Sefer Yechezkel, chapter 41. "And he brought me to the Heichal and measured the pillars, six cubits wide on this side and six cubits wide on that side, the width of the tent." "And he brought me to the Heichal": now he is bringing him inside, into the Heichal. The Heichal was the place where the Shulchan, the Menorah, and the incense altar (also called the golden altar) were located; all of these were in the Heichal. Beyond the Heichal, the innermost part, was already the Holy of Holies, and in the Holy of Holies there was nothing except the Aron. During the First Temple period there were also keruvim: aside from the keruvim on top of the Aron, there were also keruvim on the wall of the Beit HaMikdash; inside the Aron were the Luchot. That is what was in the Holy of Holies. But in the Heichal itself, as we explained, there was the Aron, there was the Menorah, and there was the Shulchan of the lechem hapanim.
So now we enter from the Ulam into the Heichal. "And he measured the pillars, six cubits wide on this side and six cubits wide on that side, the width of the tent." He brings him now inside, into the Heichal, and he speaks about the thickness of the wall between the Heichal and the Ulam. And now he tells us "the width of the tent," for "from the doorpost inward is treated as inner and from the doorpost outward is treated as outer." He tells you to know that the Heichal had double entrances. Accordingly, it turns out that between the entrances there was, as it were, a domain of its own; it was not considered to have the sanctity of the Heichal, nor the sanctity of the Ulam, but was called an intermediate place, called a "tent." That is why he says, "And he measured the pillars, six cubits wide on this side and six cubits wide on that side, the width of the tent." He speaks here of the width of the tent, which was six cubits, since this place, which forms the entrance between the Ulam and the Heichal, had a sanctity that was intermediate between the sanctity of the Heichal and the sanctity of the Ulam. How wide was the space of the dividing wall? Six cubits. So he tells you that this six cubit space was a place whose sanctity was intermediate between the sanctity of the Ulam and the sanctity of the Heichal.
Now, how wide was the passage through which one entered between the Ulam and the Heichal? "And the width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side. And he measured its length, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits." "The width of the entrance was ten cubits." Now he speaks: we spoke about the walls, their thickness on the right and on the left, the walls dividing between the Ulam and the Heichal, whose thickness was six. But now, when I enter, from right to left, what is the width? The width of the entrance is ten cubits. Now, if we said that when we enter, from right to left it is twenty cubits, that being the width of the Ulam, then when you speak of an entrance width of ten cubits, we are left with another ten cubits: five cubits is the right wall, five cubits is the left wall. When he would enter, the wall on the right was five cubits long, the wall on the left was five cubits long, and in thickness, six as we explained, and the entrance itself was ten cubits wide. Now he speaks of the length: "And he measured its length, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits." As for the length: if earlier we measured the Ulam as I enter and go forward, we said it was eleven cubits, now we measure the same for the Heichal, as I enter and go forward until I reach the Holy of Holies. What is its length? Forty cubits. So it turns out that its length was double its width, for from right to left it is twenty cubits, and when I go forward through the Heichal and continue until the Holy of Holies, I reach a length of forty cubits. And this is what he mentions here, "And he measured its length, forty cubits, and the width": from right to left as one enters, the width is twenty cubits. The entrance itself is ten, and the wall on the right and the wall on the left, as we said, are five and five; together we reach a width of twenty cubits.
