Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 16:21: The Third Beit HaMikdash & Guide for the Perplexed

“Outside the doorpost was wood paneling.”¹⁰Ibid. 41:16. Rashi writes: “All this [paneling] was inside [the Sanctuary]. They would cover it with gold plate, for the entire Beis HaMikdash was coated with gold plate and it is impossible to attach gold plate to stone.” Rashi’s comment implies that there was no wood paneling in the vestibules of the courtyard, only in the inner Sanctuary which was described in the verses preceding mention of the vestibules.¹¹I.e., in ibid. 41:1-4. The rationale for Rashi’s statement is that it is impossible to say that there was any exposed wood paneling in the complex of the Beis HaMikdash. This was a safeguard instituted by our Sages against the transgression of the prohibition:¹²Devarim 16:21. “Do not plant an asherah, any tree near the altar” of the Beis HaMikdash. Thus, there was no exposed wood in the Beis HaMikdash, as stated in the first chapter of Tractate Tamid.¹³Tamid 28b; see Rambam, Hilchos Beis HaBechirah 1:9. The Torah’s descriptions of the Sanctuary built in the desert, Scripture’s description of the Beis HaMikdash built by King Shlomoh, and the Talmud’s description of the Second Beis HaMikdash only mention walls coated with gold inside the Sanctuary. Therefore, Rashi explains that, “the paneling outside the doorpost,” refers to the walls outside the inner Sanctuary, and not to the walls of the vestibules of the courtyard. Since these walls were not coated with gold, it is impossible for there to be wood paneling there.

The commandment that the stones of the altar shall not be hewn and that no iron tool shall be lifted up upon them (Deut. 27:5), has been explained by our Sages as follows: It is not right that the tool that shortens man’s life should be lifted up upon that which gives length of life. As an Agadic explanation this is good: but the real reason is this: the heathen used to build their altars with hewn stones: we ought not to imitate them. For this reason we have to make an altar of earth: “Thou shalt make unto me an altar of earth” (Exod. 20:24); if it should be impossible to dispense altogether with stones, they must not be hewn, but employed in their natural state. Thus the Law also prohibits from worshipping over painted stones (Lev. 26:1), or from planting any tree near the altar of the Lord (Deut. 16:21). The object of all these commandments is the same, namely, that we shall not employ in the worship of God anything which the heathen employed in the worship of their idols. In general terms this is repeated in the following passage: “Take heed, that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise” (Deut. 12:30), the Israelites shall not do this, because—as is expressly added—“every abomination unto the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods.”

In his Kessef Mishneh to Hilchos Beis HaBechirah,¹²See Kessef Mishneh, Hilchos Beis HaBechirah 1:9. Rav Yosef Caro questions this mishnah, for as Rambam states in that source, no protruding wooden beams were found in the Beis HaMikdash as a safeguard against the prohibition,¹³Devarim 16:21. “Do not plant an ashera, any tree, near the altar.” Rav Yosef Caro attempts to resolve the issue, explaining that the beams were not permanent parts of the structure. Instead, they were held in place by the pressure of the walls, without being permanently affixed to the structure.