ten amot, the length of the gate thirteen amot, as we saw and explained above: six amot of threshold on this side, six amot inside, in the middle an amah for the doors. And the wall of the Court of Israel too, its width, like the wall of the entire outer court which we saw had a width of 13 amot, so too the wall of the Court of Israel had a width of 13 amot.
And its cells and its jambs and its porches were according to these measures, and it had windows, and its porches all around, fifty amot length and twenty five amot width. There too there were cells, and the porch of the gate, meaning the place into which you enter through the gate, is a porch, essentially a kind of chamber. And the jambs of the cells, this means that on the right and left at the entrance to the cells we saw pillars, they are the jambs of the cells. And the porch, fifty amot length, yes? This is what we explained above, that the meaning is that on the right and left there was fifty amot length of the porch. The porch is essentially what was on the right and left, the chambers that were on the right and left.
And there were porches all around, length twenty five amot and width five amot. The porches were inside the Court of Israel; on each side their length was 25 amot, and the width five amot. So first the width, this tells how, when you enter, if now for example we enter from the southern side, I see on the right and left the porches. The Malbim already explains that these porches of which we now speak, their entire length was not 25 amot, but rather there was 15 amot of empty space on the right, 15 amot of empty space on the left, and after them 25 amot where the porches were built. Shortly we will understand what was in the empty places on the right and left when you turn right and left, what was there in the empty place. But in any case, the porches extended up to 50 amot, because 25 amot plus 15 amot of empty space, you reach a distance of 50 amot from the gate on the right and left. These are the porches all around, length twenty five amot and width five amot. The width means its distance from the wall was five amot. Rashi holds that they were set into the thickness of the wall. Thus Rashi holds, these porches were sunk into the thickness of the wall. The thickness of the wall alone was 13 amot as we saw. But in contrast the Malbim says that from the wording it implies that they extended into the court, like the other buildings mentioned in the pesukim here, that they extended into the court; they were not sunk into the wall.
And its porches were toward the outer court, and it had palm trees upon its jambs, and eight steps were its ascents. And its porches were toward the outer court. The Malbim says: here the inner court differed from the outer court. For the porch of the outer court stood inside the gate, whereas the porch of the inner court stood outside. That is to say, when we speak of the porch of the gate, it means, as we explained, the gate, its cavity. Its cavity is called the porch. Now, whenever we spoke of the porch in the outer court, we spoke of the wall covering it, that it is inside the gate, there the porch is located, that is the cavity. In contrast, when we speak of the court, the entrance of the gate toward the south, the entrance of which we now speak that goes from the outer court to the inner court, the porch was outward. The porch of the gate, meaning the entrance of the gate, was drawn outward. The Malbim says: and this was before the cells. For if we know that on the right and left, when you come to enter the gate on the right and left there are cells, as we saw in the outer court, he tells you that even before that a porch extended out. Porch means the entrance of the gate was drawn out even before that. And it was not like the entrance we saw at the eastern gate, where the porch itself was as if under the covering of the wall, under the gate. Here it was drawn outward. This is different; in this it differs from the other gates we saw. And from there, upon it, yes, there were jambs, as we saw, jambs beforehand, and upon these jambs were the palm trees, which are the date palm branches. And they would go up there by eight steps. Eight steps means eight stairs.
And he brought me to the inner court toward the east, and he measured the gate according to these measures. Note, he had already left the court in order to measure the cells and the porch of the gate, and now he returns there through the eastern gate. He reaches the eastern gate again, and then he measures the gate, and here he measures it at first from outside, afterward he will enter inside to measure. Which in effect means that at first he was outside; he came from the southern side, he was outside, he came to the eastern gate, now through the eastern gate he enters the inner court, and from there afterward he goes out to the southern side.
And its cells and its jambs and its porches were according to these measures, and it had windows, and its porches all around, length fifty amot and width twenty five amot. Exactly as we saw above, the cells, the jambs of the pillars, and its porches, yes, everything we saw above was according to these measures, and it had windows, yes, it and its porches, meaning both the cells and the porches, as we saw above, had windows on the outside too. And its jambs were toward the outer court, and it had palm trees upon its jambs on this side and on that side, eight steps were its ascents. And then he sees there too, its jambs toward the outer court, there is a porch facing the outer court, and there are palm trees, which are date trees on this side and on that side, and eight stairs by which one reaches it.
And he brought me to the northern gate, and he measured according to these measures. Afterward, after he reached the eastern gate, he moves to the northern gate. He began with the southern one; now we come, as you recall, we are measuring the inner court. He began with the southern gate of the inner court, moved to the eastern, now he moves to the northern. And he measured according to these measures. There too he measures according to these measures. The Malbim says: note, here it does not mention "and he brought me to the inner court," since now, in order to measure the eastern gate of the inner court, he entered inward. So now it turns out that he immediately takes a right; he is already at the northern gate, he does not need "and he brought me to the inner court," he is inside. And from inside he reached the northern gate.
