Introduction: From Preparations to Actual Construction
The chapter before us begins to deal with the actual building of the First Temple. Until now we have read about the preparations, the agreement with Chiram, and the preparation of the materials, and now we see how Shlomo builds the House: what stood at the basis of the design, what it was made of, and what its form, size, and dimensions looked like. Let us first state a great principle that will accompany us throughout all these chapters: every measurement, every pillar, and every chamber is not an architectural matter of comfort or personal taste, but all of them are aligned with the upper worlds and with the Temple above, as David said, "the whole in writing by the hand of Hashem, who instructed me." Were the matter not aligned with what Hashem transmitted, they would not have built the Temple in this way.
The Date: Four Hundred and Eighty Years from the Exodus from Egypt
וַיְהִי בִשְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה לְצֵאת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בַּשָּׁנָה הָרְבִיעִית בְּחֹדֶשׁ זִו הוּא הַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי לִמְלֹךְ שְׁלֹמֹה עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּבֶן הַבַּיִת לַיהֹוָה׃ - And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Shlomo's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he built the House for Hashem.
The Temple was built in the year 480 from the Exodus from Egypt, that is, 440 years after entering the Land. The First Temple stood for 410 years, and if we combine: 440 years of dwelling in the Land until the building, plus 410 years of the Temple's existence, we arrive at the fact that from the entry into the Land until the exile 850 years passed. Now the Torah says "and when you shall have grown old in the land," and afterward harsh things about what might, God forbid, happen to the people of Israel. Say Chazal: "venoshantem" has the numerical value of 852. Had the Holy One, blessed be He, waited another two years, there would, God forbid, have been fulfilled in us what is said there in the continuation, that we be destroyed, God forbid. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He brought the punishment forward by two years, and we were exiled after 850 years and not after 852.
And from here comes a wondrous calculation of the Abarbanel. After the destruction we were seventy years in Bavel, and afterward the Second Temple was built. Let us combine: 410 years of the First Temple's existence plus 70 years of exile, which is 480 years between the First Temple and the Second Temple. And from the Mishkan that Israel built in the wilderness in the year they left Egypt until the building of the First Temple, as detailed here, there also passed 480 years. There were three Temples, and between one Temple and the next exactly 480 years passed. The Abarbanel says that this was aligned by Hashem, for it was fitting that the Temple should ascend from time to time in this way.
"בַּשָּׁנָה הָרְבִיעִית... לִמְלֹךְ שְׁלֹמֹה" - the commentators say that the words "of Shlomo's reign" refer back to "in the fourth year," and the meaning is not that only two months had passed since he reigned, but rather the fourth year of his reign, and then he built the House for Hashem. Chazal explain that the second month is the second month of the fourth year, meaning three years had passed and the fourth year had entered by two months. And what is the month of Ziv? This is the month of Iyar, and it is called so because in it the radiance and beauty of the trees is revealed. And for this reason we make the blessing over the trees in Nisan, for in Nisan the trees blossom and in Iyar they already give forth their radiance. And it is called the second month because Nisan is first, "it shall be the first month of the year to you."
The Dimensions of the House and Their Meaning
וְהַבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר בָּנָה הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה לַיהֹוָה שִׁשִּׁים אַמָּה אׇרְכּוֹ וְעֶשְׂרִים רׇחְבּוֹ וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ׃ - And the House which King Shlomo built for Hashem, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty, and its height thirty cubits.
Sixty cubits its length, about thirty meters; twenty cubits its breadth, about ten meters; and thirty cubits its height, about fifteen meters high. The Malbim notes: in length and breadth the House was exactly double the Mishkan. The Mishkan was thirty cubits in length and here sixty, the Mishkan ten cubits in breadth and here twenty. But the height was triple: the Mishkan's height was ten cubits, and the Temple thirty. And why? Because the number ten alludes to the ten levels of holiness, and as they said that the Shechinah never descended below ten, the Ark being nine and the covering a handbreadth. And in the Temple this was made three times ten, for there are four worlds: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. We stand in the world of Asiyah, and corresponding to the three worlds above us he built thirty cubits.
