Middos, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1. Masechet Middot is the tractate of measurements: it walks us through the layout of the Beit Hamikdash, gate by gate, chamber by chamber, courtyard by courtyard. Before the Mishnah gives us a single measurement, however, it opens with the people who stood inside those walls through the night, and with the three places where the kohanim kept watch.
The Mitzvah of Building a Sanctuary for Hashem
Am Yisrael received an obligation from the Torah to construct a dwelling place for the Shechinah: "Ve'asu li mikdash v'shachanti betocham," build for Me a sanctuary, and I will rest My presence in your midst. That is a mitzvat aseh, an active obligation to raise up a structure in which the korbanot would be brought, in which the avodah of Hashem in its entirety would take place, and to which the nation would ascend three times each year for the regalim: Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.
A permanent House in Yerushalayim came only later. For centuries the nation served Hashem in the Mishkan, a portable sanctuary that was pitched in one place and then another: fourteen years at Gilgal, three hundred and sixty nine years at Shiloh, and fifty seven years divided between Nov and Giv'on. Only when Shlomo Hamelech began construction on Har Habayit did the House of Hashem receive a fixed address, and from that point forward no other site in the world was fit to hold it.
After four hundred and ten years of service in that Beit Hamikdash, Nevuchadnezzar and the empire of Bavel destroyed it on Tisha B'Av.
The Second Beit Hamikdash and the Vision of Yechezkel
During the exile, Yechezkel Hanavi was shown a vision of the future Temple, a structure that was to differ from the one Shlomo had built. When Bnei Yisrael returned to the land, they attempted to build according to that vision, but the instructions proved too difficult for them to fully grasp. In the end they built along the lines of Shlomo Hamelech's original plan, essentially like the first Beit Hamikdash, while incorporating a number of changes drawn from Yechezkel. It is the layout of this second Beit Hamikdash that Masechet Middot describes.
The building went up in the year 3408. Roughly three centuries later, in 3741, Herod launched a sweeping reconstruction that left the Mikdash substantially remodeled, and the commentators disagree over whether the measurements in our masechet reflect the earlier structure or Herod's. That second Beit Hamikdash served Am Yisrael for four hundred and twenty years. In the year 70 of the common era, on Tisha B'Av, the Romans brought it down.
Millennia have gone by since then, yet no day passes, and no tefillah is recited, without Am Yisrael pleading before Hashem to bring us home to Yerushalayim and to let our eyes behold the Shechinah dwelling once more in His House.
Why We Learn This Masechet
The Rambam gives a straightforward reason for studying the entire masechet: the blueprint of the Mikdash, its dimensions and its proportions, must remain preserved among us, so that we will know how to construct it when the hour arrives for the third Beit Hamikdash, bimheirah b'yameinu, amen.
Rashi and Tosafot understand it otherwise. In their view the third Beit Hamikdash will come down from Shamayim fully formed, and human hands will not build it. On that understanding, learning Middot serves no construction purpose whatsoever; its purpose is desire. Immersing ourselves in the House of Hashem, its courtyards and chambers, its dimensions, and everything that was done inside it, is meant to kindle a craving for it, to move us to repair our conduct and return to Hashem, and to hasten the arrival of Mashiach Tzidkeinu, amen, so that the Mikdash becomes part of our lives again.
Three Places Where the Kohanim Kept Watch
The mishnah opens: "Bishloshah mekomot," in three locations, "hakohanim shomrim b'Veit Hamikdash," the kohanim stood watch in the Mikdash. Each night three kohanim, along with twenty one Levi'im, took up their posts. This nightly watch was an obligation from the Torah, and its purpose had nothing to do with guarding against burglars or protecting valuables. It expressed kavod: the House of Hashem was never to sit empty and unwatched, but always to have people stationed and alert within it.
Where were those three kohanim posted? The mishnah supplies the name of each location in turn.
- Beit Avtinas, so named because the family of Avtinas compounded the ketoret in that room. One kohen was stationed there.
- Beit Hanitzotz, named for the spark. This room sat directly above the Gate of the Spark, and the masechet will have more to say about it further on.
- Beit Hamoked, the chamber of the hearth, which was set inside the northern boundary wall of the azarah.
Twenty One Places Where the Levi'im Kept Watch
The mishnah continues: "VehaLevi'im b'esrim v'echad makom." Twenty one further posts were manned by the tribe of Levi, and the mishnah enumerates each one:
- Five stood at the "chamishah sha'arei Har Habayit," the five gateways of Har Habayit.
- Four were placed at "arba pinotav mitocho," the four corners of Har Habayit, standing within the walls rather than beyond them.
- Another five at the "chamishah sha'arei ha'azarah," the gates leading into the courtyard.
- Four more at "arba pinotav mibachutz," the corners of the azarah, though these posts stood on the outer side of the walls.
- One Levi in the "Lishkat HaKorban," one of the small rooms inside Beit Hamoked, where animals designated for korbanot were held.
- One in the "Lishkat HaParochet," a spacious room in which they wove the curtain that screened the Kodesh Kodashim.
- One posted "l'achorei Beit HaKaporet," to the west of the Kodesh Kodashim, behind the room in which the aron and its cover rested.