Chapter 41 continues the tour shown to Yechezkel in the future Beis HaMikdash. From here onward, the prophecy transitions from measurements to the overlay and ornamentation: the wooden wall paneling, the carved cherubim and palm trees, the incense altar, the doors, and the windows. The key point that will guide us throughout this entire section is a major principle established by the Malbim: Yechezkel sees the Temple in the stages of construction, in the midst of the work. Therefore, nowhere does he see the gold overlay - only the wooden substrate underneath it.
The Temple was built of stone, and over the stone they overlaid wooden planks all around. Why? Because there is no practical way to overlay gold directly onto stone. Therefore, they affixed the wood to the stone, and upon the wood they hammered out the gold. This was especially necessary because the wood itself bore carvings and engravings, as we will soon see.
The method of work involved beaten gold plate. They would place the sheet of gold - imagine thick gold foil - over the wood, fasten it with nails, and with a chisel and hammer, with immense delicacy, beat and flatten it until it sank into the recesses and conformed to the reliefs in the wood. In this way, the gold on the outside took on the exact form of the engravings in the wood beneath it: if the wood had a relief of a palm tree, the gold assumed the shape of that palm tree.
This is what we previously learned in Sefer Melachim regarding the Temple built by Shlomo. There we explained that there are two other ways to gild with gold: casting - pouring molten gold over an object and allowing it to flow, where whatever adheres becomes the coating; or dipping - immersing the object into molten gold and removing it coated. Here, however, we are dealing with hundreds of meters, perhaps kilometers of surface area, so it was impossible to pour gold in this manner; the only way was with hammered sheets of gold.
הַסִּפִּים וְהַחַלּוֹנִים הָאֲטֻמוֹת וְהָאַתִּיקִים סָבִיב לִשְׁלָשְׁתָּם נֶגֶד הַסַּף שְׂחִיף עֵץ סָבִיב סָבִיב וְהָאָרֶץ עַד הַחַלּוֹנוֹת וְהַחַלֹּנוֹת מְכֻסּוֹת׃ - The thresholds, the closed windows, and the galleries around the three of them, opposite the threshold, were overlaid with thin strips of wood all around, and from the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered.
The Malbim explains: In the vision shown to Yechezkel, he was not shown the gold overlay, but only the wooden paneling. As it were, he sees a Temple built of stone, paneled in wood, which has not yet been completed.
The straight walls were covered with wide wooden planks - large boards. However, by the thresholds, by the closed windows, and by the galleries, it was impossible to panel with wide boards. Why? Because wherever there is a curve, an arch, a protrusion, or an angle, large wooden surfaces cannot be placed. The galleries, for example, rested on pillars built like curved arches, and a flat board cannot fit onto an arched and rounded area.
What did they do there? They used sechif eitz - thin strips of wood, like slender twigs and slats attached together, thin laths between which the stone could still be seen, but they covered the stone and made it possible to follow the rounded contours. This is just like today, when one wants to place paneling on a curved wall - the rigid panel cannot bend on its own, so it is cut into small strips and attached. Over this strip-work, a single continuous sheet of gold was later stretched, giving the surface a seamless, flawless appearance.
"And from the ground up to the windows" - from the floor up to the height of the windows, they paneled with full boards, as there was no obstacle there. "And the windows were covered" - between the windows as well, it was possible to use wide planks, so that area was covered with broad timber. The thin wood strips were used only in places that required working around curved and uneven contours.
עַל מֵעַל הַפֶּתַח וְעַד הַבַּיִת הַפְּנִימִי וְלַחוּץ וְאֶל כָּל הַקִּיר סָבִיב סָבִיב בַּפְּנִימִי וּבַחִיצוֹן מִדּוֹת׃ - Above the entrance and as far as the inner house and on the outside, and on the entire wall all around, inside and outside, were measurements.
Above the entrance up to the ceiling there was likewise no obstacle to installing wooden panels, since the whole challenge had been at the doorways, the cuts, the corners, and the arches; on the flat surfaces there was no problem. Therefore, above the entrance, in the inner chamber and in the outer area, the walls were covered with wooden panels so that the gold could be overlaid upon them.