Its cells, its jambs, and its porches, and it had windows all around, length fifty amot and width twenty five amot. As we saw above. And its jambs were toward the outer court, and it had palm trees upon its jambs on this side and on that side, and eight steps were its ascents. Exactly the same as the two previous gates, it had jambs toward the outer court, which refers to the pillars that were there, and palm trees upon its jambs on this side and on that side, the date palm branches above it, eight steps were its ascents, these are the eight stairs by which they would enter inward.
And there was a chamber and its opening by the jambs of the gates; there they would rinse the burnt offering. The chamber of which we speak here, the Malbim says, we will see later in chapter 42 verse 1, that 20 amot outside the wall of the inner court was sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard. That is to say, we have the inner court, 20 amot outward, which essentially take, as it were, from the outer court, 20 amot outward were sanctified with the sanctity of the inner court. That is, there is a certain boundary of the sanctity of the courtyard. Now, opposite the cells, for the cells took up 12 amot outside the wall of the court, that was the cells, that was the width of the cells. So it turns out then that of the 20 amot, 12 amot are already consumed. Outside the cells, another eight amot are still sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard. So when I come from outside and essentially enter the inner court, I do not yet enter the inner court proper; I enter the outer court, let us say I come entirely from outside, I enter the outer court. I am told: even before you reach the wall of the inner court, know that there are 20 amot on the outside that are sanctified. 12 amot of them are taken up by the chambers that stand outside, the cells that stand outside. And another eight amot beyond that, from the outer court, are still sanctified, eight amot that are sanctified with the sanctity of the inner court.
And in the porch of the gate two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering. Now he enters the porch of the gate. That is to say, we are now dealing with wanting to enter the inner court, and we enter through the porch of the gate. The porch of the gate means the place through which he enters, that is called, as we said, a porch. In the porch of the gate there were many tables, as we will now see, and he will count them for us. As soon as he enters the porch of the gate, two tables on this side and two tables on that side. There were two tables on the right, two tables on the left. Their purpose was to slaughter upon them the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering. The burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering are the most holy offerings, and their slaughter is in the north. In the north means also in the porch of the gate, this too is called north, and therefore one may slaughter there, since this place is sanctified with the sanctity of the courtyard.
And at the shoulder outward for one going up to the opening of the gate northward, two tables, and at the other shoulder which belongs to the porch of the gate, two tables. In the cell that was inside the porch, and was in fact outside the opening of the gate, meaning outside the 13 amot of the length of the gate itself which is under the wall as we mentioned, there was also a porch before it, as he mentioned to us above on the southern side, that there was also a porch before it. It was not like the entrance we entered from outside where there was only a porch of 13 amot which was the porch of the gate; now he speaks to you about a porch that was, in addition, a kind of vestibule to the porch of the gate. A place that was not covered by a wall above it. And there, this place, at the shoulder outward for one going up to the opening of the gate northward, that was on the outside, two tables. And at the other shoulder which belongs to the porch of the gate, two tables. So whoever entered there, on the right were two tables and on the left were two tables. And this is separate from the four tables we already saw above, two tables on this side and two tables on that side in the porch of the gate itself. Now he speaks of the vestibule of the porch of the gate, that there too there were two tables on this side and two tables on that side.
Four tables on this side and four tables on that side by the shoulder of the gate, eight tables upon which they would slaughter. Four tables on this side, four tables on that side by the shoulder of the gate, meaning on the sides of the gate itself. We saw that the gate itself had a length of 13 amot. Four tables stood on this side, four tables on the other side, in all there were eight tables. And upon them, on these tables, they would slaughter. What is the meaning of "upon them they would slaughter"? It means that on the four tables that were in the cell, on these tables they would slaughter. So it turns out there were 16 tables for slaughtering there. And four, how does the count work? Four in the porch, four between the cells that are on the two sides of the gate, and eight within the opening of the gate.
And four tables for the burnt offering of hewn stone, length one and a half amah and width one and a half amah and height one amah, upon them they would place the vessels with which they would slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice. Four tables for the burnt offering, meaning on the way that one ascends from the opening of the gate to the inner court, another four tables stood upon which they would place the knives and the sprinkling basins. The sprinkling basins were the vessels in which they would receive the blood.
And the borders, one handbreadth, were fixed in the house all around, and upon the tables the flesh of the offering. And the borders, one handbreadth, they had iron hooks that were fixed, and a handbreadth protruded from them, behind them low pillars in order to hang and flay the offerings upon them. In order to flay the offerings they needed to hang them. So there was a pillar, and from this pillar protruded a kind of metal hooks, they are hooks, and they would hang the animal upon them, and thereby it is easy to flay it. These are the borders. The borders, the Malbim explains, is like arranging, like the edges of a pot, to arrange the pot upon the stove, so here too it is an expression of arranging.
