Chapter 6 of Sefer Melachim A deals entirely with the building of the Temple. In the section before us we arrive at the heart of the House: the keruvim in the Devir, the gold overlays, the carvings on the walls, the doors of the Devir and the Heichal, the inner court, and finally the timeline of the construction. At the end of the chapter we will also pause on something that was promised: the shamir worm, with which Shlomo cut the stones.
וַיַּעַשׂ בַּדְּבִיר שְׁנֵי כְרוּבִים עֲצֵי־שָׁמֶן עֶשֶׂר אַמּוֹת קוֹמָתוֹ׃ - And in the Devir he made two keruvim of olive wood, ten amot high.
In the Devir Shlomo made two keruvim of olive wood, ten amot high. It is important to understand that in practice there were four keruvim in the Kodesh HaKodashim: the two fixed keruvim upon the Aron, and two more large keruvim that Shlomo made. What are keruvim? Chazal say "keravya," meaning like a youth, like a child. And "child" in the language of Chazal does not mean a newborn, but a child of about six years, like that "child who goes to school" or who runs away from school. The keruvim were thus in the form of a boy and a girl.
And as we already discussed, the keruvim expressed the love and closeness between the Holy One, blessed be He, and Knesset Yisrael. When Israel does the will of the Omnipresent, the keruvim face one another. And when each one cares only for his own house, and what will be of him and of the other he does not care, then the keruvim face the House: a symbol that each one turns toward his own house, and consequently the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were turns His face away from us, in the sense of "And I will surely hide My face from them."
The keruvim that Shlomo made were in the form of standing angels, beyond the keruvim upon the Aron, spreading their wings. Picture two keruvim standing side by side: one wing of the first keruv touches the wall of the House, its other wing touches the wing of the second keruv, and the other wing of the second touches the opposite wall. It turns out that they stretch from end to end. And when you do the calculation: five amot each wing, ten amot for each keruv, and ten for the second keruv, a total of twenty amot, exactly the width of the House.
וְחָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת כְּנַף הַכְּרוּב הָאֶחָת וְחָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת כְּנַף הַכְּרוּב הַשֵּׁנִית עֶשֶׂר אַמּוֹת מִקְצוֹת כְּנָפָיו וְעַד־קְצוֹת כְּנָפָיו׃ - And five amot was the one wing of the keruv, and five amot the second wing of the keruv, ten amot from the ends of its wings to the ends of its wings.
The verse says about that same keruv: five amot one wing, five amot the second wing, and in total ten amot from end to end. And here there is a difficulty: if you measure two arms of five amot each, you must add at least one amah for the width of the body. Chazal say that the body of the keruvim stood by a miracle. However the Radak says that this is not necessary, and it can also be explained according to the plain meaning: the wings of the keruvim came out from their backs, close to one another, like the dove whose wings come out from above and not from the sides of the body like a person's arms, and consequently the wings touched one another and the body was beneath them. This is the plain meaning, but so we have received from Chazal that it was by a miracle, and therefore we know that this is the truth.
And how was it built? The backs of the keruvim toward the wall, and the Aron in the middle. And here Chazal teach us: the place of the Aron is not part of the measurement. If you were to measure from one side of the Aron to the wall, ten amot. From the other side to the other wall, another ten amot. Measure the Aron itself, you find its dimension. And measure the entire House, twenty amot. How is that possible? Because the Aron took up no space at all, and from whichever side you measure it appears as though you measured from the central point.
One must know that in the Temple there were many miracles, and the place was above time and above space. An example of this: an offering whose time is a day and a night until midnight, and the time drew near for it to be taken out to the place of burning. What would they do? The Gemara says: he raises it and leaves it overnight upon the Mizbeach, and thereby its time is extended, for upon the Mizbeach time as it were does not rule. This is "above time." And the keruvim and the Aron in the Kodesh HaKodashim, this is "above space." And such were many miracles in the Temple, such as the golden vines that would produce fruit and the Kohanim were sustained from them, and other wondrous things. It emerges then that the wings of the two keruvim touch one another in the middle, and the Aron below, and each of them shelters it with one wing.
וְעֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה הַכְּרוּב הַשֵּׁנִי מִדָּה אַחַת וְקֶצֶב אֶחָד לִשְׁנֵי הַכְּרֻבִים׃ - And ten cubits was the second keruv; both keruvim were of one measure and one form.
