In chapter 7 of Melachim A we see three matters: the finishing of the interior of the Beit HaMikdash, the vessels that were made for the Beit HaMikdash, and the building of Shlomo's own private house. The chapter opens with what Shlomo made for himself, and from there it returns to the work of the Mikdash and its vessels.
וְאֶת־בֵּיתוֹ בָּנָה שְׁלֹמֹה שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה וַיְכַל אֶת־כׇּל־בֵּיתוֹ׃ - And Shlomo built his own house thirteen years, and he completed all his house.
The Beit HaMikdash was built by Shlomo in seven years and seven months, whereas his own house he built over thirteen years. One might have thought this means he invested more in his private house. Chazal say the opposite is true: this teaches that Shlomo was lazy in the building of his house. In building the Beit HaMikdash he acted with alacrity, whereas in building his own house he was lax. There are many people who learn from Shlomo HaMelech: they build for twenty years and thirty years and are lax in building their homes. Sometimes it is due to a lack of cash flow, but we will judge them favorably just as we do Shlomo HaMelech.
And what is meant by "and he completed all his house"? To tell us that he did not grow weary of the labor of building. Even though there was great toil in it and a long period of time, nevertheless he finished it to its very end.
וַיִּבֶן אֶת־בֵּית יַעַר הַלְּבָנוֹן מֵאָה אַמָּה אׇרְכּוֹ וַחֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה רׇחְבּוֹ וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אַמָּה קוֹמָתוֹ עַל אַרְבָּעָה טוּרֵי עַמּוּדֵי אֲרָזִים וּכְרֻתוֹת אֲרָזִים עַל־הָעַמּוּדִים׃ - And he built the House of the Forest of Levanon: one hundred amah its length, fifty amah its width, and thirty amah its height, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
Before his house Shlomo made the "House of the Forest of Levanon." There are two reasons for the name: Chazal say it was called this because it was filled with cedars like a forest, and a second reason is because it was built in the forest of Levanon which was close to Yerushalayim. In their times, two thousand years ago, kings did not have air conditioners, and so they had a winter house and a summer house. The winter house had few windows and a low ceiling, and the summer house had many windows and a high ceiling, and was built in a place exposed to the winds. This house was built in the forest of Levanon, in a place where it could be well ventilated.
Its measurements: one hundred amah in length, fifty amah in width, and thirty amah in height, that is fifteen meters tall, which is between four and five stories. The building stood upon four rows of pillars, and upon the pillars were placed cedar beams, which were the four main beams. Between the rows were stretched boards that formed the ceiling.
וְסָפֻן בָּאֶרֶז מִמַּעַל עַל־הַצְּלָעוֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל־הָעַמּוּדִים אַרְבָּעִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר הַטּוּר׃ - And it was covered with cedar above, over the boards that were upon the pillars, forty five, fifteen to a row.
The length of each board that was stretched between the rows was about thirty three amah (a third of one hundred), and the width of each board was about three amah and a bit, for into fifty amah fit fifteen units. And since in each row there were fifteen units, and there were three such rows in all - fifteen plus fifteen plus fifteen - that makes forty five. And this is the meaning of "forty five, fifteen to a row."
וּשְׁקֻפִים שְׁלֹשָׁה טוּרִים וּמֶחֱזָה אֶל־מֶחֱזָה שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים׃ - And there were window frames in three rows, and light was opposite light three times.
The "shekufim" are windows through which one could look out. Above each doorway there were three windows one above the other, three rows. "And light was opposite light three times" means that on each side there were three such doorways, and a doorway stood directly opposite a doorway, so that one standing in one doorway could see all the way to the other side. Three on this side and three on that side make six doorways, and above them eighteen windows.
וְכׇל־הַפְּתָחִים וְהַמְּזוּזוֹת רְבֻעִים שָׁקֶף וּמוּל מֶחֱזָה אֶל־מֶחֱזָה שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים׃ - And all the doorways and doorposts were square framed, and light was opposite light three times.
"Square" means that there were four doorways, and again the verse repeats the matter that there was light opposite light three times, that a person could see from one side to the other three times.
וְאֵת אוּלָם הָעַמּוּדִים עָשָׂה חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה אׇרְכּוֹ וּשְׁלֹשִׁים אַמָּה רׇחְבּוֹ וְאוּלָם עַל־פְּנֵיהֶם וְעַמֻּדִים וְעָב עַל־פְּנֵיהֶם׃ - And he made the Hall of Pillars, fifty cubits its length and thirty cubits its width, and a hall before them, and pillars, and a thick beam before them.