And outside the inner gate were chambers of singers in the inner court, which were at the shoulder of the northern gate, and their faces were toward the south; one at the shoulder of the eastern gate facing toward the north. Outside the inner gate, meaning inside the courtyard, from the side of the gate and in fact on the side facing east, were chambers of singers. That is to say, if now we enter through the northern gate, we have already come inward, we are within the inner court. Now, within the inner court he will begin to describe for us what is inside. The Malbim says that within the inner court there were, on the left side, chambers of singers. What are chambers of singers? Chambers of singers means a place where the singers were located, those who would sing on the platform, so they had a chamber there, these were the chambers of the singers that were on the northern side. And this is in fact on the left side of one who enters inward. And the matter is as we explained above, that when they would enter through the northern gate, after entering inward, on the left side and on the right side there were 15 empty amot. And only afterward 25 amot where the porches were, meaning the chambers. Now he tells you, the chambers of singers that were on the left side, these were the chambers in these 15 empty amot; there were the chambers of which he now speaks.
And he spoke to me: this is the chamber whose face is toward the south, for the priests who keep the charge of the house. The Malbim says: we will see later in chapter 44 that in the future none will be fit for the service in the Beit HaMikdash except only the priests, the sons of Tzadok. The priests, the sons of Tzadok, did not stray from Hashem, they did not serve idolatry. The other priests who served idolatry will not be able to serve upon the altar, for as is known a priest who served idolatry cannot ascend upon the altar. Here he shows the prophet that these priests who would be disqualified from the service, their role would be that they would be keepers of the charge of the house. They would have the chamber whose face is toward the south, which is called the chamber of singers, and from this chamber it is implied that there would be the men who sing in the Mikdash. But this matter is astonishing, says the Malbim, for the priests are warned not to do the service of the Levites. And the service of the Levites, as is known, is the service of song in the Beit HaMikdash, singers and gatekeepers. So how suddenly here would the priests be the singers in the Beit HaMikdash? According to the Ra'avad, a priest who sings is liable to death. According to the Rambam, in any case he is warned not to do so with a negative commandment, but in any case it is not possible that they sing. The Malbim says: I can answer simply. All this is true regarding a priest who is fit for the service. Since you are fit for the service, why now would you come and sing like a Levite? That is a demotion from your standing. But in contrast these priests who are not sons of Tzadok, and as we said were disqualified from the service, for every priest is a son of Levi, since every priest belongs to the tribe of Levi, so if in any case he does not perform the work of the priests, let him perform the work of the Levites, and therefore to sing he indeed may sing. So the Malbim says, this matter gives us an explanation for why the priests would be there. And a proof for this he brings from the fact that the Rambam writes that when the priest becomes a man, and he is fit for the service, he does not enter to perform the service except only at the time the Levites recite song. What does this mean? He sings with them and then enters. Seemingly the priest is not a party to the service of song. The priest, as we saw, is warned regarding song, so why suddenly does he need to enter when the Levites recite song? Rather, they tell you, all this is after he is already engaged as a priest, then he is forbidden to descend and recite song. But here, when the priest still is only entering the service as a priest, he has not yet begun to serve, therefore the first stage is the reciting of song. The Malbim says: even if we also do not accept this, he brings that he also understands this from the Ria"sh who wrote it in the book Lechem Yehudah. The Malbim says: and even if we do not accept this reasoning, in any case I can explain that the singers are with an instrument. For we see that song can be in two forms, either with an instrument or with the mouth. So to sing with an instrument, even Israelites of proper lineage are fit for this. It need not specifically be a priest to sing with an instrument, meaning to play. So in any case one can say that what the singers were here, which priests are we speaking of? We speak here of the priests who would sing with a musical instrument. And it is certain that there is no impediment even for a serving priest to sing with a musical instrument; he is only warned, as we said, not to sing with the mouth.
And the chamber whose face is toward the north, for the priests who keep the charge of the altar. These are the sons of Tzadok, who from among the sons of Levi draw near to Hashem to serve Him. And the chamber whose face is toward the north, we are within the inner court. In the inner court there was a chamber that was located on the southern side. This chamber that was located on the southern side, its face was toward the north. Its opening was toward the north. That is to say, if we look, we see that its opening is in fact toward the altar. So it is located within the inner court, in the wall of the inner court from inside toward the south, but the face, this we already saw above, that the place here where the chamber of the priests, the sons of Tzadok, was located, this place was in the 15 empty amot. Because afterward inside we had the chambers that were within, that were on the right side and the left side. In the empty place of the 15 amot, there was the chamber of the priests, the sons of Tzadok.
