Sefer Yechezkel, chapter 46. "Thus says Hashem Elokim: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be closed during the six workdays, but on the Shabbat day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new month it shall be opened." What is this gate of the inner court facing east that is to be closed? Which gate are we speaking about here? There is a dispute on this between Rashi and the Malbim. Rashi cites what Chazal taught in Masechet Middot: the gate of the Heichal had two wickets, one on the south and one on the north. The gate of the Heichal was a central gate through which one entered from the Ulam into the Heichal, and the Heichal is the place where the Menorah, the golden altar, and the Shulchan stood, correct? And there, at the entrance to this gate of the Heichal, there was a small gate to its right and a small gate to its left. A southern gate to its right, a northern gate to its left. Regarding the southern gate to its right, the right wicket, the Mishnah in Masechet Middot says that it was to be closed, as it is stated explicitly about it in the received tradition: no one shall enter through it, and it shall be closed. The Malbim, by contrast, explains that here in our chapter we are describing in what manner the Nasi comes to the Beit HaMikdash in order to offer the korbanot, and here he tells us that the gate of the inner court, which is the eastern gate of the Azarat Yisrael, this is in fact the gate through which one enters the Azarah where the stone altar stood upon which all the korbanot were offered, the mizbeach ha'olah as it is called, and this is the gate we are speaking about, and it shall be closed, meaning the entire gate shall be closed. Not as Rashi understands it, that the intent is only the right wicket of the gate of the Heichal. The Malbim says this is not the gate of the Heichal at all; we are speaking of the entrance gate of the Azarah, of the Azarat Yisrael. And the gate is to be entirely closed. And when is it to be closed? The navi tells us: it shall be closed during the six workdays, but on the Shabbat day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new month it shall be opened. This gate of the Azarah, the eastern gate, shall be closed for six days, but on Shabbat and on Rosh Chodesh it shall be opened.
"And the Nasi shall come by way of the Ulam of the gate from outside, and shall stand at the doorpost of the gate, and the Kohanim shall prepare his olah and his shelamim, and he shall bow at the threshold of the gate and go out, and the gate shall not be closed until the evening." When the Nasi comes to be present over the dedication offerings, for Chazal say that any korban a person brings, he must be present over it, when the Nasi comes there to be present over the dedication offerings, he shall come by way of the Ulam of the gate from outside, and at the inner gate, says the Malbim, the Ulam was on the outside. What does this mean? We have a gate and it has an Ulam. We already explained in the previous chapters that the Ulam was the entrance to the gate, meaning a large covered area. This is called an Ulam, like a vestibule to the gate. So when we speak of the inner gate, the Ulam was on the outside. He would come from the outer court by way of the Ulam of the eastern gate, and we saw above that when he would come to the gate of the outer court to eat bread, he would also come to the Ulam of the gate, but there the Ulam was on the inside. So there he did not come from outside, because the gate of the outer court, meaning the general court, which in the Second Beit HaMikdash was the Azarat Nashim, this gate of the outer court was a gate that was permanently closed. So how did one enter the Beit HaMikdash at all if the outer gate was entirely closed? Well, we saw that there was a gate on the south and a gate on the north, and through those one entered. And when the Kohen wished to eat, we saw above that he ate under the roof of the gate, but he entered after coming in from the south or the north, entering the vestibule of the gate from the inside, and there he ate. Says the Malbim, here to the inner gate he comes from outside. How? He comes from in front of the cells, stands at the doorpost of the gate, and bows. How does he come? They open the gate specially for him. And that is what is told to us here: "And the Nasi shall come by way of the Ulam of the gate from outside, and shall stand at the doorpost of the gate, and the Kohanim shall prepare his olah and his shelamim, and he shall bow at the threshold of the gate and go out." And then, once they opened the gate for the Nasi's sake, the gate shall not be closed until the evening. The gate that stood there in the Azarat Yisrael shall remain open until the evening. And the purpose is:
"And the people of the land shall bow at the entrance of that gate on the Shabbatot and on the new months before Hashem." Since on the Shabbatot and on the new months they come to appear before Hashem, therefore "it shall be that every new month and every Shabbat all flesh shall come to bow before Hashem," and so the gate shall be open throughout the entire day.
