The thresholds, the closed windows, and the galleries surrounding the three of them, opposite the threshold there was paneled wood all around, and the ground up to the windows, and the windows were covered. The thresholds: now he is speaking to us about the plating. The plating of the stone building. They plated the stone building with wooden boards all around, and the purpose was so that over the wood they could apply gold plating. But since it is not feasible to go and plate gold directly onto stone, so what they would do, they would attach the wood, they would attach the wood to the stone, and over the wood they would plate with gold. And especially since we will see further on that the wood itself had carvings. And these carvings, we will see all sorts of shapes that were there, we will soon see this inside. When they plated with gold, they would take a sheet of gold, a beaten sheet, and with a chisel and hammer, very gently, they would press the gold into the places where there were indentations in the wood. And then the gold on the outside would take on the shape of what was in the wood underneath. So if in the wood underneath there was, for example, a protrusion of a palm tree, then when they placed the gold, imagine to yourselves thick silver foil, not the regular kind, thick foil, that they now place over the wood, they would attach it with nails and the like, place it over the wood and gently tap it in such a way that they beat it out exactly in the shape of the protrusions of the wood, and by this they would obtain the protrusions of the wood as they stood out in gold.
When Yechezkel takes a tour of the Beit HaMikdash, the Beit HaMikdash was, so to speak, in its stages of construction. And therefore at no stage does he see the gold that covers the wood. All that he sees is the initial stage. He sees the wood when the wood is already ready with all, one cannot say with all, with part, as we will soon see, with part of the carvings that are in the wood itself, and afterward when he comes further inside, he sees the same thing also with the altar and so forth, at a later stage they will plate it with gold. But since Yechezkel, as I said, sees the work, as it were, still in its formation, so meanwhile he sees only the wood plating without seeing the gold plating that covers the wood. Incidentally, in this same manner we also learned in Sefer Melachim about the House that Shlomo built, that it too was built in this way. And there we already explained as well that there are two possibilities for plating with gold. One possibility is by pouring gold, that is, taking and pouring molten gold over the wood and letting it flow, and what remains on the wood is the plating. Or by dipping, taking a certain object, dipping it in molten gold and taking it out, and then it is plated. Since here we are speaking of hundreds of meters, perhaps kilometers, that need to be plated, one cannot come and take and pour gold in this manner, and therefore the way was by using beaten sheets of gold.
After this introduction, let us now understand what is written here. The thresholds, the closed windows, and the galleries surrounding the three of them. The Malbim says, we had boards with which they plated the building all around, yes? So that these boards would afterward be plated with gold. In the vision that was shown to Yechezkel, says the Malbim, they did not show him the gold plating, only the wood plating. And then it is as if he sees a house built of stone, plated with wood, and not yet fully completed. On the walls they would cover with wide boards of wood, if you will, wood panels, this was on the walls. But at the thresholds and at the closed windows and at the galleries, one cannot cover with wide boards of wood. And why? Because in any place where there is some curve, some angular protrusion and the like, one cannot place flat surfaces of wood there. So in what manner would they cover this? The galleries, for example, the columns below were built in such a way, like a rounded arch, over which were the galleries. So here too, when it comes to something arched, when it comes to something rounded or something cornered and angular, one cannot place large panels of wood here. How indeed did they use it there? There they did not use large panels, says the Malbim, but rather what they did was use paneled wood. Paneled wood is thin pieces of wood, like twigs and branches joined together, and this they would do according to the measurement of the windows where there was entry and exit, that was not even, there was no straight wall, there they use this. From below up to the height of the windows they used panels, because it was possible to plate from the ground up to the height of the windows, to plate this with whole panels. But, and so too the windows that are written here, the meaning is "and the windows were covered," the meaning is between one window and another it was also possible to use panels, and therefore it was covered with wide woods. What then did the paneled wood cover? It covered only the places where it was necessary to do it in a rounded manner. And this is like today when they want to do, for example, there is a rounded wall, so when they want to place panels on a rounded wall, the panels, what can one do, they do not know how to curve, so they cut it into small pieces and glue it. This is more or less what they would do when they used it for the purpose of the gold plating over the windows and these places that came in rounded forms, so it was made of paneled wood. Paneled wood means like strips, a kind of small thin strips through which one could see the stone, but they covered the stone and then it was also possible to do it in a rounded manner, and over this they would make one complete plating of a gold sheet and then it would give it a form of completeness.