And the Malbim brings a further calculation: if we multiply length by breadth by height, sixty times twenty times thirty, we obtain 36,000. And every mil is two thousand cubits, so it turns out that the measurement amounts to eighteen mil. And this comes to allude to what Chazal said, that the Temple above is higher than the one below by eighteen mil, and as it is said, "and this is the gate of heaven." The reckoning of the Temple below amounts exactly to the distance between us and the Temple above. And from here we learn regarding all that we will see in the coming chapters, in the measurements, the pillars, the lavers, and the chambers: everything was made with a supernal intention, corresponding to the upper worlds and to the Temple above.
And here we must ask: in our chapter it says that its height was thirty cubits, whereas in Divrei HaYamim it says that its height was one hundred and twenty. Two answers were given regarding this. The first, that there is a difference between the Ulam and the rest of the House, and the Ulam itself was higher. The second, that there is a difference between the House and the upper stories upon it, like a second floor. Thirty cubits were measured from within, whereas from without, including the upper stories and the high chambers, the height reaches one hundred and twenty.
The Ulam
וְהָאוּלָם עַל פְּנֵי הֵיכַל הַבַּיִת עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה אׇרְכּוֹ עַל פְּנֵי רֹחַב הַבָּיִת עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה רׇחְבּוֹ עַל פְּנֵי הַבָּיִת׃ - And the Ulam in front of the Heichal of the House, twenty amot was its length across the width of the House, ten amot its width in front of the House.
The Ulam was made so that its length ran along the width of the House, meaning it was spread across widthwise. And what is the difference between length and width? Rashi explains: wherever the term length is used, it refers to the longer side, and width to the narrower side. Just as a person describing a space of two meters by four says: the length is four meters, the width is two meters. The Beit Hamikdash was rectangular, and the Ulam was spread out within it with its length running along the width of the House.
Windows Wide and Narrow
וַיַּעַשׂ לַבָּיִת חַלּוֹנֵי שְׁקֻפִים אֲטוּמִים׃ - And he made for the House windows wide and narrow.
According to the plain meaning of the text, the windows of the House were made at a slant: narrow on the inside and wide on the outside. Usually one does the opposite, wide on the inside, so that more light will enter. Here they were made wide on the outside and narrow on the inside, to show that the House had no need of light. The Malbim adds: even though from the outside the windows appeared wide, as though needing light, whoever stood inside saw that the light of the Shechinah shone within it and there was no need for additional light. And the Gemara says that the light of the Menorah radiated light to the entire world, meaning that not only did they not need outside light, but the inner light was abundant, more than enough.
The Abarbanel explains differently: the windows were transparent and sealed by means of glass. "Shekufim" is from the language of gazing, as in "and she gazed out through the window and wailed," and when we say today that a window is transparent, we mean that one can look through it from side to side. "Atumim" means that one cannot pass anything out or in through them, because the glass seals them. According to this there is no contradiction at all: transparent because of the transparency of the glass, and sealed because the glass closes them off. And incidentally, regarding the language of gazing: "and Avimelech gazed," and so we find in many places, and they laid down a rule that every instance of gazing in Scripture is for the bad. So too with the pillar of cloud that gazed upon the camp of Egypt, and the Targum renders it "to cast upon them fire and naphtha," to throw fire and naphtha upon them. Already back then Egypt had a matter with naphtha.
The Yatzia, the Ta'im, and the Lulim
וַיִּבֶן עַל קִיר הַבַּיִת יָצִיעַ סָבִיב אֶת קִירוֹת הַבַּיִת סָבִיב לַהֵיכָל וְלַדְּבִיר וַיַּעַשׂ צְלָעוֹת סָבִיב׃ - And he built against the wall of the House a Yatzia all around, against the walls of the House all around, for the Heichal and for the Devir, and he made side chambers all around.
Chazal say it has three names: yatzia, ta, tzela. What was actually done here? The inner part of the House is the Devir and the Heichal, and around it on the outside Shlomo built chambers, also called lulim. These were chambers into which one could enter and place objects, and they were built in three stories, attached and adjoined to the outer part of the Heichal and the Devir. The form was this: the wall grew narrower at each story, and upon the ledge that was thereby formed they laid beams and built a story, then again laid beams and built another story. On the inside they were closed off by the stone wall. In these chambers they placed the vessels and the things the Kohanim needed, and there were openings from chamber to chamber to pass inward, as well as passageways to ascend from story to story.