"And he went inside and measured the pillar of the entrance, two cubits, and the entrance, six cubits, and the width of the entrance, seven cubits." "And he went inside": now he advances and continues, after we passed through the entire Heichal, forty cubits, and he reaches now the Holy of Holies. And now he wishes to tell me what the wall is that stands and divides between the Heichal and the Holy of Holies. "And he measured the pillar of the entrance, two cubits." First he tells you that the wall dividing between the Kodesh and the Holy of Holies is two cubits. "The entrance is six cubits." What does this mean? Says the Malbim, the Holy of Holies had two entrances. There was one entrance inside and one entrance outside. This corresponds to what there was in the Holy of Holies: there were two curtains (parochot). There was one curtain inside and one curtain outside. The width of the cavity of the entrance was seven cubits, and this is what he tells us here, "the width of the entrance, seven cubits." So then, how did he say "the entrance, six cubits"? Listen to how it was. It was in such a way that when one would come from the Heichal to the Holy of Holies, one would see a wall extending from the right side and leaving, this entrance, this wall, this gate would leave an open space on the left side, open at a width of one cubit. You now enter, and the Kohen takes and turns to the right, since we said there were double walls. So when he enters, the inner wall blocks the way, and he turns to the right between the two walls, and exits, and afterward turns to his left. And then what emerges? That we have one wall of six and one wall of six, when they are two cubits apart from one another, when they do not exactly overlap, they are short, each shorter by a cubit. But the first wall is short by a cubit toward the left. The inner wall is short by a cubit toward the right. And then when he wanted to enter, he would enter from the left side, which really means from the south side, and take and turn immediately to the right between the two walls, turn to the right, and then reach the entrance in the inner wall on the right side. And then thereby he now takes and turns to the left. In this way, one standing outside could not see into the Holy of Holies, since the entrances were not aligned. One entrance was on the left side and the second entrance was on the right side, and these were, as we said, two walls one had to pass through and between. So it was built with the curtain that was in the Beit HaMikdash, and so too now the entrances, that is, the gates, were made in this manner, two curtains, like the view of the Tanna Kamma of Rabbi Yosei in Masechet Yoma on page 51. And thus the Kohen would enter on the south side, turn his face after entering on the south side toward the north side, and then from the north side he would enter, turn left and enter inside into the Holy of Holies. So then it turns out that we have two doors, two doors between which there was a gap of two cubits, and the entrance of the doors was short by a cubit, each one short toward a different direction.
"And he measured its length, twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, facing the Heichal, and he said to me: This is the Holy of Holies." "And he measured its length, twenty cubits": after we saw that the Heichal was twenty by forty, its length being forty, the Holy of Holies, he tells you to know, was twenty by twenty. It was actually square. And this is what he says, "and the width, twenty cubits, facing the Heichal, and he said to me: This is the Holy of Holies." What is "This is the Holy of Holies"? Because in fact the place we just explained, where the Kohen would pass between the two curtains in the Second Temple, the Kohen would pass between them in order to enter inside, the Gemara says that in the Second Temple they were in doubt: how was this place regarded? They called it the amah teraksin. That is what they called this place. And this place that was between the two curtains, they were in doubt how to judge it. Is it annexed to the sanctity of the Holy of Holies or is it annexed outward to the sanctity of the Heichal? There are, after all, two curtains. If I say that the curtain of the Heichal is the primary one, then it is annexed to the Holy of Holies. If I say that the curtain of the Holy of Holies is the primary one, then it is annexed to the Heichal. How do we judge this cubit in the middle, which is the amah teraksin? Here, note, we have two cubits in the middle as we explained, and about this he says to him: know that "this" is the Holy of Holies. What does "This is the Holy of Holies" mean? Only the twenty by twenty is the Holy of Holies. But the two cubits located between the two gates that we explained earlier, that is not the Holy of Holies. The word "this" comes to exclude these two cubits located in the cavity of the entrance, which is not part of the Holy of Holies. In the Second Temple the matter was in doubt, but in the Third Temple, know that this place through which the Kohen would pass in the pathway between the two curtains, between the two gates, will not be considered part of the Holy of Holies.