Above the entrance and up to the inner House and outward, and to all the wall around, all around, in the inner and in the outer, measurements. Above the entrance up to the ceiling, there too there was no impediment to placing panels of wood, since the whole problem was in the entrances and in all the places where there were cuts and there were corners and angles and curves. But in the places that were flat, there was no problem. And therefore above the entrance and up to the inner House and outward, up to the inner House and outward, the meaning is in the inner House and in the outer courtyard, there it was covered with woods, it was covered with panels so that over this they would stretch the gold. And all the wall, besides this he saw that on all the wall between the inner House and the outer courtyard, there were measurements. What does "there were measurements" mean? Here there is an interesting explanation from the Malbim. The Malbim explains that he saw that over the woods, which are the covering of the wall, measurements and measured markings were inscribed. The meaning is, the builder measured there and he inscribed by measure the entrances and everything that he needs to do there with the gold, he inscribed. As you know that builders write on the wall with some red paint and the like, they write on the wall. Why? Soon there will be plaster anyway, this covers it. So they make markings, what is the height of the flooring, where a recess needs to come, where this is, they make these markings with paint on the wall itself. Here too the woods are anyway supposed to receive plating, so this is what he says, I see "and in the outer, measurements," I see that they inscribed on the wall measurements, how much gold needs to be here, what the length is, what the height is, so that afterward they could plate everything with gold, and this was all triangles, squares, circles and flat surfaces, all this he prepared in the measurements of the wood in various measurements, says the Malbim, according to the wisdom of drawing.
And made with keruvim and palm figures, and a palm figure between one keruv and another, and two faces to each keruv. He also saw that over the wood, as I said earlier, there were protrusions. The wood was made in such a way that decorations were carved into the wood. What was the nature of the decorations? This he now tells us now. The decorations were in the form of keruvim and palm figures. Keruvim, we know, are in the form of angels, keruvia. Palm figures we already saw above that the meaning is palm trees, the meaning is branches of a date palm. Over this they would beat out the sheets of gold, as in "and he brought down over the keruvim and over the palm figures the gold." "He brought down" means there, and he beat out. He beat out over all those protrusions in the wood the gold, he attached the gold to it in such a way that the gold entered into those recesses and protrusions, and by this everything appeared made of gold. And the way was that it was made with keruvim and palm figures, and a palm figure between one keruv and another. The meaning is between one angel and another there was a palm tree, between one angel and another there was a palm tree. This is a palm figure between one keruv and another. And each keruv itself had two faces. And this he will now explain to us.
And a face of a man toward the palm figure on this side, and a face of a young lion toward the palm figure on that side, made for all the House around, all around. He sees that each keruv had a face on this side and on that side, similar to what we know was in the merkavah, that there were faces from several sides. So too it was here, each keruv had on one side a face of a man and on the other side a face of a young lion. So since we said that there are keruvim on this side and on that side and there is a palm tree in the middle, so it comes out then that each keruv has a face to the right and a face to the left, so it has a face toward the right palm tree and it has a face toward the left palm tree. So now, toward the palm figure on this side was a face of a man, the face of that keruv toward the palm figure standing on its left was a face of a young lion. And so it was on all the walls, keruvim facing the palm figures, and this was made for all the House around, all around, as he will now detail.