הַיָּצִיעַ הַתַּחְתֹּנָה חָמֵשׁ בָּאַמָּה רׇחְבָּהּ וְהַתִּיכֹנָה שֵׁשׁ בָּאַמָּה רׇחְבָּהּ וְהַשְּׁלִישִׁית שֶׁבַע בָּאַמָּה רׇחְבָּהּ כִּי מִגְרָעוֹת נָתַן לַבַּיִת סָבִיב חוּצָה לְבִלְתִּי אֲחֹז בְּקִירוֹת הַבָּיִת׃ - The lowest Yatzia was five amot in its width, and the middle one six amot in its width, and the third seven amot in its width, for he made recesses in the House all around on the outside, so as not to take hold of the walls of the House.
Here that method of construction is explained. The wall was not straight on the outside, but grew narrower, receding inward at each stage, and thus a ledge was formed upon which the beams could be laid without drilling into the wall. It turns out that the widest chamber was actually the uppermost one, since the more the wall receded inward, the more room was left for the chamber, while on the outside the wall of the chambers remained straight. Therefore the lowest was five amot in width, the middle six (for the wall receded inward by half a meter), and the third seven. "For he made recesses in the House all around," from the language of subtraction, like shelves, "on the outside, so as not to take hold of the walls of the House," so that he would not need to make holes in the walls.
Whole stones, quarried complete: why they could not drill into the wall
וְהַבַּיִת בְּהִבָּנֹתוֹ אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה מַסָּע נִבְנָה וּמַקָּבוֹת וְהַגַּרְזֶן כׇּל כְּלִי בַרְזֶל לֹא נִשְׁמַע בַּבַּיִת בְּהִבָּנֹתוֹ׃ - And the house, when it was built, was built of complete stone made ready before it was brought there, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
Here the reason is explained. In ordinary construction one drills into the wall. Whoever goes to the Western Wall sees places where there are holes, since there had been houses there, and when they wanted to set a beam upon which to build a story, they drilled a hole in the wall and inserted the irons into it. In our case this was impossible: on one hand "it was built of complete stone," the stones were brought whole and nothing could be taken from them; and on the other hand it was also impossible to remove any part of them within the house, for "no tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built." Perforce the only way was to set the upper part of the wall slightly inward, and upon that ledge to rest the second and third stories, like shelves, without hewing the stones at all.
And there is a difference here between the plain meaning and the derash. According to the plain meaning they indeed hewed the stones at the quarry site and brought them whole. According to the derash, "no tool of iron was heard" does not mean specifically in the house but even at the site where they were quarried. And if so, the Sages ask: how did they quarry the stones? By means of the shamir worm. The full account in the Midrash of how they came to obtain the shamir worm we will bring further on.
פֶּתַח הַצֵּלָע הַתִּיכֹנָה אֶל כֶּתֶף הַבַּיִת הַיְמָנִית וּבְלוּלִּים יַעֲלוּ עַל הַתִּיכֹנָה וּמִן הַתִּיכֹנָה אֶל הַשְּׁלִשִׁים׃ - The entrance to the middle chamber was on the right side of the house, and by winding stairs one went up to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.
Note that the word "middle" appears here twice. Rashi says that the first means the lowest, and the second means the intermediate. There were three stories, and from the lowest story one would enter, and by the winding stairs one goes up to the intermediate, and from the intermediate to the third. And what are these "belulim"? Targum Yonatan renders "mesibta," that is, spiral stairs, of the kind found in towers where the stairs wind around a central pillar. And Rashi likewise explained that they are like steps resembling stairs that circle around a pillar, and going up and down them is easier than going up a ladder.
Completing the frame and the ceiling
וַיִּבֶן אֶת הַבַּיִת וַיְכַלֵּהוּ וַיִּסְפֹּן אֶת הַבַּיִת גֵּבִים וּשְׂדֵרֹת בָּאֲרָזִים׃ - So he built the house and finished it, and he covered the house with beams and rows of cedar.