"And he measured the wall of the House, six cubits, and the width of the cell, four cubits, all around the House, all around." "And he measured the wall of the House": now he speaks of the northern and southern wall of the Heichal and the Holy of Holies, for the Ulam, the Heichal, and the Holy of Holies all had the same wall, since it is all one continuous stretch. So now he measures the wall we are speaking of: if he comes and enters the Ulam, then on his right there is a wall, this is the northern wall, and on his left there is a wall, and this is really the southern wall. He measured it: the wall of the House, six cubits. And likewise also the western wall of the Holy of Holies, which is to say, if you reach the very end, you reach the western wall. For, as you recall, he began the tour from the eastern wall. And the eastern wall, as we discussed, refers to one coming from the direction of the Mount of Olives, coming from the direction of the eastern wall, which is on the outside; he passed the outer courtyard, he passed the inner courtyard where the altar is, he entered inside into the Ulam, and now on his right, on the north side, is a wall, and on his left, on the south side, is another wall, each of them a thickness of six cubits, and if he goes to the very end he reaches the edge of the Holy of Holies, this is the west side, where there is another wall, and this is toward our direction: for one who wishes today, this is toward the Kotel. This is really the back wall of the Holy of Holies, it is more toward the Western Wall, but not exactly beside it, since we are dealing with the wall of the fortification. The Western Wall is the outer fortification wall of the Temple Mount, but in any case this direction is where the western wall is located. He mentioned here "the width of the cell, four cubits, all around." What is the width of the cell? This we will see immediately in the next verse. "And the cells, cell upon cell, thirty-three times, and they entered into the wall belonging to the House, for the cells all around, to be held, but they were not held in the wall of the House." "And the cells, cell upon cell, thirty-three times." This means that we have, when we look at the Ulam, the Heichal, and the Holy of Holies, on the right side cells, that is, five rooms on the right side. And afterward there was a wall that divided, and afterward there were another five rooms that were more outward. Room adjoining room, a wall dividing between them. The same was also on the left side, five rooms adjoining the wall, meaning on the south side, and another five rooms after them. A wall dividing between them and another five rooms after them. On the west side there was one room. All of this he calls cells. Now, at first he counts the adjacent rooms. The rooms adjacent to the inner wall of the Heichal, the Ulam, the Holy of Holies. The adjacent rooms: if I take only the rooms adjoining the wall, I get five on the right side, I get five on the left side, and I get one at the end. Together I get eleven rooms. If I now do the calculation of how many I have in total, when we do the calculation I have eleven adjacent rooms. The adjacent ones all around are eleven. Now says the Malbim, if you calculate that each room had three stories, then from eleven I get thirty-three. Together we have thirty-three. But says the Rav, as we explained that there were rooms adjoining the Heichal on the right and left that were attached to it, we said there is another layer of rooms further outward. If I take that additional layer of these further-out rooms, I get another calculation of, in fact, doubling everything I had until now. I had thirty-three; the further-out ones bring it to sixty-six. The Malbim says instead of sixty-six the Malbim says sixty-four. One must understand whether this is a scribal error or whether he means sixty-four, since he truly says each will divide in two along its length, thirty-three times, which are sixty-four cells. Why sixty-four cells? If you say each divides in two, thirty-three, then we reach sixty-six. How did he arrive at the calculation of sixty-four? This matter requires understanding, or perhaps he means that the last part on the west side was not divided in two, so perhaps because of this a count of two dropped out here, and then instead of sixty-six the last part was not divided, so we got sixty-four. It is possible.
Let us continue. He continues and says, "and they entered into the wall belonging to the House, for the cells all around, to be held, but they were not held in the wall of the House." This means: regarding the House that Shlomo built it is written, "He made rebated ledges for the House all around, so as not to grasp into the walls of the House." When one wants to build two stories, today they do a poured concrete casting. In the past they did not have the invention of casting, and therefore the difficulty of building two stories was very great. In order to build two stories, what they were forced to do was to take and stretch beams; they would build four walls, stretch beams from wall to wall, and on top of them make the second story. There is no casting that can hold itself, so one must place beams; they would place beams and on top of them make the second story. You understand that one cannot build this way endlessly, since there were no skyscrapers then, because this construction does not allow truly massive building, because the outer walls are all that holds; the divider between one story and another is not a casting that becomes one piece with what is outside, but only beams laid on top. When Shlomo wanted to make a second story, how would they do it? One who looks even at the Western Wall can see, when they came to make a second story, since there were dwellings there beforehand, what did they do? They would make a hole in the wall, in the side, and there they would insert wood or a rail, and stretch it to the opposite wall, where they would also make a recess and hole, and thereby one could build a second story on top of it. This