From the ground up to above the entrance the keruvim and the palm figures were made, and the wall of the Heichal. He describes that this was already made and finished from the ground up to above the entrance. That is, as if, as I said earlier, he sees them in the middle of the work. One asks, at what stage are they? He tells you, they have already finished doing up to the entrance. What, and above the entrance there will not be? No, the same, in the wood the work. Says the Malbim, since they now, he sees them as it were at the stage where the House is in its formation, so not all the drawings have yet been finished. Since further on too, just as there are keruvim and palm figures from the ground up to the entrance, so too it will be sunken and made in wood carvings over the woods that are also above. And the rest of the drawings, as we saw above, he did not see them drawn, he saw them only as measurements, that they measured the area and the quantity, but did not yet draw them. Only the keruvim and the palm figures, these that were already made, this is the lower part. And this too, as we said, only up to above the entrance, because above the entrance there up to the ceiling there were only measurements and this they did not yet do. Those that were on the wall of the Heichal were already made, since in the Heichal the keruvim were already finished, he completed them on all the wall. And this is what he tells us, from the ground up to the entrance the keruvim and the palm figures were made, and the wall of the Heichal. The wall of the Heichal they already finished. But what was outside the Heichal, this he saw was only up to the entrance.
The Heichal had a squared doorpost, and the front of the Kodesh, the appearance was like the appearance. What does "the Heichal had a squared doorpost" mean? Every entrance had four doorposts. Since there were two doors, so there were two doorposts. Each door has two doorposts. Doorposts are the right and left mezuzot. This is called mashkof (lintel) since the door strikes upon it. Today we call the right and left the mashkof, but in the language of the Torah it is the upper part, that is called the mashkof. And the right and the left are called mezuzot (doorposts). Yes? "Shokefet" means striking, a door that "shokefet" means to give a blow. This is like "nokefet," the door strikes upon it, this is called mashkof. In any case, so there were doorposts to the right and to the left of the front doors, there were further doors farther on that we will soon see detailed, and they too had doorposts to the right and to the left. So then how many doorposts do we come out with? Squared. Squared means four doorposts. Four doorposts for the two entrances, each entrance had two doorposts. And the front of the Kodesh, the appearance was like the appearance. What is "the front of the Kodesh, the appearance was like the appearance"? Says the Malbim, when he looked at the front of the Kodesh, then it became for him like a mirror and a looking glass in which he saw as in the mirrors of the gathering women, like a person who sees and looks in a mirror. And in this looking glass he saw like the appearance that he saw in the merkavah. For this whole vision in general that brought him here to Eretz Yisrael to show him the Beit HaMikdash, all this was as we saw above, that Hashem showed him at first the appearance of the merkavah, "in the visions of God He brought me." And then he sees something like the appearances of the merkavah that he saw in the vision, he sees that this is like what now the drawing and the form that he sees now, this is like the appearance of the merkavah that they showed me earlier.
The altar of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits, and its corners belonging to it, and its length and its walls of wood. And he spoke to me, this is the table that is before Hashem. The altar of wood. Now he shows him the inner altar. And the inner altar, as is known, is also called the golden altar. How does it suddenly become an altar of wood? And indeed an altar of wood is also not feasible, since over this altar they would place coals, over this altar they burn incense, how is an altar of wood feasible? But according to the principle we explained earlier, they are here in the middle of the work. And in the middle of the work indeed they had not yet managed to plate the altar with gold. And as we know, the altar itself was built of wood and plated with gold. And therefore at the first stage when he enters, he sees only the altar of wood. The altar is still made of wood without the gold plating. So too the altar of Moshe was of wood and only afterward they plated it with gold. But we saw that Yechezkel did not see gold plating in any place. The height of the altar, he sees that its height is three cubits high. Its length is two cubits. Note, the width is not mentioned to us here. But presumably, says the Malbim, just as the length was two cubits, the width too was two cubits, since indeed the altar is supposed to be square. So if it is square, that means two cubits by two cubits. And behold we also see that it is larger than the altar that Moshe made. And its corners belonging to it, and its length and its walls of wood. In the altar of Moshe we saw there that he calculates the top, which is the walls and the horns. Here he speaks of corners. The corners, a "miktzo'a" is an angle, it is a corner, yes? The northwest corner and so forth. A "miktzo'a" is an angle, referring to the corners in the Mishkan, yes? The meaning being the angles. So he sees that the horns, he sees "and its corners belonging to it," it has horns at the corners, and its length and its walls of wood, the meaning is the top where they measure the length, he sees that it is made of wood, and so too the walls where they measure the height, it too is made of wood. And he spoke to me, this is the table that is before Hashem.