"Measurements" (middot) - here the Malbim offers a fascinating explanation: Yechezkel saw that measurements and markings were inscribed upon the wood paneling the wall. The builder had measured and noted the dimensions of the openings and of everything destined to be overlaid there in gold. Just as builders today mark indications on the wall in red pencil - the height of the flooring, the position of an electrical socket, and the like - since the plaster will cover it in any case. So too here: the wood was destined to be covered with gold overlay regardless, so they inscribed upon it how much gold would go there, what the length was, and what the height was, so that they could later overlay the entire wall. It was all arranged in triangles, squares, circles, and flat planes, all prepared in various measurements - "according to the art of geometry and drafting," in the words of the Malbim.
וְעָשׂוּי כְּרוּבִים וְתִמֹרִים וְתִמֹרָה בֵּין כְּרוּב לִכְרוּב וּשְׁנַיִם פָּנִים לַכְּרוּב׃ - And it was fashioned with cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub, and each cherub had two faces.
Yechezkel sees that upon the wood there were carvings in relief - the wood was sculpted with ornamental designs. And what was the nature of these ornaments? Cherubim and palm trees. Cherubim - in the form of angels, from the Aramaic word *k'ravya* (like a youth). Palm trees - as we have already seen above, this refers to date palm trees and fronds. Over these wooden carvings they would beat out the sheets of gold, as Scripture says, "and he overlaid the gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees" (I Kings 6:32). The Hebrew word *vayeired* means *vayeiradeid*: he hammered and flattened the gold thin over the relief, until the gold sank into the recesses and rose over the protrusions, making the entire surface appear as though it were fashioned of solid gold.
"A palm tree between cherub and cherub" - between one angel and the next was a palm tree. "And each cherub had two faces" - each cherub had two distinct faces, as the next verse goes on to explain.
וּפְנֵי אָדָם אֶל הַתִּמֹרָה מִפּוֹ וּפְנֵי כְפִיר אֶל הַתִּמֹרָה מִפּוֹ עָשׂוּי אֶל כָּל הַבַּיִת סָבִיב סָבִיב׃ - The face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side; fashioned throughout the entire House all around.
Each cherub had faces on both sides, reminiscent of what we saw in the vision of the Chariot (Ma'aseh Merkavah), where the creatures had faces turned toward multiple directions. Here, each cherub had the face of a man on one side and the face of a young lion on the other side. And since the cherubim were positioned on either side with a palm tree between them, it follows that each cherub had a face turned to the right and a face turned to the left - one face toward the palm tree on the right and one face toward the palm tree on the left. Facing the palm tree on one side was the face of a man, and facing the palm tree on the other side was the face of a young lion. This pattern continued along all the walls, cherubim alternating with palm trees, fashioned throughout the entire House all around.
מֵהָאָרֶץ עַד מֵעַל הַפֶּתַח הַכְּרוּבִים וְהַתִּמֹרִים עֲשׂוּיִם וְקִיר הַהֵיכָל׃ - From the floor to above the entrance, the cherubim and the palm trees were fashioned, and so was the wall of the Heichal.
Here Yechezkel describes the stage of the work. From the ground up to above the doorway, the wood carvings of the cherubim and palm trees were already completed. And above the doorway and higher up? The same designs were destined to be there as well, but since the Temple was shown to him in its stage of formation, the carvings were not yet finished. There, as we saw in the previous verse, he saw only "measurements": they had measured the area and the quantity, but had not yet carved the designs.
"And the wall of the Heichal" - in the Heichal itself, the work of the cherubim was already completed across the entire wall. But regarding what was outside the Heichal, he saw that it was only finished up to above the doorway, and from there to the ceiling there were only measurements that had not yet been executed.
הַהֵיכָל מְזוּזַת רְבֻעָה וּפְנֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ הַמַּרְאֶה כַּמַּרְאֶה׃ - The Heichal had square doorposts, and before the Sanctuary, the appearance was like the appearance.