"And he finished it" at this stage, say the commentators, refers to what we call the frame. The building of the house was made up of two parts: first the construction itself, the stones and the wood, what contractors today call the "gray building," before the plaster and the facings; and after it the ornamental part, which Scripture will detail further on, how they fashioned the beauty of the Temple, until everyone who entered was seized with wonder at the beauty, the splendor and the glory.
"And he covered the house with beams and rows of cedar" - they made a double ceiling there: an upper ceiling, and beneath it a lower ceiling made of cedar boards for ornament. The Radak and other commentators bring that this was customary among them, to make a lower ceiling that would catch dripping water, and some say it was not for the dripping but for ornament alone. And Rashi explains "gevim" as hollow tiles like half of a round reed that are made to cover houses, what we call roof tiles, and "rows of cedar" as a kind of story or gallery that one climbs when one wishes to inspect the maintenance of the house. And in all these interpretations the same idea is meant, of a double ceiling above which is the stone ceiling.
וַיִּבֶן אֶת הַיָּצִיעַ עַל כׇּל הַבַּיִת חָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת קוֹמָתוֹ וַיֶּאֱחֹז אֶת הַבַּיִת בַּעֲצֵי אֲרָזִים׃ - And he built the side structure against the whole house, its height five cubits, and it held fast to the house with timbers of cedar.
After he finished the ceiling he built the side structure, and its height was five cubits, about two and a half meters, and he fastened the house with timbers of cedar.
The word of Hashem to Shlomo in the midst of the building
וַיְהִי דְּבַר יְהֹוָה אֶל שְׁלֹמֹה לֵאמֹר׃ - And the word of Hashem came to Shlomo, saying:
The prophecy came to him through Achiyah HaShiloni, while the building was still in progress. He had only just completed the ceiling of the side chambers, and immediately Hashem begins to speak with him, precisely because he was still in the very midst of the process.
הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בֹנֶה אִם תֵּלֵךְ בְּחֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת מִשְׁפָּטַי תַּעֲשֶׂה וְשָׁמַרְתָּ אֶת כׇּל מִצְוֺתַי לָלֶכֶת בָּהֶם וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת דְּבָרִי אִתָּךְ אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתִּי אֶל דָּוִד אָבִיךָ׃ - This House that you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and perform My ordinances and keep all My commandments to walk in them, then I will establish My word with you, which I spoke to David your father.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him through His prophet: Know that this House is not like other buildings in the world, in which the main thing is the beauty of the structure and the architectural design, so that whoever enters will be impressed. This House is not a natural building, and its existence depends solely upon the keeping and fulfilling of the mitzvot. "In My statutes" refers to the mitzvot that are in the category of chok, such as the mitzvah of parah adumah and shaatnez, and many mitzvot that have no revealed reason, like tefillin and the like. "My ordinances" are the laws between one person and another, like Parashat Mishpatim, which deals with the laws of monetary matters. "And keep all My commandments" refers to the practical mitzvot.
"Then I will establish My word with you" - beyond the existence of the House itself, Shlomo had been promised that he would reign after David, and it had been promised that the kingship would never be removed from them, provided that he would walk in the ways of David his father and keep the mitzvot of Hashem. Again the Holy One, blessed be He, reminds him: the House and your kingship are bound up with one another. If you sanctify the House and guard it, it is guaranteed that the House will remain forever and your kingship too will remain forever, and if not, Heaven forbid, the opposite.
וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא אֶעֱזֹב אֶת עַמִּי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake My people Israel.
A promise that He will cause His Shechinah to rest in the Beit HaMikdash and will not remove His Shechinah from among Israel.
The covering of the walls and the floor
וַיִּבֶן שְׁלֹמֹה אֶת הַבַּיִת וַיְכַלֵּהוּ׃ - And Shlomo built the House and finished it.
It was already stated above that he finished it, but there he finished the walls, and here he finishes the ceiling.