There was a hall before the house, and before it another hall, and before them pillars. These pillars are like what one sees in magnificent places: great pillars with special engravings upon them, except that here they were not rounded at the top but were of a square form. "And a thick beam before them" is a very thick beam that was laid upon the tops of the pillars and formed a kind of doorways. This they would make before the entrance to the place, so that one entering would receive the awe and splendor required, beauty and majesty and glory befitting the house of the king.
וְאוּלָם הַכִּסֵּא אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁפׇּט־שָׁם אֻלָם הַמִּשְׁפָּט עָשָׂה וְסָפוּן בָּאֶרֶז מֵהַקַּרְקַע עַד־הַקַּרְקָע׃ - And the Hall of the Throne where he would judge, the Hall of Judgment, he made, and it was paneled with cedar from floor to floor.
The Hall of the Throne is the Hall of Judgment, in which the king sat and judged. "And it was paneled with cedar from floor to floor" means a floor of cedar from one end of the ground to the other end of the ground, what today would be called wall to wall.
וּבֵיתוֹ אֲשֶׁר־יֵשֶׁב שָׁם חָצֵר הָאַחֶרֶת מִבֵּית לָאוּלָם כַּמַּעֲשֶׂה הַזֶּה הָיָה וּבַיִת יַעֲשֶׂה לְבַת־פַּרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר לָקַח שְׁלֹמֹה כָּאוּלָם הַזֶּה׃ - And his house where he would dwell, the other court within the hall, was of like workmanship. And he made a house like this hall for the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Shlomo had taken.
There was the king's palace, the place where the king sat to eat and drink, and it stood in the other courtyard, more inward than the hall, and built in the same fashion. Beyond this, after he finished all these buildings, Shlomo began to build a house for the daughter of Pharaoh in the pattern of this hall, in that very same form, a special house for her.
And why a special house for her? For it is written that Shlomo loved many foreign women and the daughter of Pharaoh, and Chazal say that the daughter of Pharaoh was the main charge against Shlomo, for it was to her that he was most attached. It is written that on the day he dedicated the Temple were also his marriage celebrations to the daughter of Pharaoh, and there was all sorts of music there, and the next day, when he needed to open the Beit HaMikdash, the keys could not be found because he had fallen asleep. There is at length discussion in the Midrashim and in Chazal regarding the daughter of Pharaoh, and therefore she is emphasized here. Even though he had a thousand wives, the central one was the daughter of Pharaoh, and one may say that the main anger against him was in this matter.
The daughter of Pharaoh was forbidden to marry him, even though she was a convert. It is written that Shlomo converted the women he married, and even so she was forbidden to him, for concerning the Egyptian it is said, "the third generation may enter the congregation of Hashem," and one cannot convert an Egyptian and marry them immediately. And this includes the women as well: neither an Egyptian man nor an Egyptian woman may enter. This is not like the Ammonite and Moabite, where they expounded an Ammonite man and not an Ammonite woman, a Moabite man and not a Moabite woman.
כׇּל־אֵלֶּה אֲבָנִים יְקָרֹת כְּמִדּוֹת גָּזִית מְגֹרָרוֹת בַּמְּגֵרָה מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ וּמִמַּסָּד עַד־הַטְּפָחוֹת וּמִחוּץ עַד־הֶחָצֵר הַגְּדוֹלָה׃ - All these were of costly stones, hewn to measure, sawn with saws, within and without, and from the foundation to the coping, and on the outside to the great courtyard.
All these buildings were built of precious stones. "Costly" means heavy stones, large and choice. Just as there is Hebron marble and there is Italian marble, and the prices between them are as far apart as heaven and earth, so too here he built from the choice stones and not from the cheap and simple ones.
"Sawn with saws" means the stones were smoothed and cut. Megeirah (saw) comes from the root gorer (to drag), like a saw. "Within and without" means the stones were dressed and smoothed on the inside and the outside. Many times one does not invest in the outer part, and works only on the inside and leaves the stone outside with all its protrusions. Today that is already a decoration, but the distinctiveness in their time was precisely when the stone was smooth, as in Jerusalem. When they built a magnificent and special building, they sawed the outer side as well, and this showed the excellence of the construction and its distinctiveness.