"A fourfold doorpost" - four doorposts. Each doorway had two doorposts, one on the right and one on the left; there were two doorways here - the front doors and additional doors further in - making a total of four doorposts. As a linguistic note: what we refer to colloquially as the right and left doorframe posts are called *mezuzot* in the language of the Torah, while the *mashkof* (lintel) is the upper part, so named because the door knocks (*shokefet*) against it.
"And the face of the Sanctuary, the appearance was like the appearance" - the Malbim explains: when he looked toward the front of the Sanctuary, the sight appeared to him like a mirror, like someone looking into a looking glass, akin to the mirrors of the women who assembled. In this mirror, he saw a vision resembling the one he had seen in the vision of the Chariot (*Ma'aseh Merkavah*). For this entire prophetic vision, in which he was brought to the Land of Israel to be shown the Beit HaMikdash, began initially with the vision of the Chariot - "In visions of God He brought me." And now he saw that the forms and shapes before him were reminiscent of the vision of the Chariot that had been shown to him earlier.
הַמִּזְבֵּחַ עֵץ שָׁלוֹשׁ אַמּוֹת גָּבֹהַּ וְאָרְכּוֹ שְׁתַּיִם אַמּוֹת וּמִקְצֹעוֹתָיו לוֹ וְאָרְכּוֹ וְקִירֹתָיו עֵץ וַיְדַבֵּר אֵלַי זֶה הַשֻּׁלְחָן אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי ה'׃ - The altar of wood was three cubits high, and its length two cubits, and its corners were of it, and its length and its walls were of wood; and he spoke to me: "This is the table that is before Hashem."
Here he is shown the inner altar, which is the Golden Altar. This presents an apparent difficulty: how can it be called an "altar of wood"? After all, coals are placed upon this altar and incense is burned on it, so a wooden altar is completely out of the question! However, according to the principle we explained earlier, everything here is shown in the middle of construction, and they had not yet had time to overlay the altar with gold. The altar itself was constructed of wood and overlaid with gold, just as Moshe's altar was made of wood and only afterward overlaid with gold. Yechezkel, who saw no gold plating anywhere in this vision, sees at this stage only the altar as it is made of wood.
Its height was three cubits, and its length two cubits. Notice that the width is not mentioned here. The Malbim explains that presumably the width was also two cubits, since the altar is meant to be square - two cubits by two cubits. It turns out, then, that it was larger than Moshe's altar.
"And its corners were of it, and its length and its walls were wood" - regarding Moshe's altar, the Torah enumerated the top, the walls, and the horns. Here, "corners" (*miktzo'ot*) are mentioned, and a *miktzoa* refers to an angle and a horn, as in the phrase "the northwestern corner" and "for the corners" in the Mishkan. He saw that it had horns at its corners; "and its length" refers to the roof, where the length is measured, which was made of wood; "and its walls," where the height is measured, were also wood.
Let us reflect: of the vessels of the Mikdash, he was shown nothing else. In the very place where the Golden Altar stands, the Menorah and the Table of the Showbread also stand, yet neither of them was shown to him. Why? Malbim explains: He was shown only that which ceased during the time of the destruction and is destined to return when the Temple is rebuilt. And what ceased during the destruction? Only the altar. In the time of the destruction we have no altar, but when the Temple is rebuilt - "Then You will desire the sacrifices of righteousness," and then we will offer burnt offerings and whole offerings upon His altar.
Now, you might ask: do we have a Menorah today? Even if it lies somewhere in the Vatican, does that mean we possess it? Malbim explains: The physical Menorah and the physical Table we do not possess, but we do have the spiritual realities to which they point. The Menorah signifies the light of Hashem, and the Table signifies the abundance of sustenance flowing from Him, blessed be He - the Table alludes to material sustenance, the livelihood that the Holy One, blessed be He, provides. And this, the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows even in our own time. Look at the last of the prophets, Zechariah, who sees a menorah entirely of gold with a bowl upon its top - hinting that even in our times, Hashem's light flows constantly upon the seven branches of Atzilut, meaning upon the seven sefirot emanated from Him, blessed be He, as we learned there in Malbim's commentary.
