Avos, chapter five, mishnah five: "Asarah nissim na'asu la'avoseinu b'Beis HaMikdash" - ten miracles were performed for our ancestors in the Beis HaMikdash. These ten miracles took place during the time that the Beis HaMikdash stood, and there are differing opinions as to whether this refers to the first Beis HaMikdash alone or to the second one as well. What is unique about these miracles is that they do not merely reflect the presence of the Shechinah in that place - which brought about many miracles - but rather all of them were performed for the benefit of people, whether those serving in the Beis HaMikdash or those entering its gates. For this reason the mishnah saw fit to record and enumerate them.
The message of this mishnah is not a practical instruction in itself: there is no halachic point here, nor a command given at Har Sinai, but rather a description after the fact of what took place. Nevertheless, reflecting on what the Holy One, blessed is He, did for us, and recognizing the good in the miracles performed for our benefit, is certainly something worthy of being commemorated and remembered. And of course we look forward to the building of the third Beis HaMikdash, where we will merit, with Hashem's help, that these miracles be performed for us once again.
And these are the ten miracles:
"Lo hipilah ishah mereiach besar hakodesh" - no woman ever miscarried from the aroma of the sacrificial meat. Chazal established that when a pregnant woman craves a particular food, this is not a mere whim but evidence of a genuine need, and halachah takes this into account and permits her to eat whatever her soul longs for. However, the meat of a korban is restricted in who may eat it, and a woman for whom the korban was not brought, and who is not from a family of kohanim, may not eat from it.
This could have created a distressing situation: a pregnant woman smells the aroma of roasting meat within the precincts of the Beis HaMikdash, craves it with all her being, and we are unable to give her any - something that could endanger her and her unborn child. In terms of halachah, had this actually happened and her mind was not put at ease, she would have been permitted to eat from the meat of the korbanos because of pikuach nefesh, since we do not endanger life in such a case. But it never came to that.
"V'lo hisriach besar hakodesh me'olam" - the sacrificial meat never became putrid. This miracle relates to two matters. The first is the eimurim placed to be burned on the outer mizbe'ach: it happened that meat was placed there on erev Shabbos and there was not enough time to burn it before Shabbos came in, so it had to remain on the mizbe'ach until after Shabbos. The second is meat that is eaten, such as shelamim, which are eaten for two days and one night. Someone who brought shelamim on Monday morning eats from them all that day, all night and all the following day until sunset - about thirty hours. In Jerusalem, and in the hot summer months, meat left unrefrigerated for such a stretch of time is liable to spoil. Even so, it never became putrid, and here again is a miracle for the benefit of people, so that they would not have to contend with a foul smell or with rotting meat.
"V'lo nir'ah zevuv b'veis hamitbachayim" - no fly was ever seen in the slaughtering area. On the map of the Beis HaMikdash there is a place designated for slaughtering the animals. There they were skinned, the innards were rinsed, and blood was present. It was a slaughterhouse in every sense, and naturally such a place would have attracted flies, and the work there would have become unbearable for the kohen doing the slaughtering. But miraculously, flies were never seen there, and the kohen's work in the slaughtering area was comfortable and pleasant.
"V'lo eira keri l'kohen gadol b'Yom HaKippurim" - a kohen gadol was never disqualified from serving on the morning of Yom Kippur due to keri. The Talmud does discuss other scenarios in which the kohen gadol might have become disqualified and been unable to serve, but this particular matter involved great embarrassment for the kohen gadol, and he was spared that embarrassment entirely.
It is worth noting that Maseches Yoma describes the extensive efforts invested in preventing such an occurrence: they did not let him sleep at night, they kept from him foods that might cause it, and they prepared a standby kohen to serve as a replacement should the need arise. All of this because of the principle that "ein somchin al hanes" - one may not assume in advance that the Holy One, blessed is He, will continue to perform these miracles for us. In practice, it never happened, and this is another kindness that the Holy One, blessed is He, did in order to preserve the dignity of the kohen gadol, and by extension of all of Israel who are bound up with him.
"V'lo kibu geshamim eish shel atzei hama'arachah" - rain never extinguished the fire of the wood arrangement. The outer mizbe'ach is open to the sky, and when rain falls, it falls upon it. The wood and the fire on it were liable to be extinguished, and had the fire gone out, this would have caused delay and inconvenience to the public, since the eimurim of the korban could not be burned and its meat could not be eaten. Even though the fire burned under the open sky, and Jerusalem experienced heavy rains, the rains never extinguished the fire of the ma'arachah.
We find something similar with Eliyahu HaNavi in his confrontation on Har HaCarmel, where he poured water on the mizbe'ach and the fire came down and did its work. Likewise, similar to the miracle of the flies mentioned above, we find with Elisha HaNavi, his disciple, that flies did not come near him, as brought in the Gemara in Berachos, daf 10.