What is "ketzev"? It comes from the word ketziva, from cutting. "Ketzev echad" means one cut, one precise measurement, one size for both keruvim. And notice that here it says "shnei keruvim," whereas in the Torah it says "ve'asita shnayim keruvim." The Malbim explains that there is a difference: "shnayim" indicates that they differ from one another, whereas "sheni" indicates that they are equal. And here both aspects are true: in their size they were completely equal, one measure and one form, and therefore "shnei keruvim"; yet in their form they differed, for one was in the likeness of a boy and one in the likeness of a girl, and therefore "shnayim keruvim." In certain respects identical and in certain respects different. We already elaborated on the difference between "sheni" and "shnayim" in the judgment of Shlomo: "shtayim nashim zonot," and likewise regarding the two goats.
קוֹמַת הַכְּרוּב הָאֶחָד עֶשֶׂר בָּאַמָּה וְכֵן הַכְּרוּב הַשֵּׁנִי׃ - The height of the one keruv was ten cubits, and so was the second keruv.
Ten cubits in height, about five meters. Imagine a person entering and seeing such a thing, at a height of almost two stories. An awesome sight.
וַיִּתֵּן אֶת־הַכְּרוּבִים בְּתוֹךְ הַבַּיִת הַפְּנִימִי וַיִּפְרְשׂוּ אֶת־כַּנְפֵי הַכְּרֻבִים וַתִּגַּע כְּנַף־הָאֶחָד בַּקִּיר וּכְנַף הַכְּרוּב הַשֵּׁנִי נֹגַעַת בַּקִּיר הַשֵּׁנִי וְכַנְפֵיהֶם אֶל־תּוֹךְ הַבַּיִת נֹגְעֹת כָּנָף אֶל־כָּנָף׃ - And he set the keruvim within the inner house, and they spread the wings of the keruvim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the second keruv touched the other wall, and their wings toward the middle of the house touched wing to wing.
From here the Malbim learns that the wings were built like a kind of hinge. For it says "and they spread the wings of the keruvim," implying that they could lower the wings and spread them. This does not mean that they ever actually lowered them, for they always stood spread; rather, from the wording "and they spread" it is implied that spreading was applicable, indicating that there was a state in which they were folded together. And so they always stood: one wing screening over the Aron, and the other wing touching the wall of the house.
וַיְצַף אֶת־הַכְּרוּבִים זָהָב׃ - And he overlaid the keruvim with gold.
The overlay he made after he made the keruvim, indicating that the measurements stated earlier are without the overlay. And accordingly, if the wings touched one another, then after he overlaid them with gold, which itself has a certain thickness, they truly clung to one another.
וְאֵת כָּל־קִירוֹת הַבַּיִת מֵסַב קָלַע פִּתּוּחֵי מִקְלְעוֹת כְּרוּבִים וְתִמֹרֹת וּפְטוּרֵי צִצִּים מִלִּפְנִים וְלַחִיצוֹן׃ - And all the walls of the house all around he carved with engraved carvings of keruvim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.
Now the verse describes the carvings he made on the walls. It is similar to special aron kodesh cabinets made by skilled woodcarvers, who know how to shape in wood the forms of palm trees, clusters of grapes, and the like. So too Shlomo made decoration all around. "Mesav" - all around. "Kala" - in a woven form, like a braid. "Miklot keruvim" - carvings whose basic form is the shape of keruvim, like angels. "Vetimorot" - palm trees. "Ufeturei tzitzim" - the blossoming of flowers. "Milifnim velachitzon" - milifnim is the Devir, which is the inner part, and lachitzon is the Heichal. On all of them he made this covering all around.
וְאֶת־קַרְקַע הַבַּיִת צִפָּה זָהָב לִפְנִימָה וְלַחִיצוֹן׃ - And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without.
He overlaid the floor with gold only after he had set up the keruvim. And why not before? So that during the setting up of the keruvim the gold would not be damaged, for one needs to move them, lift them and set them in place. Therefore he first placed the keruvim, and only afterward overlaid the floor of the house with gold, within and without.
וְאֵת פֶּתַח הַדְּבִיר עָשָׂה דַּלְתוֹת עֲצֵי־שָׁמֶן הָאַיִל מְזוּזוֹת חֲמִשִׁית׃ - And for the entrance of the Devir he made doors of oil-tree wood, the lintel and doorposts a fifth part.
Between the Devir, which is the Holy of Holies, and the Heichal, there were doors, and they were made of oil-tree wood. "Atzei shemen" in its plain sense are olive trees, the trees from which oil is produced. But there is a difficulty here: it is forbidden to cut down fruit trees. The Radak resolves that they took old trees that no longer bore fruit. And there is another explanation, that atzei shemen are a kind of cedar, a tree from which pitch or oil is produced, but which itself does not bear fruit.