From this, the difficulty in the verse is resolved: He shows him an altar, yet says, "This is the table that is before Hashem"? But an altar is not a table, and had He shown him a table, the text should have said, "and He showed him the table." Rather, He did not show him the Table at all. He told him: This is the table that is before Hashem, which stands perpetually - I do not need to show it to you. The Table is continuous; divine abundance descends and constantly provides food and sustenance to all who dwell on earth. All creatures of flesh, says Malbim, eat perpetually at the King's table and are sated by His goodness. Therefore, it is not counted among the concealed vessels destined to be rebuilt in the Mikdash, for it stands and endures, as it were, On High. Only the altar requires rebuilding, because it ceased, so to speak, and must be re-established anew.
We also learn from here that the dimensions and size of the Table correspond to the dimensions of the Altar. Another reason He showed him the Altar specifically made of unplated wood - unfit for burning the fragrant incense - is that it serves in place of the wooden Table upon which the Showbread stands perpetually before Him. The Altar here fulfills, as it were, the function of the Table, and therefore He showed it to him in the form of a wooden table.
וּשְׁתַּיִם דְּלָתוֹת לַהֵיכָל וְלַקֹּדֶשׁ׃ - And the Heichal and the Holy Place had two doors.
The entrance to the Heichal and the entrance to the Holy of Holies each had two doors: one door on the inside and one door on the outside. And now the text speaks of the Heichal.
וּשְׁתַּיִם דְּלָתוֹת לַדְּלָתוֹת שְׁתַּיִם מוּסַבּוֹת דְּלָתוֹת שְׁתַּיִם לְדֶלֶת אֶחָת וּשְׁתֵּי דְלָתוֹת לָאַחֶרֶת׃ - And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves: two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.
The doors of the Heichal opened into the entranceway, which is the threshold - the space between the doorposts on the right and on the left. There were two sets of doors: one at the outer side of the entrance and one at the inner side, and what they had in common was that both opened toward the threshold space. Someone entering from the outside opens the doors inward, meaning westward; and someone exiting the Heichal opens them outward - and all of them rested against the area of the threshold.
If the threshold is sufficiently deep, there is no problem. But if it is not deep enough, the doors collide: they cannot rest together along the wall, because the door leaves are long while the threshold is short. Here, the threshold depth was six amot; accordingly, the maximum width of each door leaf would be three amot: three amot for the entering door resting along the wall, and three amot for the inner door opening outward - and then everything fits peacefully, all doors can be open, and there is no issue. We should emphasize: there were four leaves in total, since each set opened with two leaves, one to the right and one to the left.
However, the trouble was that the doorway opening itself was ten amot wide. Thus, each leaf would have to be five amot wide. Do the math: a five-amah leaf opening toward the exit and a five-amah leaf opening toward the entrance - they would collide, overlapping by two amot!
How was this problem solved? They shortened the main leaf section so that each leaf spanned only three amot. But if so, four amot were missing across the middle of the doorway - two amot for each leaf. Therefore, each leaf was constructed of two folding sections, like an accordion door: a section of three amot and a section of two amot. When they wished to open the doors, they folded the two-amah section over the three-amah section and rested the folded door flush against the wall; and someone exiting from the other side did the same. Then both doors rested against the wall side by side without hitting or knocking against one another. And when they closed them, they unfolded again to cover the full ten amot.
And this is what the verse states: "And the doors had two leaves" - each door was composed of two leaves. "Two turning leaves" - "turning" means that each leaf folded onto the other, the two amot folded over the three amot. "Two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other" - so it was on this wing, and so it was on that wing.
The Malbim explains that this follows the view of Rabbi Yehudah in Masechet Tamid. Even though the Rambam rules in accordance with the Sages, in the Future to Come it will be according to Rabbi Yehudah's approach. This is not exactly as it was in the Second Temple, where they were recessed half an amah into the thickness of the entrance, but the principle is similar to the words of Rabbi Yehudah there, and so it will be explained in our context.
וַעֲשׂוּיָה אֲלֵיהֶן אֶל דַּלְתוֹת הַהֵיכָל כְּרוּבִים וְתִמֹרִים כַּאֲשֶׁר עֲשׂוּיִם לַקִּירוֹת וְעָב עֵץ אֶל פְּנֵי הָאוּלָם מֵהַחוּץ׃ - And carved upon them, upon the doors of the Heichal, were cherubim and palm trees, like those made on the walls; and there was thick timber upon the front of the Ulam on the outside.