is called rebated ledges, making a hole inside the wall. Shlomo did not want to make such recesses, and therefore what did King Shlomo do? He made the wall in such a way that the wall itself gradually became narrower. It rises and again becomes narrower. And then a ledge is formed along the entire length of the wall, and then there is no need to pierce the wall to insert the beam, but rather the wall itself is one thickness at a certain stage, and when it is higher, when it wishes to reach the second story, it becomes narrower. And then on the place where the protrusion remained, on top of it they would lay the beams from wall to wall, and on top of that King Shlomo made the second and third stories. These are the spiral staircases we saw that they would ascend with, that there was a place around the Ulam, the Heichal, and the Holy of Holies with spiral staircases all around; these are a kind of the cells we are now speaking of, and thereby there was a second story without piercing the wall of the House. This is what he tells us here: know that in the Third Temple it will not be like this, because he will not place the beams of the cells across the width, but rather make them along the length. This means, since we explained that we had rooms on the right and left, we had rooms along the right and left wall of the Heichal, the Ulam, the Heichal, and the Holy of Holies; now these rooms were divided by walls between them. Since they were divided between them by walls, he placed them lengthwise, meaning if I come, this is to say from east to west. He placed them lengthwise between wall and wall, above the empty room, on top of that he placed beams, and then it turns out that on this one could build an upper story. What did we gain? There is no need to place the beams from north to south, because if you place the beams from north to south you again encounter the problem of how to pierce the wall of the Heichal, the Ulam; you would need to pierce it from the outside if you now want to place beams from the outer side. If you want to place them, for example, on the north side, you would need to pierce it, the northern wall of the Ulam and the Heichal. He did not want to pierce, so what did he do? He did not place beams that would stretch from north to south, and then he does not use this wall at all, the wall of the Heichal. What he did was place beams that stretch from east to west. How? Since there were rooms from east to west as we explained, this is the cell, and between room and room there was a wall, on top of these walls that were between room and room he stretched the beams, and thereby we do not have the problem of needing to pierce the walls of the Heichal. This is what he explains here, "and they entered into the wall belonging to the House, for the cells all around, to be held, but they were not held in the wall of the House." Thereby they will not need to be held in the wall of the House. All this is true, note, only regarding the cells adjoining the Heichal. But we saw that this was doubled. There were five, five rooms adjoining the Heichal, and another five rooms, a wall dividing between them, and another five rooms further away. So for the five rooms further away there was no problem placing the beams from north to south, because I place them on the walls themselves. I do not reach the Heichal wall at all. They are further from the Heichal wall. And since this is so, I can place them on the walls of the rooms themselves from north to south, and I do not need to pierce the Heichal wall.
"And it widened and went around higher and higher to the cells, for the surrounding of the House went higher and higher all around the House, therefore the width of the House increased upward; and thus the lowest rose to the uppermost through the middle." Now he wishes to explain in what manner: we explained that the cells that were all around, we said, were three stories. From story to story one must ascend. In the First Temple we saw that they would ascend by spiral staircases. There were spiral staircases, which were really a place where there was a kind of ladder by which they would climb from story to story. Here he tells us: know that it was not built in this manner, but rather "and it widened and went around higher and higher to the cells." He built it in such a way that the wall itself had a kind of steps protruding from it, and on these steps they would ascend. They would ascend on the steps in the wall. As if from the wall itself there is a protrusion, and they would ascend clinging to the steps of the wall. One who has seen how they would descend, for example, into a well. In the past there were enormous wells, not what one sees of a well with a bucket lowered down, but a real well that one descends into to draw water from within the well. It was an enormous place, like a huge room, and this huge room had steps clinging to the walls all around. You descend slowly along the steps clinging to the wall until you reach the bottom. Here it was exactly the same, but steps clinging around. Steps clinging to the wall all around, on which they would climb up until it went around the House higher and higher all around the House. Now the Malbim makes a calculation, that if one wanted to ascend a height of one cubit, one would need steps of a length of three cubits. Three cubits length, and then one climbs slowly; after three cubits you rise one cubit. It turns out, then, he says, if one speaks of a place a hundred cubits high, if this is a place one cubit high we would need the surrounding path to be three hundred cubits long. For three hundred cubits you go around and rise in order to ascend one hundred cubits. He tells us here: contemplate, when he now looks at the height of the House, he finds that the height of the House is very tall. "And it widened and went around higher and higher to the cells": there are, around it, the steps; the surrounding of the House went higher and higher all around the House, they would go up and up until they reached the upper part of the cells.