He tells him, this is the table that is before Hashem. Let us contemplate, indeed of the vessels of the Mikdash, says the Malbim, he does not show him anything more. Indeed we know that in the place where they showed him the altar there is also a menorah, in this place there is also the table of the lechem hapanim, and he does not show him this nor that. Says the Malbim, why? Because he showed him only what is destined to be nullified at the time of the churban and destined to return when the Beit HaMikdash is built. What is nullified at the time of the churban? This is only the altar. Only the altar is nullified at the time of the churban. And at the time of the churban we do not have the altar, when the Beit HaMikdash is built then "He will desire sacrifices of righteousness" and then we will offer up an olah and a kalil on His altar. You say, what, do we still have a menorah? And if it is somewhere, I do not know where, in the Vatican, then is that considered that we have it? What does it mean that only the altar we do not have, we also do not have a menorah, we also do not have a table? Says the Malbim, it is true that the physical menorah we do not have, but we have aspects of the menorah and of the table. The menorah, says the Malbim, indicates the light of Hashem. The table indicates the abundance of sustenance that comes down from Him, blessed be He, since the table indeed alludes to economic abundance, alludes to the sustenance that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows. Says the Malbim, this the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows even in our time. The light of Hashem and economic abundance, this already exists even in our time. He says, behold, look at the last of the prophets, who is Zechariah, he sees a menorah of gold all of it with a bowl on its top. What does this come to allude to? That even in our time there is the light of Hashem that flows always over the seven branches of emanation, the meaning being over the seven sefirot emanated from Him, blessed be He, as the Malbim explained there and we learned this. And this is what he says here, that the table Hashem did not show him in the Mikdash, since it stands before Hashem even at the time of the churban. Now you understand, there is a difficulty here. He shows him the altar, and he says to me, this is the table that is before Hashem. An altar, so why do you call it a table? And if it is a table, it should have written, and he showed him the table, and he said to him this is the table that is before Hashem. But he shows him the altar, and he spoke to me, this is the table that is before Hashem. The altar is not the table. Therefore says the Malbim, the table he actually did not show him. He tells him, this is the table that is before Hashem, standing always. I do not need to show it to you. The table is perpetual, the divine abundance comes down and bestows sustenance and life to all the dwellers of the world perpetually. This I do not need to show you, this is the table that is before Hashem. All flesh, says the Malbim, always eat at the table of the King and are sated from His goodness. And therefore it is not among the vessels hidden away in the Mikdash for the future, because it, as it were, stands and exists above. Only the altar needs building, because the altar, as it were, was nullified, and now the altar, as it were, needs to be re-established. Now he also informs him in this that the size of the table and its measurements are like the measurements of the altar. And he also tells him that the altar is wood that is not plated, and it is not fit to burn incense upon it, because it is in place of the table of wood upon which the lechem hapanim is before it always. So this is another explanation for why he also shows him the altar of wood, because since the altar as it were fulfills the function of the table, since we said there is a table standing before Him always, so the altar that he shows him is as if in place of the table, that the table was made a table of wood upon which they place the loaves of the lechem hapanim.