And what is "ha'ayil mezuzot chamishit"? "Ha'ayil" can be interpreted as a threshold, and can be interpreted as doorposts. And what is "chamishit"? One explanation: the entire entrance was pentagonal. Every ordinary entrance is rectangular, with four sides: two doorposts, a threshold and a lintel. But there the entrance was made such that at the top there were two sloping sides, so that the entrance was made of five sides. A second explanation, that of Rashi: the doorpost itself was pentagonal. That is, the lintel beam itself, which is usually rectangular, was made with angles and a point at the ends, so that it had five sides. And the Malbim explains differently: "mezuzot chamishit" means the fifth entrance. For in all there were five entrances in the Mikdash: the first to the great Azarah, the second to the courtyard of the Kohanim which is after the Azarah, the third to the Ulam, the fourth to the Heichal, and the fifth to the Devir.
וּשְׁתֵּי דַּלְתוֹת עֲצֵי־שֶׁמֶן וְקָלַע עֲלֵיהֶם מִקְלְעוֹת כְּרוּבִים וְתִמֹרֹת וּפְטוּרֵי צִצִּים וְצִפָּה זָהָב וַיָּרֶד עַל־הַכְּרוּבִים וְעַל־הַתִּמֹרוֹת אֶת־הַזָּהָב׃ - And two doors of oil-tree wood, and he carved upon them carvings of keruvim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and he spread the gold over the keruvim and over the palm trees.
How many doors did the entrance of the Devir have? The Malbim says: four. As one sometimes sees in palaces, that when you come to enter there are two large doors, the doors open and immediately behind them are two more doors. The first doors open and cover the thickness of the wall, and when you enter there are additional doors. And this is what the verse says, that there were two more doors of oil-tree wood. And upon them were carvings of keruvim and palm trees and open flowers, and all of them he overlaid with gold.
And what is "vayared"? From the language of flattening. There are two techniques for overlaying wood with gold. One is to pour the gold onto it or to dip it in gold, and then a layer catches upon it. The second, simpler and more economical, is to flatten the gold: one takes a thin strip of gold - like those thin gold leaves sold today for handicrafts, only thicker - places it over all the protrusions and engravings that the craftsmen carved in the wood, and with a hammer and a delicate tool presses it into the recessed places. It is a most delicate craft, until in the end all that decoration appears entirely overlaid with gold. The Malbim says: on the outer part they did it in this way, not with a poured overlay but with wrapping and flattening. But in the Devir, in the Holy of Holies, the overlay was done by way of pouring gold or dipping in it, which takes more gold. And this is "vayared al hakeruvim ve'al hatimorot et hazahav" - the pouring of the gold until the protrusions appeared according to where it flowed in.
וְכֵן עָשָׂה לְפֶתַח הַהֵיכָל מְזוּזוֹת עֲצֵי־שָׁמֶן מֵאֵת רְבִעִית׃ - And so he made for the entrance of the Heichal doorposts of olive wood, a fourth part.
Now the verse speaks of the entrance between the Ulam and the Heichal. The "mezuzot" are the sides, and the "mashkof," according to Chazal, is the top. "A fourth part" means the fourth entrance, for regarding the Devir it said "a fifth," the fifth entrance, and here the fourth. The doorposts were of olive wood, but notice that the doors were of cypress. Cypress wood is lower in stature than olive wood, and since we have descended in holiness from the Devir to the Heichal, there the doors were of cypress wood.
וּשְׁתֵּי דַלְתוֹת עֲצֵי בְרוֹשִׁים שְׁנֵי צְלָעִים הַדֶּלֶת הָאַחַת גְּלִילִים וּשְׁנֵי קְלָעִים הַדֶּלֶת הַשֵּׁנִית גְּלִילִים׃ - And two doors of cypress wood, the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
Here too there were two additional doors, four in all. The Malbim explains that here too there was a door within a door, and each door was made of two panels. But one door was made of "gelilim" and the second door of "kela'im," two styles of ornamentation: one in the form of rounded shapes and one in the form of weaving. And as mentioned, the doors open, you enter within, and there is yet another door.
וְקָלַע כְּרוּבִים וְתִמֹרוֹת וּפְטֻרֵי צִצִּים וְצִפָּה זָהָב מְיֻשָּׁר עַל־הַמְּחֻקֶּה׃ - And he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold fitted upon the engraved work.