"And I saw the House had a height all around; the foundations of the cells were a full reed of six cubits to the joint." "And I saw the House had a height all around": until now he had not contemplated the height of anything, says the Malbim. He had not looked at the heights; until now he measured length and width. Now he begins to measure height. When he looks at the surrounding of the House that goes around and around, he notices that the height is very tall. He looks at the steps we spoke of that went outside all around, and he notices that the House is very tall. When it encircles three hundred cubits, we said, it rises to a height of one hundred cubits. And after he sees how this circuit goes around and returns, that is, not only once, he sees that it keeps going around and around, meaning you see how many steps, as you look from the side, you see how it keeps rising and rising, and so he understands that the height is several hundred cubits. "The foundations of the cells were a full reed of six cubits to the joint." The Mikdash, says the Malbim, stood at the top of the mountain. The closer you get to the Mikdash, the higher the mountain. One had to ascend steps from section to section as we explained earlier. So he sees that on the side of the cells, the foundation, which is the place from which the steps begin, the foundation is six cubits. This means that the foundation protruded from the ground six cubits, and this on the outer part, for inside the chamber, says the Malbim, the foundation was absorbed into the ground of the chamber. But on the outside the foundation was six cubits high, meaning that in order to begin climbing and ascending, one needed to rise six cubits. If you ask, six cubits, how did they climb it? How did they ascend to such a height? Says the Malbim, on the west side the foundation was absorbed into the ground. And from there they actually ascended by the one cubit that the foundation exceeded the ground, to the entrance of the gallery, and from there they went to the beginning of the circuit. In simple terms, they went to the lower place, since the mountain is built from low to high, they went to the lower place and from there began to climb. They did not begin from the higher place, for from the higher place, as we saw, it was a full reed of six cubits. So at the high place the foundation is very tall; how would you begin to climb from there, you would need a ladder just to ascend to the foundation. Therefore he says, no, they went to the lower place and from there began to climb, and thereby they could also reach the higher place.
"The width of the wall belonging to the cell to the outside was five cubits; and that which was left over was the space of cells belonging to the House." We saw that the cells were cell upon cell. This means there were, as it were, five rooms adjacent to the wall of the Heichal, with a cell dividing between them and another five outer rooms. So it turns out that this was divided in two. There were two walls there. The wall of the cell toward the outside, which is the wall of the cell: for example, if we now come facing forward, then we go, and the right side is the north side. So if I now look from the outside, there is an outer wall of the cell. Afterward, by outer I mean relative to the Heichal. An outer wall of the cell, and afterward if I go further inward, there is an inner wall that divides between the cells, between the rooms, the five outer rooms and the five inner rooms; this is an additional wall. This is another wall of the cell. Beyond that, says the Malbim, there were also walls dividing between one cell and the next, for if there were five, then beyond the fact that in thickness there were two rooms, in length there were five rooms. So between room and room there also needed to be a dividing wall. So this too is included here, also the walls separating between the cells, one from another, along the length. "And between the chambers, a width of twenty cubits, all around the House, all around." "And between the chambers," explains the Malbim, refers to that they sanctified twenty cubits of the outer courtyard from the outside. This we already mentioned above, that the inner courtyard is the place sanctified for offering the korbanot, this is the Azarah. The place outside is called the outer courtyard. The outer courtyard has a lesser sanctity. Not all of it. Since from the inner courtyard, twenty cubits outward all around they sanctified to have the sanctity of the Azarah. So even though this is from the wall of the inner courtyard and outward, nevertheless they sanctified it with the sanctity of the Azarah, so even though this is inside the outer courtyard, twenty cubits of the outer courtyard were sanctified with the sanctity of the Azarah. Now he tells us: know that here in the outer courtyard there were also chambers. Chambers that were on the side of the outer courtyard that surrounds the inner courtyard; there were chambers adjoining the inner courtyard from the outside. Just as we saw that there were chambers when one arrived from the outside on the east side, what we discussed at the beginning, that there were chambers that one reached from the east side to the outer courtyard, there were chambers on the outside. So too the inner courtyard had chambers on the outside that were all around. What the Malbim says is astounding: earlier you already spoke with me inside, you already brought me to the Heichal, to the Holy of Holies; how do you now suddenly jump with me outside to the outer courtyard, the chambers that divide it from the inner courtyard? Seemingly he has already gone very far outward. What is