And he measured the court, length one hundred amot and width one hundred amot, square, and the altar was before the house. Now he measures the entire court. After he described for us the chambers that were within, he measures for us the entire court, and when he measures the court he says the length and width is one hundred amot by one hundred amot, that is about 50 meters by 50 meters. And the altar was before the house. The altar before the house means the altar was before the opening of the Heichal, that is the meaning of before the house. The Malbim says that it is very reasonable according to the words of Rabbi Yehudah that the altar is centered in the middle of the courtyard. That is to say, the altar was in the middle, so that if we measure from the right and measure from the left, measure from the direction of the Heichal and measure from the eastern direction from which they would enter, the altar was exactly in the middle. This is the approach of Rabbi Yehudah. In contrast the Malbim says that there is one who disagrees, and it can also be reconciled according to his approach, but the Malbim says the plain sense appears to be according to the words of Rabbi Yehudah.
And he brought me to the porch of the house, and he measured the jamb of the porch, five amot on this side and five amot on that side, and the width of the gate three amot on this side and three amot on that side. And he brought me to the porch of the house. Now he enters the porch of the Heichal. That is to say, if we want to draw for ourselves how it was built, in what form. When we enter entirely from outside, we have the outer court. When we then enter inward, we have another court which is the inner court, of which we now spoke, within which is the altar, this is an open place, a place without a roof, this is called the inner court, there the priests would serve, there too was the Court of Israel. If I enter further inward, I reach the porch. The porch is the innermost part and it is already a roofed part. And the porch was a structure that was divided into porch, Heichal, and Holy of Holies. It was essentially divided into three parts, and it is the part with which we will deal mainly in the next chapter. Here, now that he speaks of the entrance, we pass from the inner court to the porch. He speaks of the entrance to the porch, that is "and he brought me to the porch of the house." And he measured the jamb of the porch of the house, five amot on this side and five amot on that side, and the width of the gate three amot on this side and three amot on that side. That is to say, when we measure the entrance to the porch of the house, it was divided into five amot on this side and five amot on that side. Note, we are not speaking of a situation where there was a door, as we saw above that in the court we had a door, that was a gate proper, a door proper. Here it does not speak of a door being present; rather it was closed off on each side, three amot from here and three amot from here. That is to say, three amot as one enters, it is a kind of narrowing of the opening. The opening was narrowed by three amot on the right and three amot on the left. The gate is called the door, which essentially seals the opening of the gate, but at the porch there was no gate. And if we subtract three amot from here and three amot from here, which narrows the opening, like such an entrance with a kind of doors, but it is not something that would open, it narrowed the opening, then when we check how much remains as an open opening, we are left with 14 amot. And then it turns out for us, another three from here and three from here, we got 20, that is exactly the width of the porch. The width of the porch is 20; if you narrow it from both sides with a kind of walls at the entrance, three from here and three from here, you get an opening of altogether 14 amot.
The length of the porch was twenty amot, and the width eleven amot, and by the steps by which they would go up to it, and pillars by the jambs, one on this side and one on that side. The length of the porch, meaning from north to south, when we want to measure the length of the porch, when a person enters, meaning in fact from right to left, is 20 amot. The length of the porch is like the width of the Heichal. And the width, meaning now from east to west, when you enter forward, how much do you go forward? 11 amot you advance forward, up to here we speak of the porch. The porch, we have not yet even entered the Heichal. The porch is the place that was called the Beit HaChalifot in the Second Temple, and it was the place where they would place the chalafim, chalafim meaning knives, right? The place where they place the knives. In the Second Temple it was wider in the front and narrower in the back; in the Third Temple, no. Rather in the Third Temple its width is like the width of the Heichal and like the width of the Holy of Holies, which were located after it. So we speak now, from right to left the width is 20 amot, when we advance forward toward the Heichal, we advance 11 amot and then we reach the Heichal. Beyond this he tells us that there were also steps. Steps, since the Temple Mount was built on an incline, so from place to place there were stairs. The steps are the stairs. As they say Shir HaMa'alot, meaning at the entrance to the courtyard there were steps where the Levites would stand and sing. So this is called Shir HaMa'alot, meaning people who would stand on the stairs. So here too he speaks, and by the steps by which they would go up to it, there were stairs by which they would go up to the porch. And pillars by the jambs, one on this side and one on that side. There were jambs that stood on the sides, that the jambs, as we saw, are an amah by an amah, and besides this, in addition to them, pillars also stood. The pillars were much thicker, right? And the jambs only an amah by an amah. And do not forget, here we also speak of a part that is roofed, and since it is roofed then it needs to have pillars that can also support the roof. And these are two pillars that correspond to Yachin and Boaz, as Shlomo made in the First Temple, that there were two pillars, Yachin and Boaz, so too here there were two pillars corresponding to those pillars that were in the First Temple.