And two doors for the Heichal and for the Kodesh. For the entrance of the Heichal and for the entrance of the Holy of Holies they had two doors. One door on the inside and one door on the outside. Now he will speak about the Heichal. And two doors for the doors, two turning doors, two for one door and two doors for the other. When we enter the Heichal, so we say that we have doors. Now, in this Heichal that has doors, the doors that were in the Heichal would open toward the gate of the entrance. What does this mean? There was a place where there was the gate of the entrance, which is the place where the doorposts are to the right and to the left, this is called the gate of the entrance. And this place is the threshold, this place toward which the doors would open. Now note, the doors would open toward it from every direction. If you would come from outside, then the doors would open inward. Which means, they open toward the west. If you would come from the direction of the west, that is going out from within the Heichal outward, they would open outward. There were two sets of doors involved. One set that was on the more outer side of the entrance, one set that was on the more inner side of the entrance. What they had in common, that both would open toward the threshold. Now, if the threshold is wide enough, there is no impediment to the doors opening toward it. But if the threshold is not wide enough, then when you open the door of the one entering, and the one exiting also opened a door, the doors collide. They cannot stand against the wall together, since the doors are long and the threshold is short. And this in fact was the reality here. The reality here was that the threshold itself, its length was six cubits. The doors would enter inward, what is the maximum that one can make a door in such a form? Three cubits. Three cubits would be the leaf of the door, it enters inward, it takes up three cubits from the wall. The inner door opens outward, takes up three cubits from the wall, this is door facing door, yes? I am speaking now, together there are four doors. This is door facing door. The meaning is like, like doors that you enter and they open to the right and to the left, not one door. So when you enter, doors open to the right and to the left, they take up from the wall three cubits from here, and also the door on the other side three cubits. When the one exiting comes, he again opens doors, and we said these doors open toward outside, meaning also toward the threshold. So this too should be three doors, and then they can live in peace. All the doors are open and there is no problem. The trouble is that the entrance itself was ten cubits. And if it is ten cubits, then it comes out then that when the doors open, we get a door of five cubits and five cubits. So do the calculation, a door of five cubits that opens toward the exit, and I come to enter again a door of five cubits that opens toward the entrance, they touch one another. Two cubits they touch one another. How does one solve this problem? What they solved, the way they solved the problem, they simply shortened the doors and made each door be composed of a door of three cubits. If you say three cubits, then there remains for me in the middle, indeed the whole entrance is ten, there remains for me in the middle four cubits open. Each door is missing two cubits. They tell you no, it was indeed closed. How? Each door was built of two parts that would fold over one another. The door itself would fold, a door like an accordion, such a door that would fold over itself, of three and two. And then what would they do? When they wanted, for example, to open the doors, the one exiting wanted to open the doors, he folded the two-cubit door over the three and opened the door and attached it to the wall. And the same thing the one entering, folded the two-cubit door over the three and attached it to the wall. And then by this the two doors are now attached to the wall, attached to one another, without touching and knocking one against the other.
And then in this way they could close the doors and everything would be closed, open the doors and the doors would be open in such a way that the doors do not touch one another. This is what is written here. And two doors for the doors. He tells you, know, the doors had two doors. Each door was composed of two doors. Two turning doors. Turning means that each door turns upon its fellow door. As we explained, each door has the door that turns upon it, this is the two cubits folding over the three cubits. This is "turning," that they would turn, each one had another door that would fold over itself. Two for one door and two doors for the other. Each door was composed of two. Two for one door, and again two doors also for the other, and when they would open it would cover ten cubits, when they would close then it would fold two over three, and the three folds toward the wall, and by this they do not interfere with one another. Says the Malbim, that this is according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda in Masechet Tamid. Although the Rambam rules like the Chachamim, says the Malbim, in the future it will be according to the approach of Rabbi Yehuda. And he says, this is not entirely similar to what was in the Second Temple, where it was recessed half a cubit into the thickness of the entrance, yes? But in any case, the principle is similar to what Rabbi Yehuda said there in Masechet Tamid, so too it will be explained for us.