the meaning of this? Says the Malbim, because he wishes to give us here an introduction to the next verse. "And the entrance of the cell was to the leftover space, one entrance toward the north and one entrance to the south, and the width of the place of the leftover space was five cubits all around." After it was already clarified to us that the cells were cell upon cell, five cells closer to the Heichal and five cells further outward, a wall separating between them as we already saw in the previous verses. This wall he already called "munach" (leftover space), as we saw in verse 9, he told us "the width of the wall belonging to the cell to the outside was five cubits, and that which was left over between the cells belonging to the House." What is the munach? We explained, there were five cells close to the Heichal and another five cells, five compartments that were far, between them the wall was called munach. About this he now speaks. By this term munach, says the Malbim, he includes also the wall, both the wall separating between the cells, and the cavity of the outer cell. Not only the dividing wall, but also the cavity of the outer cell too he calls munach. Now says the Malbim, he did not explain to us where the entrance was. These are indeed cells, they are rooms. You explained to me that they were surrounded by walls. But a room surrounded by walls needs an entrance. On which side was the entrance? So this comes and tells us, that it was at the cell toward the outside. The meaning is one entrance on the north side, one entrance on the south side. Nevertheless, you tell me an entrance in the north, an entrance in the south, but you still have not told me whether it was in the rooms facing eastward, or on the side more toward the Holy of Holies, in the rooms that were toward the Holy of Holies; here there was an entrance toward the north and toward the south. North and south means right and left. But you did not tell me whether, as I enter, there is an entrance on the right and left, or whether at the point I reach the Holy of Holies is where the entrance is on the right and left; I am speaking of all this from the outside. Says the Malbim, the probability was that the entrances were as one entered on the right and left, there were the entrances through which one entered inside.
In the Third Temple, says the Malbim, we do not find the place called Beit HaChalifot. For Beit HaChalifot, the Ulam exceeded the width of the Heichal by sixteen cubits. One who looks from above at the diagram of the Second Temple, which are usually the diagrams found in books, sees that as you come to enter the Ulam, it is wider on the right and left; Chazal compared it to a crouching lion. For when a lion crouches, its front part is wider and its rear part is narrower. So too they depict the Ulam that as you enter, on the right and left it is wide, and the more inner part, which is the Heichal and the Holy of Holies, is narrow. We said that in the Third Temple it was not like this. And consequently it turns out that one could enter from the right and left into the cell that was on the right and left. The verse continues and says, "and the width of the place of the leftover space was five cubits all around." As the Malbim explained, the munach is not only a term describing the wall separating between the five rooms adjacent to the Heichal and the five rooms further away, but munach is also a term by which the more distant rooms are called; they too are called by the name munach, those located beyond the munach. How wide were they, how wide was the cavity? He tells you, the outer compartment was five cubits wide. So the width of the inner compartment was four cubits, the width of the outer compartments was five cubits. "And the building that faced the separated area on the west side was a width of seventy cubits, and the wall of the building was five cubits wide all around, and its length was ninety cubits." "And the building that faced the separated area." Now he explains regarding the wall of the building. We have here three terms, says the Malbim. The first term is gizrah (separated area), the second term is binyan (building), the third term is kir habinyan (the wall of the building). And afterward we also see later on "the separated area and the building." What are these terms? Explains the Malbim, that what we call gizrah is a special term for the Ulam, the Heichal, and the Holy of Holies with their surrounding walls; this is called gizrah. Their width from north to south was thirty-two cubits. This is really twenty for the width of the cavity, as we explained, as you enter, the width of the cavity from right to left is twenty, twelve cubits: six cubits on the right, six cubits on the left, that is twelve cubits, and you get the entire width together thirty-two cubits. The length from west to east is ninety cubits. This refers to the beginning of the western wall of the Holy of Holies up to the end of the wall of the Ulam on the east side; in fact one measures the length and gets ninety cubits. This too is called by the name gizrah because it is really cut off and separated on its own, and it was very tall. This is not so for the compartments located all around; they were not such a height, their height was only fifteen cubits. When we speak of the building or the structure, these are the compartments connected to the gizrah on the north and south. These are the compartments we defined earlier that were, as you enter on the right and left, the compartments that were here and there; they are called the building or the structure. And this was nineteen cubits on each side. The calculation is that