In the Devir, as mentioned, they poured the gold into the places carved into the wood. But in the Heichal it was "fitted upon the engraved work": they placed the sheet of gold straight upon the door and hammered around it until the gold settled precisely into the very places it needed to enter, according to the engraving in the wood.
וַיִּבֶן אֶת־הֶחָצֵר הַפְּנִימִית שְׁלֹשָׁה טוּרֵי גָזִית וְטוּר כְּרֻתֹת אֲרָזִים׃ - And he built the inner courtyard with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.
The inner courtyard is the Courtyard of the Kohanim and the Courtyard of Israel that lie before the Ulam. Shlomo built its walls in this manner: three rows, layer upon layer upon layer of hewn stone, stone which is so called because they cut it to precise measurements (and how did they cut it? We shall soon see), and above them one row of cut cedars, a layer of wood. And so it repeats: three layers of stone and a layer of wood.
And why was it done this way? So that the Beit HaMikdash would be able to be destroyed when it was set aflame. For had it all been stone, even if they had burned it, at most it would have needed a general renovation, and the building would have remained standing. But when there is a layer of wood between the stones, the moment the wood burns the building collapses and the stones above it fall. Thus already at the building of the Beit HaMikdash the possibility was given for the House to be destroyed. And the fact that the House was destroyed was to our fortune and to our benefit, for had the Holy One, Blessed be He, not spent His wrath upon the wood and the stones, and here there was also wood, God forbid nothing would have remained of the enemies of Israel.
בַּשָּׁנָה הָרְבִיעִית יֻסַּד בֵּית יְהוָה בְּיֶרַח זִו׃ - In the fourth year the foundation of the House of Hashem was laid, in the month of Ziv.
וּבַשָּׁנָה הָאַחַת עֶשְׂרֵה בְּיֶרַח בּוּל הוּא הַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁמִינִי כָּלָה הַבַּיִת לְכָל־דְּבָרָיו וּלְכָל־מִשְׁפָּטָו וַיִּבְנֵהוּ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים׃ - And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the House was finished in all its details and according to all its specifications, and he built it in seven years.
They began to build in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, which is the month of Iyar, and finished in the eleventh year in the month of Bul, which is the month of Cheshvan, the eighth month from Nissan. The Malbim says that according to the calculation this amounted to seven years and seven months: seven years for the building of the House itself, and another seven months for the overlays and the interior finishing.
The Malbim observes: this is the reverse of sowing. In the physical world one sows in Cheshvan, the month of the rains, and "mar" means a drop, as in "behold, the nations are as a drop from a bucket," like a drop from a bucket, and one reaps in Iyar. Here it is the opposite: they sowed in Iyar and reaped in Cheshvan. Why? Because the Divine sowing and the Divine nature are the reverse of the physical nature, for when the physical sowing ceases, there the Divine sowing begins. "God has made one corresponding to the other."
The Malbim adds: since it worked out to seven years of building and seven months of finishing, there was a special matter here for Shlomo, the matter of sevens. Seven is a holy number among our Sages, and we see it recurring throughout the entire Torah without end. Therefore Shlomo was particular here too about the matter of seven, that "the seventh is holy."
Several explanations have been offered. Chazal say: Bul is from the word mabul (flood), for in Cheshvan the abundant rains begin like a flood. And by the way, there is a story about a chazzan against whom evil rumors had spread, all sorts of immodest things, may God have mercy, and they turned to the rav and the rav dismissed him. That chazzan came and said: honored rav, why did you dismiss me? Last year no rain fell for months, they held prayers, and I passed before the ark, and do you know what rain fell immediately when we finished? How can you spread a bad name about people for no reason? The rav said to him: I am not surprised at all. People like you in the past also brought a flood.
A second explanation: from the word nevila (withering), for in this month the trees shed their leaves and the leaf withers. A third explanation: that the earth becomes "bulot bulot," that is, full of pits. A fourth explanation: that then "bolelin la'behema min habayit," they mix fodder for the animal from the house, for there are no more grasses in the field and one must mix feed for it from the house, as in the phrase "and he mixed for the donkeys," they blend the grain. And one could further say that Bul is a term of wealth, as in the phrases "these are the wealthy ones of Yehuda," "prozbol," an enactment for the wealthy and the poor, "buli and buti." According to this, Bul is the month that gives wealth through the rains that it bestows, a month rich in rain.
Up to here is the first part of the building of the House. In the second part we will see Shlomo's own house, and in the third part the vessels that Shlomo made for the needs of the House, the pillars in the courtyard and all that is connected with them.