And made upon them, upon the doors of the Heichal, keruvim and palm figures as were made for the walls, and a thickness of wood at the front of the Ulam from the outside. And made upon them, he sees that upon them, now he explains, upon the doors of the Heichal, yes? Because just as all that we explained in the previous verse, two doors for the doors, says the Malbim, this does not refer to the Heichal and the Kodesh. This is only for the Heichal. The entrance of the Holy of Holies, its width was narrower, its width was only two cubits. And therefore he says, what is written, two doors and made upon them, he emphasizes upon the doors of the Heichal. The verse emphasizes and tells you that you should not err to think that I referred here also to the doors of the Holy of Holies. And they were made with keruvim and palm figures as were made for the walls. Just as there was for the walls, that we saw palm figures between one keruv and another, and two faces, that one face of a man and one face of a young lion, and this inclines toward the keruv on the right, toward the palm figures on the right, and the second face inclines toward the palm figures on the left, exactly as we saw above, so too here he sees, as were made for the walls, so it was also made for the doors. And a thickness of wood at the front of the Ulam. The roof of the Ulam did not have a lintel above it, but over the entrance there were thick woods like a ceiling, as Chazal say, five "amaltra'ot" of oak wood were over the entrance of the Ulam. What are "amaltra'ot"? Above the entrance of the Ulam they usually draw it in such a way, as one sometimes sees when they want to make an entrance to a door, so one sees that they make above, they make some decoration in the building. Today they usually make all this from styrofoam, from such materials, but once they made it truly from stone, that it was a kind of long rectangle, above which there was another long rectangle a bit larger that projected outward, above which there was another rectangle a bit longer that projected outward, and this creates a very beautiful decoration above the entrance. One sees a kind of such structure, this is a small ceiling, yes? That projects outward above the entrance of, I do not know, a projection of ten centimeters, and the one behind it projects another fifteen centimeters, and the one behind it projects twenty centimeters, and thus this creates a kind of such steps, inverted steps that project above the entrance. This is what is called "amaltra'ot." Five amaltra'ot of oak wood were over the entrance of the Ulam. And it comes out that the uppermost one, its length was thirty cubits. And these amaltra'ot projected over the entrance from outside. So this is what he says, and a thickness of wood at the front of the Ulam from the outside. That is, the Ulam did not have a lintel above, but there were thick woods like a kind of ceiling, which was as we said these amaltra'ot.
And closed windows and palm figures on this side and on that side, at the shoulders of the Ulam and the sides of the House and the thick beams. And closed windows. Besides what he saw, windows in the Heichal itself, which we already saw above in verse 16, that the windows, the windows of the Heichal were higher than fifteen cubits, because indeed up to a height of fifteen cubits we already explained, there were the chambers of the Heichal. So if we are speaking of windows, they need to be higher. The windows of the Heichal were above this. And he sees that they are closed windows, and on the two sides of each window he sees palm figures, as we said, such a carving of palm figures for decoration. At the shoulders of the Ulam. The meaning is on the sides of the entrance, on the two sides of the entrance of the Ulam, on the east side, when we enter from east to west, on the two sides he sees that there were there closed windows and palm figures on this side and on that side. On the right side, on the left side, he sees windows on the two sides. And so too there were windows at the sides of the House. The meaning is the chambers that were around the House on every side, they too had windows. And likewise there were windows at the thick beams. Above, close to the ceiling, where in the ceiling they would indeed place thick woods, therefore this is called "ovim" (thick beams), so close to the ceiling there were also closed windows. Besides the windows that were in the middle of the Heichal, besides this there were windows above them, says the Malbim. What this means is that there were in fact windows over windows. He is in fact speaking with me here about two rows of windows. Windows that appeared lower, and windows that appeared above them and were higher. And this is what he says here, on this side and on that side at the shoulders of the Ulam and the sides of the House and the thick beams. The meaning is toward the thick beams, which means the upper part, the covering that comes by means of thick wooden beams, there were windows close to it and attached to it, and these were additional windows.