"V'lo nitzchah haruach es amud he'ashan" - the wind never overcame the column of smoke. The smoke that rose from the mizbe'ach went up as a straight column. Had the wind overcome it, the column would have swayed from side to side like a palm tree in the wind. The kohen working there, circling the four corners of the mizbe'ach to place the blood on its horns for a chatas offering, would have found himself inside a cloud of smoke. As anyone who has sat near a bonfire knows, no one wants to sit downwind, since the smoke gets into the eyes and stings. In the Beis HaMikdash this never happened: there was never smoke-filled air in which the kohen had to serve with discomfort to his eyes, his mouth and his throat. The smoke simply rose straight upward.
"V'lo nimtza pesul ba'omer u'vishtei halechem u'v'lechem hapanim" - no disqualification was ever found in the omer, in the two loaves or in the lechem hapanim. These are three things made in the Beis HaMikdash from grain, and in each of them a disqualification would have caused a mishap for which there was no remedy:
The omer: an offering of barley brought on the second day of Pesach, and from that day the counting of the omer begins until Shavuos. On the night preceding the second day, the night after the Seder night, they would go out to harvest the fresh barley grain, and from it the omer offering was prepared. Its offering permits the new grain to be eaten. Since it must be brought specifically on the second day of Pesach, and specifically from barley harvested the night before, any mishap - a disqualification in the kohen, a flaw in the preparation, exposure to tumah, or taking it from an improper place - would have left the public without an omer, for the next day is no longer the second day, and the night before it has already passed. This never happened.
The two loaves: the two loaves were not offered on the mizbe'ach as meal offerings; rather they were two loaves of leavened wheat bread, since no chametz goes up on the mizbe'ach, and they were waved together with the communal shelamim on Shavuos. Their function was to permit the new crop to be used for meal offerings, that is, not for human consumption but for the consumption of the mizbe'ach. The two loaves were never disqualified, for had they been disqualified, new loaves could not have been prepared on Yom Tov.
The lechem hapanim: the twelve loaves that lay on the shulchan in the Kodesh, one of the vessels of the Beis HaMikdash, and which were replaced every Shabbos. Had the lechem hapanim become disqualified, new loaves could not have been placed until the following Shabbos, since one does not bake on Shabbos, and the shulchan would have been left empty - a sad thing for all of Israel. In practice, this never happened.
"Omdim tzefufim u'mishtachavim revachim" - they stood crowded together yet bowed with ample room. When the entire community gathered in the Azarah, on the three festivals or on Yom Kippur, the Azarah was packed to capacity, with room only to stand, the people pressed against one another. But there were times when everyone was required to prostrate themselves, such as on Yom Kippur when the kohen gadol would pronounce the Name of Hashem. Prostration is not merely bending, but lying flat on the floor with arms and legs outstretched, which requires a great deal of space.
Miraculously, there was room for everyone to prostrate themselves, and not only that, but "revachim" - with enough space that each person could say his private requests and prayers without those standing beside him hearing them. Miraculously there was ample room to kneel and prostrate in privacy and in comfort, even though beforehand the place had been packed to capacity.
"V'lo hizik nachash v'akrav b'Yerushalayim me'olam" - never did a snake or scorpion cause harm to a person in Jerusalem. The Rishonim differ as to whether this refers to actual injury or only to death. In any case, snakes and scorpions posed no danger in Jerusalem, even though they are ordinarily dangerous, because of the special protection that the Holy One, blessed is He, granted to those who came there.
"V'lo amar adam l'chaveiro: tzar li hamakom she'alin b'Yerushalayim" - no one ever said to his fellow that the place where he was lodging in Jerusalem was too cramped for him and did not have enough room. Jerusalem is a relatively confined place, and the multitudes of the house of Israel streamed there for the pilgrimage, and one might have supposed that there would not be room for everyone. But Eretz Yisrael is "eretz hatzvi," a land that expands according to the needs of its inhabitants. There was room enough for everyone, not only at the time of the prostration but throughout their entire stay in Jerusalem. No one felt crowded, and this too is an important matter for the atmosphere, for the sense of majesty and splendor in standing in Jerusalem, and for the joy of it. That joy was meant to be not only spiritual joy but physical joy as well, and in practice people stayed in their lodgings in comfort.
In summary: these ten miracles were performed for the Jewish people, for their good and for their benefit, and for that reason they were commemorated in this mishnah - so that we should have gratitude to Hashem for what He did, so that we remember these miracles and look forward to their return with the building of the Beis HaMikdash, speedily in our days with Hashem's help.