"And the olah that the Nasi shall offer to Hashem on the Shabbat day: six unblemished lambs and an unblemished ram." As we said, the Nasi would come, and they would open the gate specially for him on the Shabbatot and on the new months, and then the people would enter, and they would leave it open for them, and the Nasi would then offer a korban, an olah. Now he returns to the dedication offerings that we discussed in the previous chapter, which are korbanot unique to the dedication of the Beit HaMikdash. And the olah that he offers on the Shabbat day, on all the Shabbatot, we are speaking about all the Shabbatot of the 190 days, from Pesach, as we discussed in the previous chapter, until the end of Sukkot. On all these Shabbatot he would offer a unique korban, and the korban would be six unblemished lambs and an unblemished ram. And this, as we explained above, is besides the fixed korbanot mentioned in the Torah that must be offered every Shabbat. "And a minchah of an eifah for the ram, and for the lambs a minchah as the gift of his hand, and oil, a hin for an eifah." A minchah of an eifah for the ram, thus was established the ram's minchah for all the days of dedication, and for the lambs he would give a minchah as the gift of his hand. For the lambs he would give a sixth of an eifah for each lamb, which is the measure of terumah that they would give to the Nasi from the grain. So this is the gift of his hand, what they would give, and now he would give it as a korban. And this terumah, a sixth of an eifah from the heap of wheat, we saw this in the previous chapter. And this measure that is given to his hand as terumah, this is the measure of the lamb's minchah, which is why it is called the gift of his hand. He also stated explicitly that the lamb's minchah is a sixth of an eifah, as we shall see in verse 14, and in verse 7 he says "as his hand can attain," as we explained that the intent is to what the people would bring.
"And on the day of the new month: a young bull, unblemished ones, and six lambs and a ram, they shall be unblemished." "And on the day of the new month a young bull, unblemished ones," there is a difficulty here. A young bull is one, "unblemished ones" is plural. It should say a young unblemished bull. What is "a young bull, unblemished ones"? The Malbim says there is a derashah of Chazal here. Let us see: Rashi cites the derashah of Chazal. This verse our Sages expounded in Menachot. "A bull" - what does it teach us? Since it is stated in the Torah, "and on your new months, two young bulls," whence do we know that if one did not find two, he should bring one? One might have thought that if there are not two, do not bring anything at all. No, say Chazal, it is written here "a young bull, unblemished ones." It tells you that if there is one, bring even one. "And six lambs" - what does it teach us? Since it is stated in the Torah "seven." In the Torah it is written that on Shabbat one must offer seven lambs. Whence do we know that if he did not find seven, he should bring six? How do you know that even six suffice? From what is written by us: "and six lambs." And whence even one? Scripture teaches: "and for the lambs as his hand can attain." As for the lambs, even if you do not have six, as his hand can attain. If he attained one, he should bring even one. The Radak gives another possibility. Says the Radak, what is "a young bull, unblemished ones"? He said "bull" in the singular and "unblemished" in the plural; some explain that the bull and its mother are to be unblemished. And this, says the Radak, is a novelty that was required only then for the dedication of the Beit HaMikdash, for ordinarily we never seek to check that its mother too is free of blemish; only the korban ascending upon the mizbeach must be unblemished. "An eifah for the bull and an eifah for the ram he shall make as a minchah, and for the lambs as his hand can attain, and oil, a hin for an eifah." "An eifah for the bull and an eifah for the ram he shall make as a minchah," as we saw above, "and for the lambs as his hand can attain," that the minchah of the lambs is according to what his hand can attain, as we said, and as Chazal say: "an eifah for the bull and an eifah for the ram," said Rabbi Shimon: is the measure of bulls and rams one and the same? Rather, if he had many bulls but did not have libations for them, he should bring one bull and its libations, and not offer all of them without libations. That is to say, we do not say bring many bulls, and for what do you have libations? For one? Then bring libations for one, and for the rest not. No. As much as you have libations, according to that bring bulls. If you have libations for one bull, bring only one bull. If you have for all seven, bring all seven. Since the libations are indispensable. This is another derashah that Chazal expound, as we saw above, another derashah as the Radak cites here. And if he had many rams but did not have an eifah for them, he should bring a ram and its eifah. And he should not say, I will bring all of them even without an eifah. No, say Chazal, as many eifot as you have, according to that bring rams.