The verse emphasizes "upon the doors of the Heichal," and the Malbim explains that everything described in the previous verse does not refer to both the Heichal and the Kodesh [HaKodashim] alike, but only to the Heichal, for the entrance to the Kodesh HaKodashim was narrower, measuring only two amot wide. Therefore, the verse emphasizes this so that one should not mistakenly think these details also apply to the doors of the Kodesh HaKodashim.
And upon the doors were fashioned cherubim and palm trees "like those made on the walls": exactly as we saw on the walls - a palm tree between cherub and cherub, with each cherub having two faces: the face of a man toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side.
"And thick timber was upon the front of the Ulam on the outside" - the Ulam had no lintel above, but over the entrance there were thick beams forming a sort of ceiling. As Chazal said: there were five carved beams of oak (amlatra'ot of melon) above the entrance to the Ulam. And what are amlatra'ot? A kind of rectangular beam above the entrance, one atop the other, each longer and protruding further out than the one below it - like an inverted staircase jutting out above the entrance. Just as we see today above ornate entryways, where a decorative molding protrudes ten centimeters, above it another protrudes fifteen, and above that twenty; in ancient times this was crafted from stone, and today from lighter materials. The uppermost of them was thirty amot long, and these beams projected over the entrance from the outside - and this is "and thick timber was upon the front of the Ulam on the outside."
וְחַלּוֹנִים אֲטֻמוֹת וְתִמֹרִים מִפּוֹ וּמִפּוֹ אֶל כִּתְפוֹת הָאוּלָם וְצַלְעוֹת הַבַּיִת וְהָעֻבִּים׃ - And there were narrow windows and palm trees on either side, on the sides of the Ulam, and the side chambers of the House, and the thick beams.
Aside from the windows he saw in the Heichal itself, which were already mentioned above in pasuk 16 - and the windows of the Heichal were higher than fifteen amot, since the side chambers surrounding the Heichal reached up to a height of fifteen amot, so the windows were above them - here he sees additional windows.
"And there were narrow windows and palm trees on either side" - on both sides of each window he saw palm trees, decorative carvings of palm trees. "On the sides of the Ulam" - on the flanks of the entrance, on both sides of the Ulam's doorway from the east; as one enters from east to west, one saw narrow windows and palm trees to the right and to the left.
"And the side chambers of the House" - the chambers surrounding the House on every side also had windows. "And the thick beams" - higher up, near the ceiling, where thick timbers were placed (and for that reason it is called "ubim"), there were also narrow windows. It turns out, explains the Malbim, that there were windows above windows: two tiers of windows, one lower down in the middle section of the Heichal, and the second higher above it, adjacent to the thick wooden beams of the ceiling.
In this section, the prophecy shifts from the dimensions to the paneling and ornamentation, and the central theme throughout is that Yechezkel sees the Temple in the very midst of its construction: the walls are paneled in wood - with wide planks in the flat sections and thin strips of wood (shechif eitz) in the rounded and angled areas - and upon the wood, markings are incised for the gold overlay that has not yet been applied. From the floor to above the entrance, the keruvim and palm trees had already been carved: a keruv with a human face on one side and a young lion's face on the other, with a palm tree between them; and in the Heichal, all the craftsmanship of the walls was completed. The front of the Kodesh appeared to him like a mirror in which he once again saw a semblance of the vision of the Chariot. The Incense Altar appeared to him as bare wood, not yet overlaid, three amot high and two amot by two amot, and of it the verse states, "This is the table that is before Hashem" - to teach that the Shulchan, like the Menorah, did not need to be shown, for the light of Hashem and the abundance of sustenance stand before Him perpetually even during the exile and destruction, and only the altar ceased and required rebuilding. Finally, we learned of the four folding doors that swung back onto the threshold without colliding, of the prominent wooden beams (amlatra'ot) protruding above the entrance of the Ulam, and of the two rows of narrow, framed windows adorned with palm tree motifs around the House.