"And from the foundation to the coping": the masad is the foundation, and the tefachot come from the word tefach (handbreadth): above, at the upper part, they would make a sort of decoration a handbreadth wide. And when one wishes to say from bottom to top, one says from the foundation, from the lowest bases, to the coping at the top. Like the expression "You have made my days as handbreadths," which means short as a handbreadth. "And on the outside to the great courtyard" means he founded everything with stones up to the great courtyard, which he made in another building, as we will see shortly.
וּמְיֻסָּד אֲבָנִים יְקָרוֹת אֲבָנִים גְּדֹלוֹת אַבְנֵי עֶשֶׂר אַמּוֹת וְאַבְנֵי שְׁמֹנֶה אַמּוֹת׃ - And the foundation was of costly stones, great stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
Not all the stones were of identical size: the foundation stones were thicker than the rest of the wall stones. The foundation stones were ten cubits, and the rest of the wall stones were eight cubits, four meters. Whoever has been at the Kotel and seen what stones there are there understands. Such a stone, if the foundations beneath it are not good, the wall will sink, for we are speaking of a wall whose weight is tons upon tons. Therefore the foundations must be stronger.
וּמִלְמַעְלָה אֲבָנִים יְקָרוֹת כְּמִדּוֹת גָּזִית וָאָרֶז׃ - And above were costly stones, hewn to measure, and cedar.
Above the foundations were precious stones up to the coping, "hewn to measure and cedar," as we saw in the Beit HaMikdash, where they built rows of hewn stone and above them cedar, and again hewn stone and above it cedar. They did this for the beauty of the building, and certainly there was in this also the purpose we mentioned, that when the Temple would be destroyed, and likewise Shlomo's palace, its destruction would come about easily.
וְחָצֵר הַגְּדוֹלָה סָבִיב שְׁלֹשָׁה טוּרִים גָּזִית וְטוּר כְּרֻתֹת אֲרָזִים וְלַחֲצַר בֵּית־יְהֹוָה הַפְּנִימִית וּלְאֻלָם הַבָּיִת׃ - And the great court all around had three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, like the inner court of the House of Hashem and like the hall of the House.
The wall that surrounded all the buildings is the great court: three rows of hewn stone and one row of cedar beams cut on top, just as it was in the inner court of the House of Hashem and just as it was in the hall of the House - three rows of stone and a row of cedar, and again three rows of stone and a row of cedar.
וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה וַיִּקַּח אֶת־חִירָם מִצֹּר׃ - And King Shlomo sent and brought Chiram from Tzor.
בֶּן־אִשָּׁה אַלְמָנָה הוּא מִמַּטֵּה נַפְתָּלִי וְאָבִיו אִישׁ־צֹרִי חֹרֵשׁ נְחֹשֶׁת וַיִּמָּלֵא אֶת־הַחׇכְמָה וְאֶת־הַתְּבוּנָה וְאֶת־הַדַּעַת לַעֲשׂוֹת כׇּל־מְלָאכָה בַּנְּחֹשֶׁת וַיָּבוֹא אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־כׇּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ׃ - He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naftali, and his father was a man of Tzor, a worker in copper, and he was filled with wisdom, understanding and knowledge to do all manner of work in copper, and he came to King Shlomo and did all his work.
Shlomo sends to bring a man who was a great expert in creating the inner part of the Beit HaMikdash. His father was of the tribe of Naftali, his mother from the daughters of Dan, and he lived in Tzor in Lebanon.
The Malbim notes: in Divrei HaYamim it is written that Chiram the king sent a letter to Shlomo and told him, "I have sent you a wise man," son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father a man of Tzor, who knows how to work in gold and in silver and in every craft. And here it is written that Shlomo sent to take him. So who sent whom? Rather, says the Malbim, there were two men - a father and a son - and both were called Chiram, and the king too was called Chiram, three with one name. As is customary to this day in the United States, where there is the father and the "junior" with the same name, like the Bush family.
This settles several questions. In Divrei HaYamim it is written that he knew how to work in gold and in silver and in every craft, while here it is written that he is an expert in copper. The other commentators resolve this by saying that the verse here speaks of what Shlomo needed at that moment, and therefore it emphasized his expertise in copper, even though he had much other knowledge. But according to the Malbim there is no need for this: the father was an expert in every craft - in gold, in silver and in copper - whereas the son was an expert in copper alone. Chiram the king first sent the father, and after the father died - and that is why it says here "son of a widow" - Shlomo sent to Chiram to send him the son. The son was not at his father's level, but he was an expert in copper, and this is exactly what Shlomo needed now for the many vessels.