"And when the Nasi comes, by way of the Ulam of the gate he shall come, and by its way he shall go out." When the Nasi would come inside to the Azarah, he need not circle around and go out through a different gate as the people did; rather he goes out by way of the Ulam of the gate through which he came. So he comes by way of the eastern gate and goes out by way of the eastern gate. Says Rashi, he is not commanded to make the Azarah a shortcut. The people were commanded to make the Azarah a shortcut, meaning to enter from one place and exit from another. The Nasi, by contrast, no; from the same point that he enters, from that same point he exits. And what is the true explanation of this? "And when the people of the land come before Hashem at the appointed times, whoever comes by way of the north gate to bow shall go out by way of the south gate, and whoever comes by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate; he shall not return by way of the gate through which he came, for straight ahead he shall go out." When the people came before Hashem at the appointed times, whoever came from the northern gate to bow goes out by way of the southern gate. Whoever came by way of the southern gate goes out by way of the northern gate. He shall not return by way of the gate through which he came. By way of the gate through which he arrived, from that gate he would not go out. But by contrast the Nasi, by way of the same gate through which he arrived, the eastern one, by way of that same gate he would go out. Says the Malbim, from this you see that through the eastern gate they had no permission at all to enter and exit. Even though we saw above that "on the Shabbat day it shall be opened," and even though we saw above in verse 3, "and they shall bow at the entrance of that gate on the Shabbatot and on the new months before Hashem," when the Nasi comes and enters through the gate, the eastern gate is opened specially for him; the people of the land bow at that gate. Do not mistakenly think that they bow at that gate and also enter. No. Only the Nasi enters through the eastern gate. They stand at the entrance of the gate and bow, but they have no permission to enter into it. As we have just read, that the people of the land enter and come by way of the north gate, and go out through the south. They enter through one gate and go out through the opposite gate. But the eastern gate would be opened specially for the Nasi; they could stand there and bow, but in no way could they enter through there.
"And the Nasi in their midst, when they come he shall come, and when they go out they shall go out." The Nasi in their midst: when the Nasi comes among the people, this means he arrives together with the people, and then he must conduct himself, says the Malbim, like the people, entering by way of the south or north gate and going out through the opposite gate, and this is in honor of the people. Since you are together with the people, conduct yourself like them. They enter from the north and go out through the south, or enter from the south and go out through the north, so you too shall conduct yourself like them, for you are now coming together with the people. When you are alone, as we said, you shall enter by way of the eastern gate. But when you are together with the people, you shall enter by way of the north gate and go out by way of the south gate. For what we said, that the Nasi goes out by way of the gate through which he came, the intent is the Nasi when he is unique, entering from one gate and going out from that same gate, not needing to go out through a different gate, says the Malbim, this is only when he comes alone. When he comes with the people, then the law is that he goes out from the place where they go out and enters from the place where they enter. And the Radak adds and says, and it is his honor and his glory to come with them and to go out with them. According to the Malbim it is implied that this is in order not to deviate from the conduct of the people. According to the Radak, by contrast, it is implied that this is the very honor of the Nasi, that he does not come by himself; his honor and glory is that he comes with a great multitude accompanying him, and therefore when he comes in their midst, "when they come he shall come, and when they go out they shall go out," he goes and exits as they come and go out. What must be understood here: it is written "when they come he shall come, and when they go out they shall go out," it does not say "and he shall go out," but "they shall go out." This is not understood. If "when they come he shall come," then "when they go out he shall go out." How does it become plural? The Malbim explains: the law is that the Nasi enters first and goes out last. And therefore when we speak of the coming, I say "when they come he shall come." Who comes first? He comes first, he is at the front. But when we speak of the going out, he does not go out first; they go out first, therefore he says "and when they go out they shall go out." First they go out, and only afterward the Nasi goes out. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz in Sichot Mussar has a very, very famous idea, essay 16 of the year 5731, an idea in which he speaks of the damage of the slumber of habit. How bad and terrible is the state in which a person becomes accustomed to everything, and part of this is also becoming accustomed in the service of Hashem, and then a person performs his act as some fixed routine action without heart, without thought, without contemplation. And the message he learns from these verses is a very powerful one. Says Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, contemplate: by us it is written that the people of the land would come, coming by way of the north gate and going out by way of the south gate, those coming by way of the south gate going out by way of the north gate, he shall not return by way of the gate through which he came, for straight ahead he shall go out. Why? What is the true reason? Says the Yaavetz in his commentary on Masechet Avot: because Hashem was insistent that one not see the gate twice, lest it become in his eyes equal to the gate of his house and the walls of the House equal to his own walls. Do you hear? Says the Yaavetz, you enter through one place and go out through that same place; ah, I've already grown accustomed, ah, this is what I know, I've already entered here, I've already seen this once. The moment you already recognize it, the moment you've grown accustomed, automatically the intensity drops, automatically you are no longer moved, you have no enthusiasm. It tells you no, you entered through one gate; says the Yaavetz, go out through the second gate, for Hashem was insistent that one not see the gate twice, lest it become in his eyes equal to the gate of his house and the walls equal to the walls of his house. When a person sees something for the first time he is moved, but afterward he loses the enthusiasm, and the Torah wished to prevent this, that in the House of Elokim you should walk with feeling, that you walk with emotion and not lose that enthusiasm. Says the Yaavetz, says Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, be precise: all this applies only to the people of the land, since their first enthusiasm is a momentary enthusiasm and afterward it fades. But the Nasi, and here we are speaking about the King Mashiach, we are speaking about someone who is elevated above the people, we are already speaking of the Third Beit HaMikdash, his perception is from the intellect, not from the imagination. His emotion is not a momentary emotional feeling of the heart, but rather an emotion of contemplation, of thought, it is from the intellect. And the more he continues steadily, the greater his appreciation and love grow. So he goes out through the same gate he entered, since with his perception not only does it not harm him, it even adds to him. For him it is an intellectual perception, and in intellectual perception the additional contemplation is an additional deepening, an addition of emotion and thought and intention in going to the House of Hashem. All this, however, note well, is only when the Nasi walks alone. But when the Nasi is in their midst, as we said, then "when they come he shall come, and when they go out they shall go out." When the Nasi walks with the people, he walks together with them through the same gate through which they enter, so he enters from the north and goes out from the south, enters from the south and goes out from the north. And why? So as not to deviate from the community, as the Malbim explained to us, meaning even if in your perceptions you are elevated above the people, but when you are together with the community, then conduct yourself together with the community. And indeed among many of the great ones we have seen this practice, that all their stringencies and their scrupulous practices and their fine points they carried out when they were among themselves. But when they were together with the community, then "among my people I dwell," they conducted themselves like everyone else so as not to appear as though they have special stringencies and not to appear as though they are haughty above them, so what everyone did, they would do like everyone. Even though it may be that for himself he would not eat this, for example, since he has some special stringencies, not speaking of matters of kashrut but of stringencies, special scrupulous practices, but here, since it would be perceived as if I am separating from them, as if I am haughty above them, he would not do so. So then, as we said, in honor of the people he would not deviate from the conduct of the community. And from here, says Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, there is a tremendous and great message that we must learn, that if a person does not arouse himself, a person must understand that his enthusiasm will fade from anything holy, from anything holy. And therefore a person must continually learn mussar, continually strengthen himself, continually review the halachot of each and every matter, because if a person does not arouse himself, naturally everything fades, the emotion drops, the enthusiasm dissipates, and then the person returns to his former state, and the person will suddenly see himself deteriorating without having noticed. It is said, "who shall ascend the mountain of Hashem and who shall stand in His holy place"; it is said that the way of ascending the mountain of Hashem, they compared it to a person riding a bicycle. Whoever rides a bicycle knows that if for one moment you stop pedaling, you slide backward. Today, unfortunately, the public does not know this secret, since everyone has electric bicycles, but it tells you, sir, understand, when you are not acting, when you are not exerting force, you necessarily go down. And therefore says the Rav, a person must always arouse himself, for if not, habit will lull the feeling to sleep, and thereby he will deteriorate spiritually.