the two walls of the compartment are ten cubits, the outer cavity is five cubits, the cavity of the inner compartment is four cubits as we saw, so together you get nineteen cubits on each side. After this there was the wall of the inner courtyard, which was ten cubits away from the compartments. That is, after we finished the compartments, we have after that the wall of the courtyard, which was, says the Malbim, ten cubits from the compartments, and its width was five cubits, and it too was called the walls of the building. Now the Malbim says there were several measurements. In one measurement he measured the building that faced the separated area on the west side, opposite the western wall of the Holy of Holies, meaning he speaks from the side that is the side at the edge of the Holy of Holies, and the width there was seventy cubits. The width was seventy cubits: when we measure from side to side we get a width of seventy cubits. The wall of the building, which is the wall of the inner courtyard that surrounded the entire building, if we measure from it we get one hundred cubits. The second measurement, its length, was ninety cubits. This is the length of the building. Says the Malbim, the compartments extended from the beginning of the wall of the Ulam to the end of the western wall, together we got a measurement of one hundred cubits. So it turns out that in total we get, including the walls, a measurement of one hundred cubits, and without them we got a measurement of ninety cubits. "And he measured the House, a length of a hundred cubits, and the separated area and the building and its walls, a length of a hundred cubits." Now he takes a third measurement. After he measured the length of the building that faced the separated area, meaning the length of the compartments on the two sides of the House, and the length of the compartments as we saw on the right and left had a length of ninety cubits, now he measures the length of the House itself. He measures the House itself from east to west; as you recall, he entered toward the Ulam from the east direction, and the edge of the Holy of Holies is toward the west, so now he measures in this length direction from east to west, and the length is one hundred cubits. And what is the reason we get one hundred cubits? Earlier we spoke of ninety cubits. We spoke of ninety cubits when we speak about the direction of the compartments, for the compartments ended before the end. But there were afterward another ten cubits at the end. These ten cubits were composed of five cubits of the last compartment and another five cubits of the last wall, together we got another ten cubits; what was previously ninety cubits now becomes one hundred cubits. The fourth measurement, "and the separated area." After at the beginning he measured in width only the gizrah and the building, which as we said, and that was only seventy cubits, and we now speak about the width, when in fact we speak that if he comes to enter the Ulam from right to left, meaning from south to north, this is the width; what he now measures is the width from right to left for one who enters from south to north. So now he tells us, this measurement is a measurement as we saw above that was only seventy cubits. How do we reach seventy cubits? We said that the Ulam itself was twenty cubits. Afterward the compartments were another nineteen cubits, or perhaps before that. The Ulam itself, if I count it with its walls, I get together thirty-two cubits. Since each wall is six, then twenty cubits plus the walls is thirty-two cubits. Afterward the compartments on the right and left are nineteen cubits, that is another thirty-eight. Thirty-eight plus thirty-two, that is how we reached seventy cubits. So earlier we had a measurement of seventy cubits. If we add to this the gap up to the wall of the inner courtyard, which is another ten cubits on each side, then we get another twenty cubits. And if we add the wall of the inner courtyard, which is five cubits on each side, we get another ten cubits. So seventy plus twenty plus ten, we reached one hundred cubits. So then it turns out that the width of the entire building including the outer walls, its width is one hundred cubits. Its length is one hundred cubits. So then it turns out that this building is one hundred by one hundred. This is what he says, "and the separated area and the building and its walls, a length of a hundred cubits." This is really the measurement of one hundred by one hundred, this is the measurement of the entire building as a whole.
The outer walls of this entire complex, so the gap itself is ten cubits on the right, ten cubits on the left; from seventy we got ninety. And we add to this another five cubits of the wall itself on the right and five cubits of the wall itself on the left, together we got another ten, we got one hundred. So then it turns out that we have in total from wall to wall, when I take the entire complex of the Ulam, the Heichal, the Holy of Holies and its entire surrounding complex, I get from wall to wall one hundred cubits. This is now the measurement he measures now, and therefore he tells us now including its walls, therefore he says the separated area and the building and its walls, a length of one hundred cubits. When we add to this also the walls, which is another five cubits from here and five cubits from there, together we got one hundred cubits. What this really means is that the entire complex, if I measure it from east to west, and if I measure it from north to south, is one hundred cubits by one hundred cubits. When I include also the walls, it is one hundred cubits by one hundred cubits.