וַיִּבֶן אֶת קִירוֹת הַבַּיִת מִבַּיְתָה בְּצַלְעוֹת אֲרָזִים מִקַּרְקַע הַבַּיִת עַד קִירוֹת הַסִּפֻּן צִפָּה עֵץ מִבָּיִת וַיְצַף אֶת קַרְקַע הַבַּיִת בְּצַלְעוֹת בְּרוֹשִׁים׃ - And he built the walls of the House on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the House up to the walls of the ceiling he covered them with wood on the inside, and he covered the floor of the House with boards of cypress.
"From within" refers to the inner section, and he covered it with cedar boards from the floor of the House up to the walls of the ceiling, that is, up to the ceiling. The entire wall was paneled in cedar. He likewise overlaid the whole floor of the House with cypress boards, planks of cypress wood, like parquet. This was specifically in the First Temple, for regarding the Second Temple Chazal say that the Kohanim would catch cold, because the floor of the House was of marble and they walked barefoot, since a Kohen is forbidden to wear shoes or socks during the service.
The Dvir and Its Distinction
וַיִּבֶן אֶת עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה מִיַּרְכְּתֵי הַבַּיִת בְּצַלְעוֹת אֲרָזִים מִן הַקַּרְקַע עַד הַקִּירוֹת וַיִּבֶן לוֹ מִבַּיִת לִדְבִיר לְקֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים׃ - And he built the twenty cubits at the rear of the House with cedar boards, from the floor up to the walls, and he built it within as the Dvir, as the Holy of Holies.
Until now the discussion has been about the Heichal, where the paneling covered the entire height. In the Holy of Holies there were two differences. The first is that the paneling did not cover the entire height but only two thirds, and the upper third was not covered with wood but with precious and special stones, which were far more magnificent, since the Holy of Holies is of higher distinction and greater splendor. The second is that there he did not cover the floor with cypress wood at all, but overlaid the stone itself with gold.
"And he built it within as the Dvir" - Chazal say this is the amah traksin. Between the Dvir and the Heichal there was a cubit that separated and divided between them, and in the First Temple there were doors there, whose description we will see later, while in the Second Temple there were no doors there but a curtain.
וְאַרְבָּעִים בָּאַמָּה הָיָה הַבָּיִת הוּא הַהֵיכָל לִפְנָי׃ - And forty cubits was the House, that is the Heichal, before it.
The Dvir, which is the Holy of Holies, was twenty by twenty, and the Heichal was twice as long, forty cubits by twenty. "The Heichal before it" means before the Dvir, on the outer side.
וְאֶרֶז אֶל הַבַּיִת פְּנִימָה מִקְלַעַת פְּקָעִים וּפְטוּרֵי צִצִּים הַכֹּל אֶרֶז אֵין אֶבֶן נִרְאָה׃ - And the cedar of the House within was carved with gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, no stone was seen.
Here the verse describes how the forty cubits of the Heichal appeared. There the cedar paneling was full, all the way to the top, unlike the Dvir which was paneled only up to two thirds. And upon this cedar wood decorative work was carved: "carved with gourds" is an ornament in the shape of braids, like ropes and like braids carved in the wood, in the manner one sometimes sees in the decoration of houses and in the arks of a Torah scroll. "Gourds" are like knobs, and "open flowers" is a term for roses and blossoms, as in the phrase "to bring forth a bud and to blossom a flower." It was all fashioned in a way that created a very special beauty for the Beit HaMikdash, and no stone was seen at all.
Preparation for Placing the Aron
וּדְבִיר בְּתוֹךְ הַבַּיִת מִפְּנִימָה הֵכִין לְתִתֵּן שָׁם אֶת אֲרוֹן בְּרִית יְהֹוָה׃ - And the Dvir within the House, from inside, he prepared to place there the Aron of the covenant of Hashem.
The verse speaks here about that partition which is the amah traksin. And why was it called this? "Trak" is a term for closing, as in the expression "trok gali," and "sin" is a term for Sinai. It closes off and separates over the Tablets of the covenant that were given from Sinai and are placed in the Aron. And from this comes the name of the cubit that separates between the Heichal and the Dvir.