"And on the festivals and on the appointed times the minchah shall be an eifah for the bull and an eifah for the ram, and for the lambs the gift of his hand, and oil, a hin for an eifah." So first of all, there is a difficulty here that we already addressed above: "on the festivals and on the appointed times," what is a festival and what is an appointed time? The Radak resolves it and says that all the festivals are called appointed times, as we saw "these are the appointed times of Hashem," and what are they? Really there it refers to the festivals. So why then did he double and say "the festivals and the appointed times"? Says the Radak, because there is a festival that is not an appointed time, such as the dedication of the House that King Shlomo made; it is written "he made the festival for seven days." And what is a festival? It is a rejoicing where a person eats and drinks; that is called a festival. Behold, you see he called this a festival, since they ate and drank and celebrated. Even though it was not one of the festivals known to us. An appointed time too, says the Rav, there is also an appointed time that is not a festival. Just as there is a festival that is not an appointed time, there is an appointed time that is not a festival. As it is written "for signs and for appointed times," or as it is written "at the appointed time I will return to you at this time of life"; whenever a person sets a meeting with his fellow it is called an appointed time, he set a time for him, he called upon me a meeting. Therefore he said "on the festivals and on the appointed times," whether it is a festival without an appointed time, or an appointed time without a festival. The Malbim, by contrast, already above explained to us that by "the festivals" we are speaking of the festival of Shavuot, on which he would bring shalmei chagigah, and "the appointed times" are Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, since on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur there was no matter of shalmei chagigah, and being so they are called "the appointed times." And the korban we are speaking about here, this was the korban they would offer at the end of the days of dedication, as we discussed above, the 190 days during which they dedicated the Beit HaMikdash, which were the days from Pesach until Sukkot. So the korban is the korban unique to these days of dedication. The minchah shall be an eifah for the bull; he brings one bull as on Rosh Chodesh, brings also an eifah and a minchah, brings one ram and an eifah and a minchah, and also for the lambs the gift of his hand, meaning as he wishes, as the gift of his hand. And he brings six lambs as he brings on Rosh Chodesh, and a sixth of an eifah for each lamb as we saw above. Says the Malbim, he left the number of korbanot unspecified because we know that Rosh Chodesh is also there, that Rosh HaShanah is also a Rosh Chodesh, and therefore it is no less than Rosh Chodesh. "And when the Nasi makes a freewill offering, an olah or shelamim as a freewill offering to Hashem, one shall open for him the gate that faces east, and he shall make his olah and his shelamim as he does on the Shabbat day, and he shall go out, and one shall close the gate after his going out." Now he begins to explain the matter of the Nasi's conduct on weekdays, and he says that although on weekdays the inner gate, as we saw, was closed, if the Nasi makes an olah or shelamim or a freewill offering, they would open the gate for him even on weekdays. In honor of the Nasi they open the gate. Only then they would not leave it open all day as on the Shabbatot and appointed times; rather, when he would go out they would immediately close it after him. "And one shall open for him the gate that faces east, and he shall make his olah and his shelamim as he does on the Shabbat day, and he shall go out, and one shall close the gate after his going out." As soon as he would go out they would close it. This was on weekdays, but on the Shabbatot and appointed times they would open it and leave it open. And on weekdays, as we saw, the people do not come to bow as on Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh, so there was no need to leave the gate open; the people did not enter there. But we said he would come up to the gate and bow there and afterward enter by way of the north or south. "And a lamb in its first year, unblemished, you shall make as an olah each day to Hashem; morning by morning you shall make it." Now he explains to us the law of dedication, meaning the korbanot unique to the time of the dedication of the Mikdash on weekdays. First he explained what they would do on the festivals and appointed times; now he explains what they do daily. Each day he would offer a lamb as an olah, and again this is besides the lambs of the tamid, which was a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the afternoon. The olah of dedication was not in the afternoon, it was only in the morning. And this is the