וְהַבַּיִת בְּהִבָּנֹתוֹ אֶבֶן־שְׁלֵמָה מַסָּע נִבְנָה וּמַקָּבוֹת וְהַגַּרְזֶן כָּל־כְּלִי בַרְזֶל לֹא־נִשְׁמַע בַּבַּיִת בְּהִבָּנֹתוֹ׃ - And the House, when it was being built, was built of whole 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.
I promised to speak about the shamir worm with which Shlomo cut the stones, and these matters are brought in Tractate Sotah. I will read them to you in translation. It happened with Shlomo the king, peace be upon him, at the time when he was building the Beit HaMikdash: he needed many stones for the work, but no iron tool could be heard upon them. There is a dispute about this: some say that it was not heard at all, and some say that it was not heard inside the House but outside they did hew. We are now going according to the view that no iron tool at all came upon the stones of the Beit HaMikdash.
Shlomo said to the sages: how shall I do this work without an iron tool? They said to him: there is a certain creature from the six days of creation, and its name is shamir, and nothing hard can stand before it, and it is the very one that Moshe also brought for the stones of the ephod. They place the shamir upon the stones from the outside and they split of themselves. Even before they were splitting stones with a laser beam and all that is connected with it, they had the Rav Laizer, and did not need the beam. Shlomo said to them: and where is the shamir to be found? They said to him: bring before you a male demon and a female demon and press them with torments, and they will tell you. He brought them and pressed them with torments, and they said to him: we do not know where it is, only Ashmedai the king of the demons, the boss, is involved in these matters, he knows, ask him.
He said to them: And where is your king? They said to him: On such and such a mountain. He dug a pit there, filled it with water, covered it with a single stone, and sealed it with his seal. Every day he ascends to the heavens and studies in the heavenly academy, then descends and studies in the earthly academy. This teaches us that a person can be studying in a yeshiva and yet be a demon. Here we have a demon who studies in the heavenly academy and in the earthly academy. When he comes, he checks his seal to see whether anyone has touched it, then opens it and drinks from the water. He has a guarded pit, so that nothing should enter it that would pollute or poison, and afterward he covers it, seals it, and goes on his way.
Shlomo sent Benayahu ben Yehoyada. He gave him a chain on which the Name was engraved, a ring on which the Name was engraved, tufts of wool, and skins of wine. Benayahu went and dug a pit below Ashmedai's pit, and bored a hole in the rim between the two pits, and all the water in the upper pit drained by itself into the lower pit, for Ashmedai's pit was high on the mountain. Afterward he stopped up the hole with the tufts of wool, so that the wine that would be poured into the upper pit would not flow down to the lower one. He dug an additional pit above Ashmedai's pit, poured the wine there, and filled both pits with earth so that Ashmedai would not notice, and he went up and sat on a tree.
Let us understand the ruse. There was Ashmedai's pit, and in it was water. The goal was to make him drunk, but it was impossible to lift the cover, for there was a seal. A seal is a matter of wax or pitch that is smeared on, upon which the signet is stamped, and if someone breaks the seal he cannot restore it, for he does not have the signet that serves as the mark (not a stamp like ours today, but a kind of metal seal that is pressed in and leaves an impression, as you may have seen at a notary on wax). Therefore Benayahu dug a pit from the side, bored a hole, and emptied out all the water; afterward he dug a higher pit and filled it with wine, and once he had stopped the lower hole with the tufts of wool, the wine flowed and filled Ashmedai's pit; finally he stopped up with earth the two pits he had dug, and nothing remained but Ashmedai's pit, sealed as it had been, and inside it wine in place of water. And Ashmedai did not detect the ruse. Benayahu climbed the tree and waited, keeping watch.
Ashmedai came, checked his seal and found it intact, opened it and found wine. He did not want to drink, but he was very thirsty and could not hold back. He drank, became drunk, and fell asleep. Benayahu came down, threw the chain over him and closed it around his neck so that his head could not come out. When he awoke and saw the chain, he went wild and tried to tear it off. Benayahu said to him: The Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is upon you.