Why did the verse need to say "and his father was a man of Tzor, a worker in copper"? It can be read in two ways: that the father is the copper worker, or that the division is "and his father was a man of Tzor," and "a worker in copper" refers back to Chiram the son. Chazal say: both. The verse used this wording because both of them were copper workers. And from here Chazal learned that a person should learn his father's craft.
And the reason for this: when he has his father's craft he continues his father's expertise, he possesses his knowledge, and often his clientele as well, and when the father retires there is continuity. This is not an obligation and not a necessity, but a good thing. Sometimes a person sees how much his father suffers in that craft and vows that he will not work in it, and seeks for himself easy and clean work. But if it is work that has blessing and success in it, there is value in the matter, and especially in work of craft and expertise as in the case before us, in which one passes on the knowledge and the craft to the coming generations.
Before we move on to the pillars, a preface: we will not dwell on the details of the pillars or the details of the vessels, but will explain the matters in a general way. To dwell on the details one needs illustrations, and the illustrations available to us, such as those in the Carta Encyclopedia of Rav Yisrael Ariel, are very sparse regarding the First Temple and do not reflect what actually was, and certainly not according to the words of Chazal. They come to give a general sense of how things looked, not a precise depiction. The main problem is that almost everyone who deals with the building of the Beit HaMikdash deals with the Second Temple or with the vessels, while the First Temple and all its splendor and glory are dealt with very little. We have no tour of the First Temple, nor of the Second Temple, and had there been one, we would pay a great deal to merit it. We will therefore try to understand the matters in broad strokes, and whoever knows of accurate illustrations or models, let him show me.
וַיָּצַר אֶת־שְׁנֵי הָעַמּוּדִים נְחֹשֶׁת שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה קוֹמַת הָעַמּוּד הָאֶחָד וְחוּט שְׁתֵּים־עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה יָסֹב אֶת־הָעַמּוּד הַשֵּׁנִי׃ - And he cast two pillars of bronze, eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits encircled the second pillar.
The two pillars stood at the entrance of the Heichal, and they are Yachin and Boaz. The height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, nine meters. "And a line of twelve cubits encircled it" refers to the circumference, six meters to encircle it.
And how did he make them? He cast them. Further on we will see that he went to the plain of the Jordan, and there they made a mold in the ground out of earth, apparently a special hard earth, and into it they poured the bronze, and when it hardened they obtained a perfect pillar. And in this way they cast many vessels there, and the vessels were transported on camels or donkeys upon which boards were placed, in a caravan of eight or ten, or on wagons.
וּשְׁתֵּי כֹתָרֹת עָשָׂה לָתֵת עַל־רָאשֵׁי הָעַמּוּדִים מֻצַק נְחֹשֶׁת חָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת קוֹמַת הַכֹּתֶרֶת הָאֶחָת וְחָמֵשׁ אַמּוֹת קוֹמַת הַכֹּתֶרֶת הַשֵּׁנִית׃ - And he made two capitals to set upon the tops of the pillars, cast of bronze, five cubits was the height of the one capital, and five cubits the height of the second capital.
The capital is the upper part of the pillar, a kind of crown on top, as is customary to this day to make a decorative capital for pillars.
שְׂבָכִים מַעֲשֵׂה שְׂבָכָה גְּדִלִים מַעֲשֵׂה שַׁרְשְׁרוֹת לַכֹּתָרֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל־רֹאשׁ הָעַמּוּדִים שִׁבְעָה לַכֹּתֶרֶת הָאֶחָת וְשִׁבְעָה לַכֹּתֶרֶת הַשֵּׁנִית׃ - Nets of network, wreaths of chainwork, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital and seven for the second capital.
"Nets of network" is a decoration in the shape of a lattice around the capital. "Wreaths of chainwork" means in the shape of chains, seven for each capital. And in the following pasuk it says that he made two rows around over the netting to cover the capitals: at the point of connection there was a band, and he made a kind of netting that covered it, and this too was for ornamentation.
וְכֹתָרֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל־רֹאשׁ הָעַמּוּדִים מַעֲשֵׂה שׁוּשַׁן בָּאוּלָם אַרְבַּע אַמּוֹת׃ - And the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.
On the capitals there was engraved lily work, that is, the shape of a lily and flowers embossed upon them.