explanation for why there is only a korban in the morning, since the tamid is also in the afternoon. We are not speaking here of the fixed tamid. We are speaking of a korban unique to the time of the dedication of the Mikdash. "And a minchah you shall make upon it morning by morning, a sixth of an eifah, and oil, a third of a hin, to moisten the fine flour, a minchah to Hashem, an everlasting statute continually." "And a minchah you shall make upon it, a sixth of an eifah," this is the measure of the lamb's minchah that they would offer in the days of dedication over the 190 days as we mentioned on weekdays, "and oil, a third of a hin." Even though by the calculation it seemingly should have been a sixth of a hin of oil, for the calculation, as we said, is a hin for an eifah, so a sixth of a hin for a sixth of an eifah. Why here does he tell me to bring a third of a hin, which is in fact a doubled amount? The reason is immediately as he explains: to moisten the fine flour. "To moisten the fine flour" means to soften the fine flour. The Malbim explains that "to moisten" means there should be much oil in order to sprinkle upon the fine flour, that "to moisten" is like "drops of night," which are drops flowing upon the fine flour. Rashi, by contrast, explains that "to moisten" means to stir and blend the fine flour, which is also according to the same idea of a drop, but according to how the Malbim explains, the "drop" refers to the oil. The drops of oil were made abundant, this being "to moisten the fine flour," abundant oil in order to soften the fine flour. Rashi, by contrast, explains that "to moisten" is to stir and blend the fragments of the fine flour, that is to say the fine flour sometimes has fragments, meaning small clumps, and with the oil they would blend the fine flour more. "A minchah to Hashem, an everlasting statute continually." All that we explained until now is only for the mitzvah of the dedication minchah, and this is only for the time and not forever. But besides this he says, know that they must also bring a minchah to Hashem as an everlasting statute continually. And what is the minchah to Hashem as an everlasting statute continually? "They shall make the lamb and the minchah and the oil morning by morning, an olat tamid." He tells you the offering of the tamid shall not be nullified by the lamb they bring for dedication, for in any case they make the lamb, meaning the lamb of the tamid, and the minchah and the oil, according to the fixed mitzvah written in the Torah of the mitzvah of the tamid, which is a tenth of an eifah of fine flour for the minchah, blended with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil, morning by morning, an olat tamid. The olat tamid is fixed every morning, and all the more so, says the Malbim, that the tamid of the afternoon shall not be nullified, since we stated explicitly that all that we have commanded until now is for the purpose of the dedication of the Mishkan, so the fixed korbanot remain in their fixedness.
"Thus says Hashem Elokim: When the Nasi gives a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance; it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance." Now the navi continues and says, what will be when the Nasi, for if you remember we saw that they divided the Land of Israel into 13 strips, and one whole strip, like the measure of a tribe, was the portion of the Nasi, and although the Mikdash was there in the middle, on both sides we saw that this strip is the strip of the Nasi, so he received what is called a very great room to maneuver, he received a very, very large tract of land. If he wishes to give some gift to any of his sons, says the navi, it is his inheritance; it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. The meaning is that there is a certain law of inheritance whereby it does not return at the Yovel. That is to say, if this were a gift, I would say that it should return at the Yovel. But he tells you no, one of his sons who received this, it remains with him; we do not say that at the Yovel return it, divide it equally among the rest of the brothers, that it should return at the Yovel. It shall not be so. Says the navi, it is his inheritance; it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance, since it is an inheritance, it is a bequest, and therefore it does not return at the Yovel. "And when he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of release, and it shall return to the Nasi; only his inheritance shall belong to his sons." By contrast, if the Nasi decided to give an inheritance to his servants, not to his sons, here the inheritance does return at the Yovel. When the year of Yovel arrives, that inheritance which the Nasi gave from his portion to his servant, "his servant" meaning one of the people, not intending specifically a Canaanite or Hebrew slave, but rather "one of his servants" means one of the people, if he gives him an inheritance, it returns at the Yovel to the Nasi. And then it turns out that "only his inheritance shall belong to his sons." Only the inheritance of his sons shall belong to them and shall not go to strangers. By contrast, the rest of the inheritance that he gave as a gift to his servants shall return back to the Nasi and be given to his sons. This is what he says, the inheritance shall belong to his sons forever. And there is a dispute, says the Malbim, whether there is the law of a sale that returns at the Yovel or not. And according to the one who says that a gift does not return at the Yovel but remains forever, he innovates here a law regarding the Nasi and tells me, know that regarding the Nasi it does return. Even though a gift may perhaps not return at the Yovel according to a certain opinion, here the navi innovates that it does return to the Nasi. And why in fact does it return to him? Perhaps before we explain this, let us just explain the wording here: "it shall be his until the year of release," the release (dror) meaning the Yovel, for then they proclaim freedom (dror) to slaves, "and it shall return (v'shavat) to the Nasi," "v'shavat la'nasi" is like "v'shavah la'nasi," this is the intent of "and it shall return to the Nasi." "And the Nasi shall not take from the inheritance of the people to oppress them out of their possession; from his own possession he shall bequeath to his sons, so that My people shall not be scattered, each man from his possession." Here the navi gives us the reason, explains to us, what is the reason that we give the Nasi such a special privilege, that even gifts he gives return to him at the Yovel? So that the Nasi shall not take from the inheritance of the people. Because if his gifts were such that they would not return to him but would belong to the people, what would happen is that the Nasi, when he wishes to bequeath to his sons, would go and take from the inheritance of the people in order to bequeath to his sons. For the Nasi has unlimited power. So he would rob the people in order to bequeath to his sons. In fact we already saw above in chapter 45 in verse 8, that the reason they gave him such a large inheritance was so that he would not need to conduct himself like the ancient kings who went and oppressed the people and took from them their inheritance. You will not need to conduct yourself so; they gave you an inheritance in which there is more than enough. Such a large inheritance, almost like a whole tribe receives, so that you would not need to go and rob the people. For that very same reason, also, if you gave a gift to the people from your inheritance, it returns to you, so that your inheritance remains yours and you would not need to go and rob the people, and it will be yours to bequeath to your sons after you, as we saw above, "so that My people shall not be scattered, each man from his possession." So that the Nasi shall not go and rob the people in order to enlarge his possession, and the people as a result be driven out of their possession, they gave him in advance a large inheritance and gave him an additional privilege, that if he gave it as a gift to someone else, it returns to him at the Yovel, and then he will have what to bequeath to his sons and will not need to rob the people.
"And he brought me through the entrance that was at the side of the gate, to the holy chambers belonging to the Kohanim that face north, and behold, there was a place there at the far ends toward the west." "And he brought me through the entrance," the Malbim explains, until now he had been standing in the Azarat Yisrael by the northern gate, as we saw above in chapter 44 verse 4. Now he goes out from the north gate and comes to the path that runs at the side of the gate, the intent being the path of 10 amot, the place where they would pass from east to west by way of the chamber of the 50. They would pass through the chamber of the 50; there was a place that was 10 amot. We saw that there was the path of the fence of the court, to the path of 10 amot that was before the chamber of the 20. For the chamber of the 20 we explained that this was the place that was closer to the Heichal and to the Ulam and to the Kodesh HaKodashim, and it passed, it had there a path of 10 amot, which are the holy chambers that were sanctified with the sanctity of the Azarah, and there he sees that in the chamber of the 20 on the western side, the western side being the side that is more toward the Kodesh HaKodashim and beyond, the more western side of the Beit HaMikdash, there he sees that there is a place prepared to cook there, a place they prepared in order to cook, and we shall soon see for what. "And he said to me: This is the place where the Kohanim shall cook the asham and the chatat, where they shall bake the minchah, so as not to bring it out to the outer court, to sanctify the people." He tells him, this place is a special place so that there they shall cook the shelamim in the smoke-courts. What are the smoke-courts? We already saw above that if we look at the diagram of the Beit