On the way, as Benayahu was leading him, Ashmedai would rub against the trees and knock them down. He came to a small house in which a widow dwelt; she came out and pleaded with him to draw himself in and not rub against her house. He bent himself to the other side, and only the thickness of his shoulders remained, which touched the house, and a bone in him broke. He said: This is what is written, "וְלָשׁוֹן רַכָּה תִּשְׁבָּר-גָּרֶם" - a soft tongue breaks a bone. Through her soft tongue my bone was broken and I could not destroy her house. He saw a blind man straying from the road, and he brought him up from the field to the road. He saw a drunkard straying from the road, and he too he brought up to the road. He saw many people rejoicing at a wedding of a groom and bride - and he wept. He heard a man telling a shoemaker to make him sandals to last seven years - and he laughed. He saw a sorcerer performing sorceries - and he laughed as well.
When they brought him before Shlomo, they did not let him enter for three days. On the first day he asked: Why does the king not want me to enter? They said to him: He has drunk much. He took a brick and placed another brick upon it. They came and told Shlomo, and he said to them: This is what he said to you - go and give him more to drink. On the second day he asked again, and they said to him: He has drunk much. He took the upper brick and set it on the ground. They came and told him, and Shlomo said to them: This is what he said - go and withhold your hand from feeding him, except a little. At the end of three days Ashmedai came in before Shlomo. He took a reed four cubits long and threw it down before him. He said to him: When this man dies, does he possess nothing in his world but this? You have conquered the whole world and were not satisfied, until you conquered me as well?
Shlomo said to him: I want nothing from you, only to build the Beit HaMikdash, and I need the shamir to cut the stones. He asked: And where is it? Ashmedai said to him: The shamir was entrusted only to the prince of the sea, and the prince of the sea gave it only to the wild rooster - and some say it is the hoopoe - who trusts his oath that he will return it to him. Shlomo asked: And what does the wild rooster do with it, is he a drilling company? He said to him: He brings it to mountains that have no settlement of seeds or trees, sets it on the mountaintop, and the mountain splits a little into a kind of crevice, and the bird casts there seeds of trees, and trees grow there and he sustains himself from them.
They searched and sought until they knew where that rooster's nest was, and they found chicks in the nest. They covered the nest from above with clear glass, so that he would see his young but not be able to enter to them. He went and brought the shamir in order to split the glass; and at the moment he set it on the covering, Shlomo's agents shouted at him loudly and startled him, and the worm fell and they took it. The rooster went and strangled himself, because he had transgressed his oath not to lose the shamir.
Benayahu asked Ashmedai about everything he had seen. Why, when you saw the blind man, did you show him the way? He said to him: Because they proclaim of him in heaven that he is a righteous man, and whoever gives him satisfaction merits the World to Come - and I wanted to merit the World to Come. And why did you show the way to the drunkard as well? He said to him: Because they proclaimed of him in heaven that he is a complete wicked man, and I gave him satisfaction so that he would receive his reward in this world. And why did you weep at the wedding of the groom and bride? He said to him: Because they wanted to take a life, for the groom would die within thirty days, and the bride would have to wait for a young levirate brother for thirteen years, until he grew two hairs and became fit for chalitza. My heart ached both for the groom who was about to die and for the bride who would wait thirteen years. Even Ashmedai's heart ached.
And why did you laugh when you heard the man asking the shoemaker for strong shoes to last seven years? He said to him: That man does not have even seven days to live, and he is ordering shoes for seven years. In another seven days he will go the way of all the earth, and behold his shoes are thrown away and no one else uses them, especially if he passes away while they are on his feet. And why did you laugh when you saw the sorcerer? And a sorcerer does not mean like one who today performs sleight of hand, but one who does things with actual witchcraft. He said to him: Because he is sitting on a spot beneath which the king's treasure is buried, silver and gold, and he wants to divine and know what is beneath him. You are such a genius and know hidden things - get up from your place, beneath you there is a treasure. Like that fellow who put out a book, "The Easy Method to Win the Big Lottery Prize": if you have a method, go win the big prize yourself, every week. But he wants to bring benefit to the public, he does not want to come alone.
In this part of the chapter we saw the interior of the Beit HaMikdash: the two cherubim of olive wood in the Devir, identical in their proportion and differing in their form, their wings spread from wall to wall and sheltering the Ark whose place is not counted within the measurement; the walls and the floor overlaid with gold and adorned with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; the doors of the Devir and the Heichal - the fifth entrance and the fourth entrance - with the differences of overlay between inside and outside; and the inner courtyard built of three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, a construction that already carries within it the possibility of destruction, in which the Holy One, blessed be He, spent His wrath upon the wood and the stones. And finally the timetable: seven years and seven months, from the month of Ziv to the month of Bul, a divine planting that is the reverse of physical planting. And in all this is included also the great miracle of the shamir worm, with which the stones were hewn without the sound of an iron tool being heard in the Mikdash.