The Radak further cites a teaching of Chazal: Shlomo knew that the Beit HaMikdash was destined to be destroyed, and therefore he dug here within the Dvir a deep place in which to hide the Aron, and he set a stone to cover it. When the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, they hid the Aron in those deep tunnels beneath the Beit HaMikdash. This is the meaning of "he prepared to set there the Aron of the covenant of Hashem," a preparation so that it could be hidden in time of need, when the enemies would come, so that no foreign hand would touch it.
The Gold Overlay
וְלִפְנֵי הַדְּבִיר עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה אֹרֶךְ וְעֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה רֹחַב וְעֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ וַיְצַפֵּהוּ זָהָב סָגוּר וַיְצַף מִזְבֵּחַ אָרֶז׃ - And before the Dvir was twenty amot in length, twenty amot in width, and twenty amot its height, and he overlaid it with pure gold, and he overlaid the altar with cedar.
The Dvir itself was twenty amot in length and twenty amot in width. As for the words "twenty amot its height," when the height was in fact thirty amot, the meaning is that up to twenty amot he made cedar and overlaid it with gold, and from there upward it was already overlaid with precious stones and pearls.
"Pure gold" (zahav sagur) means gold of the highest quality, and Yonatan renders it "dehav tav," good gold. Why is it called sagur (closed)? Because whoever has such gold closes it away in a vault and does not take it out. Chazal also said: when a shop opens and sells such gold, all the other shops can close their businesses, for everyone comes to buy specifically from it. Since this refers to the innermost Dvir, it was there that they placed the finest gold.
"And he overlaid the altar with cedar" - as is known, there were two altars: the golden altar, also called the incense altar and the inner altar, and the outer altar, which was made of stones and upon which all the offerings were brought. Upon the inner altar no offerings were brought at all; rather, they sprinkled upon it and burned incense upon it regularly. Here the verse teaches that the body of the altar was made of cedar, and over the cedar he overlaid it with gold.
וַיְצַף שְׁלֹמֹה אֶת הַבַּיִת מִפְּנִימָה זָהָב סָגוּר וַיְעַבֵּר בְּרַתּוּקוֹת זָהָב לִפְנֵי הַדְּבִיר וַיְצַפֵּהוּ זָהָב׃ - And Shlomo overlaid the House within with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across the front of the Dvir, and he overlaid it with gold.
וְאֶת כׇּל הַבַּיִת צִפָּה זָהָב עַד תֹּם כׇּל הַבָּיִת וְכׇל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר לַדְּבִיר צִפָּה זָהָב׃ - And the entire House he overlaid with gold, until all the House was finished, and the whole altar that belonged to the Dvir he overlaid with gold.
Until now the verse dealt with the overlay of the walls, and now it moves to the overlay of the ceiling and the doors, and afterward also to the overlay of the floor. "The entire House" means the inner parts, the Dvir and the Heichal; all of them he overlaid with gold. As for what is said again about the altar, when it was already stated "and he overlaid the altar with cedar," the Malbim explains: earlier he spoke of the body of the inner altar, which was cedar, and here "and the whole altar that belonged to the Dvir he overlaid with gold" speaks of its outer overlay. It was wood, and upon it they affixed a gold overlay.
In summary:
Our chapter opens the description of the building of the First Temple: the precise date, the four hundred and eightieth year from the exodus from Egypt, in which we saw the reckoning of "venoshantem" and the advancing of the punishment by two years, and the wondrous calculation of the Abarbanel regarding four hundred and eighty years between one Temple and the other. Then came the dimensions of the House, which are double those of the Mishkan in length and width and triple in height, corresponding to the three worlds above us, and its volume of eighteen mil corresponding to the Temple above. We saw the sealed transparent windows that testify that the House does not need light, the system of side chambers and the cells and the levels, and the recesses that were made so as not to damage the whole stone, for no iron tool was heard in the House while it was being built. In the middle of the work the word of Hashem came to Shlomo to remind him that the endurance of the House and of the kingdom depends solely on keeping the statutes, the laws, and the commandments. Finally came the description of the overlay and the adornment: cedars and cypresses, carvings of gourds and open flowers, and precious stones and pure gold in the Dvir. And the great principle that emerges from all of this: there is no human planning here, but everything is directed from the hand of Hashem, corresponding to the upper worlds and corresponding to the Temple above.