HaMikdash, then in the four corners of the Azarah there were courts that were called smoke-courts. Shortly we shall understand why they were given this name, but in these four corners there were smoke-courts that were rectangular, and there in this place, he tells him, there they would cook the shelamim, and they were in the outer court in the corners, and there this place was not sanctified with the sanctity of the Azarah. And he shows him that for the cooking of the kodshei kodashim there is a special place in a sanctified spot so that one would not need to bring it out to the outer court in order to sanctify the people. The meaning is that all the korbanot that needed to be cooked they would cook in the smoke-courts. But by contrast, when we speak of the cooking of the kodshei kodashim, which are the most holy, meaning the asham, the chatat, the asham and chatat are kodshei kodashim, they are not kodashim kalim, they are not shelamim, they are not firstborn, correct? These are kodshei kodashim. The kodshei kodashim had a special place to cook them, and not in the smoke-courts, which is a place that does not have the level of sanctity required for the kodshei kodashim; it is not sanctified with the sanctity of the Azarah, since we are speaking of the outer court, we are speaking of a place that is the Azarat Nashim; it is not the sanctity of the Azarah of the Azarat HaKohanim. And why in fact was there a special place where they would cook the kodshei kodashim? This he says: "so as not to bring it out to the outer court, to sanctify the people." So that one would not bring the kodshei kodashim out to the outer court and sanctify the people, as we explained above, that as it were the sanctity would take effect off the kodshei kodashim and pass to the people, to the mundane, as if their sanctity would be desecrated, so he did not want the sanctity of the kodshei kodashim to be desecrated, and therefore he showed him a unique place where they would be truly in the holy area, where they would cook the asham and the chatat.
"And he brought me out to the outer court and led me past the four corners of the court, and behold, in each corner of the court there was a court." There he brings me out to the outer court, and then I see that in each corner, "corner" meaning angle, I see that in each corner there is a court. What is this court? This court is the smoke-courts as I mentioned earlier, which were in the four corners of the outer court, and now he will explain to us what their purpose was. "In the four corners of the court there were smoke-courts, forty long and thirty wide, one measure for the four of them, made in the corners." In the four corners of the court, in the four corners of the court from within, there were smoke-courts. What are "smoke-courts" (keturot)? Says the Malbim, from the term ketoret, a term of smoke, the vapor. What is the matter of the smoke? These courts were without a roof, and therefore he calls them courts too, it is not a chamber, it is a court. What does this mean? It was only fenced in, but it had no roof, since these places were places of cooking and the smoke needed to rise and go out, and being so it was without a roof. Their size was 40 long, note well, says the Malbim, the length was from east to west, and the width from north to south. Since the width was narrower, this was 30 wide. Says the Malbim, if you divide it otherwise and wish to claim that the length, excuse me, was from south to north, then you run into a problem, since you run into the place where the chamber was, the chamber of the hundred. And you already enter into the chamber of the hundred. Therefore we must say that this place was elongated, and its length was from west to east, this was the 40 amot, and the 30 amot was from north to south, and then it does not collide with the chamber of the hundred that was at its side. "And a row surrounding them, surrounding the four of them, and cooking places made beneath the rows all around." There were rows of stones that projected around the wall, and this was made as cooking hearths, a place where one sets pots, meaning places the pot for cooking. And beneath them cooking places, meaning a place of cooking, a place to kindle the fire in order to cook, made beneath the rows all around, yes, beneath the rows as we said, like the row of the rows of stones. "And he said to me: These are the houses of the cooks, where the servants of the House shall cook the sacrifice of the people." These are the houses of the cooks where they would cook shelamim, the todah, the breast and the thigh, all these things that are eaten by the Kohanim and are eaten in any place, so there is no obstacle to cooking them there. But by contrast, for the kodshei kodashim we saw that there was a unique place that was within the Azarah of the holy area, where they would cook the kodshei kodashim, since they are of a higher level of sanctity and they did not wish to bring them out to the outer court, to the Azarat Nashim.