וְכֹתָרֹת עַל־שְׁנֵי הָעַמּוּדִים גַּם־מִמַּעַל מִלְּעֻמַּת הַבֶּטֶן אֲשֶׁר לְעֵבֶר הַשְּׂבָכָה וְהָרִמּוֹנִים מָאתַיִם טֻרִים סָבִיב עַל הַכֹּתֶרֶת הַשֵּׁנִית׃ - And there were capitals upon the two pillars, also above, close to the rounded part which was beside the network, and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows around, upon the second capital.
That is, there was a capital at the very top part as well, descending to the sides, and not only in one place. And the pomegranates numbered two hundred, arranged in rows around the capital.
וַיָּקֶם אֶת־הָעַמֻּדִים לְאֻלָם הַהֵיכָל וַיָּקֶם אֶת־הָעַמּוּד הַיְמָנִי וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ יָכִין וַיָּקֶם אֶת־הָעַמּוּד הַשְּׂמָאלִי וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ בֹּעַז׃ - And he set up the pillars at the porch of the Temple, and he set up the right pillar and called its name Yachin, and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz.
Why did he give names to the pillars? Where do we find that names are given to a physical object? True, in the Temple we find names given to gates as well, and here he gives names to the pillars too. The Malbim explains: he wished to allude here to the two modes by which the Holy One, blessed be He, governs His world.
The natural mode is the fixed governance from the six days of Creation, and it is associated with the left, and is called Boaz, from the word oz (strength), for the strength of Hashem is fixed within it and will never change. The sun rises in the morning and sets at dusk, there are stars, there is air to breathe and there are winds - all of these are fixed governance.
Opposite it is the miraculous mode, which is changeable: the Holy One, blessed be He, suddenly does something that is outside the way of nature. And everything is from Him, may He be blessed, as the Chazon Ish says, that the fixed governance is the more constant will of the Creator of the world, but everything is by His will. We should not think, God forbid, that He set the machine running and left it: even nature - at every single moment the Holy One, blessed be He, acts and operates it, and everything is a miracle, as in the famous words of the Ramban at the end of Parashat Bo.
And the right pillar corresponds to the miraculous mode. And according to what does Hashem perform miracles for us? According to our deeds, according to the measure of preparation of the created beings. Therefore its name is called Yachin: according to the measure of preparation that a person makes, so the miracle rests upon him and Hashem does for him things that exceed the bounds of nature.
It is known that the thighs are Netzach and Hod, "the two thighs," as we say "the two legs" in Pesach Eliyahu, and from them is the root of prophecy. The right one bestows and the left one receives, like Yesod and Malchut: Malchut is in the category of receiver, it is the lowest, and it does nothing but bring to light the nine middot above it, while Yesod is in the category of bestower. According to this, the miraculous mode is influenced by Yesod, which is in the category of Chai HaOlamim (Life of the Worlds).
And all of this is not by chance, for the entire Temple was aligned with the upper worlds and with the sefirot - in numbers, in size, and in quantity, everything aligned according to exalted matters within the depth of the secrets of the Torah. And likewise all the vessels, everything was in precise measurements, "from the hand of Hashem upon me He gave understanding." Shlomo did nothing because it seemed to him that it would come out beautifully that way, but only because that was how it was in the hand of Hashem.
Everything we read from here onward already deals with the Beit HaMikdash, not with Shlomo's palace. What misleads us is the division into chapters, which is a Christian division. At the end of pasuk 12 there is the letter pei, a sign of a new parasha, and from there a different section begins: "And King Shlomo sent and took Chiram from Tzor," followed by "And he fashioned the two pillars." All of this is already the Beit HaMikdash, only that the chapter divisions confused us, as in many other places where the Christian division into chapters is misleading.
In this chapter we saw the building of Shlomo's palace, thirteen years, out of a laziness for which Chazal actually praised him, since regarding the Mikdash he acted with alacrity; we saw the House of the Forest of Levanon on four rows of cedar pillars, with its doorways and windows; the Hall of Pillars, the Hall of Judgment, the king's house, and the house for Pharaoh's daughter; the precious stones sawn with a saw from the foundation to the coping, and the great courtyard. From here we moved to Chiram of Tzor, who according to the Malbim were a father and son with the same name, the father an expert in every craft and the son in copper, and from this Chazal learned that it is good for a person to learn his father's trade. Finally, the two pillars, Yachin and Boaz, their capitals, their networks and their pomegranates, in which there is a hint to the two modes of Divine conduct: Boaz, the strength of fixed nature, and Yachin, the miracle that comes according to the measure of a person's preparation.