"And the width of the face of the House and the separated area toward the east, one hundred cubits." The width of the face of the House. Now this is a fifth measurement, he now intends to measure in such a way that we will have a count of one hundred cubits also from east to west. One who comes from the east direction toward the west, even when he draws the measuring line along the sides of the House, meaning toward the side of the compartments, and earlier on the side of the compartments we saw only ninety, since we said that the compartments end ten cubits before the west, so we did not reach one hundred cubits, we reached only ninety. At the beginning he measured the width of the face of the House; the face of the House is the front that comes from the east side, the west is called the rear. And he measured from south to north on the eastern side, right? That is, when we come from the side of the entrance to the Ulam, he measured from north to south and then we reached a measure of one hundred cubits, right? Now he wishes to measure for us and inform us that also on the sides where the compartments were, there too the count is one hundred cubits. When I measure from the sides, there too I reach a count of one hundred cubits.
"And he measured the length of the building facing the separated area that was behind it, and its galleries on this side and on that side, one hundred cubits; and the inner Heichal and the porches of the courtyard." A sixth measurement. Now he draws the measuring line from east to west and measures the length of the face of the building that faces the separated area. This refers to the direction of the compartments, for the compartments are called building or structure. At the beginning we saw that there were only ninety cubits there, and why? Because he did not measure up to the edge, up to the end of the compartments. He measured before the end of the compartments, which is really the west side. What was after the end of the compartments? After the end of the compartments there were its galleries (atikim). The galleries were on both sides. What are galleries? The Targum says its corners, but the Malbim explains more, that the term atik is a building made high on top of pillars, or where they place beams on the roofs of two buildings standing one opposite the other, and place beams from this one to that one, and on it build upward. This is the wording of the Malbim. We explained this above, galleries in that time, since when they wanted to build higher, there was a problem building higher because there was no concept of casting, one cannot pour something that actually holds itself, so they had to make every construction to a height with a very strong base, so they would stretch thick wooden beams, or they would stretch iron bars, today they do it with rails, but in their time they did not have such options, so they would stretch thick wooden beams, on this they would spread a layer to make the ground into one, and thus they had a second story on top of which they could walk. Now, in order for you to have such a possibility, you must have strong walls on the sides so that on top of them you can place beams. Today you can place four pillars and pour a ceiling on top of them, the ceiling holds itself. But in their time they had to build all the walls so that only from wall to wall could beams be stretched, and on top of them a ceiling could be made. Now, sometimes there was a room on the right, a room on the left, and they would stretch beams from the edge of this room to the edge of that room, and then it turns out that the place below, which is really not a room, but above it we already have a ceiling. This is really the galleries of which he will speak here.
For we are speaking of a situation in which we already finished the compartments on the right and left and have not yet reached the fortification wall. We are left with a further gap to the wall of ten cubits. What would they do? They would stretch beams from the edge of the compartments on the right and from the edge of the compartments on the left, stretching beams to the western wall. And then on this they had a kind of chamber, on this they had a place they could use, a kind of room that was above. This is what the Malbim now tells us, this is what he now measures for us, "and its galleries on this side and on that side." These are the galleries that form the continuation of the side of the right compartments, and form the continuation of the side of the left compartments toward the wall up to the edge, this is "its galleries on this side and on that side," they are on the right and left, and they are one cubit, right? Together with them one hundred cubits, since the galleries are ten cubits, so if I measure from edge to edge, including the galleries, together in the end we reached a measure of one hundred cubits.
Besides this, which is the measurement from right and left, if we were to measure from the direction of the Ulam itself, not from the right and left from the direction of the compartments, but from the direction of the Ulam itself entering inward, we would also, we would reach a count of one hundred cubits, because we would reach, there was a compartment at the end. At the edge there was a compartment, and the compartment was five cubits, plus the wall of another five cubits, together we got in total ten cubits. So also in the inner measurement we reached ninety, if I add to this the compartment at the edge toward the west, I am now speaking of continuing the Holy of Holies, continuing to go toward the west, not from the right and left. From the right and left were the compartments whose continuation is the galleries. But now I speak of coming from the direction of the Ulam, entering the Heichal, entering the Holy of Holies, behind it there was a compartment that together with the wall was five and five, we would get ten cubits, and here too we completed in total one hundred cubits. This is what he says, "and the inner Heichal and the porches of the courtyard," together with them we reach in the end a measure of one hundred cubits.