Commento su Ezechiele 42:22

And he took me out of the Inner Court.

to the Outer Court through the Northern Gate mentioned above (40:35): The gate of the Inner Court was opposite the gate to the north, and it was situated in the middle of the length of the Israelites’ Court, which was one hundred cubits.

and he brought me to the chamber that was opposite, etc. To one of the first chambers, or to the place of the chambers, chanbrediz in Old French, block of chambers. These are the chambers standing north of the House, separated twenty cubits from the cells, as is written above (41:10), “And between the chambers was a [space] twenty cubits wide surrounding the House.” Someone [standing in the inner court] would be unable to enter those chambers or the twenty [cubit] wide space between them and the cells except through the Outer Court, as is made clear below in this section. For he states that the Inner Court was one hundred [cubits] by one hundred [cubits] square before the House, to the east; and he states concerning the width of the eastern side of the House: “one hundred cubits.” Ergo, the width of the House blocked off the width of the Inner Court, and one could not enter the Inner [Court if he was starting] from the sides of the chambers of either the north or the south. Therefore, one had to come to those chambers by way of the outer Northern Court.

that was opposite the fortress Those chambers were parallel to the entire one hundred cubit east-to-west length of the House, as is stated in the section concerning [the east-west length of] these chambers (verse 8): “and behold, facing the Temple was one hundred cubits.”

Opposite the hundred cubit length span to the northern entrance [He brought me] to the entrance of the chamber that faced north, towards the Outer Court. And he saw before him a fifty- cubit wide space [extending] until the northern wall of the Outer Court, and the length was one hundred cubits. For the chambers occupy one hundred cubits from east to west, and its width from north to south was fifty cubits, as is stated below in this section, and the interior of the Outer Court was [a total of] one hundred cubits wide, as is stated above (40:23): “and he measured, from gate to gate, one hundred cubits.” We thus find that before the chambers was an empty space one hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide.

Opposite the twenty of the Inner Court All this is [meant as] an indication of the location of the chambers [that were] beside the twenty [cubit] wide space of the Inner Court surrounding the House, as it is stated above (41:10): “And between the chambers was a [space] twenty cubits wide.”

and opposite the balcony of the Outer Court For [as] we stated above, the Court was encompassed by a surrounding balcony.

a pillar opposite a pillar [Heb. אַתִּיק,] I do not know what this is.

(Addendum A pillar opposite a pillar An אַתִּיק is a pillar, as Rashi explained [on] (41:15): “and the pillars (וְהָאַתִּיקִים) were around the three of them,” i.e., they surrounded the “upper chambers”, [and he calls them upper ones because they are at the top of the (Temple) Mount, as Rashi explained regarding (verse 9):] “And below these chambers.” And here is a running commentary [of these verses]:

[5] And the uppermost chambers which were at the height of the mountain - two of them were narrow i.e., they were not wide because the pillars would decrease them, for builders reinforce the work on their building by making pillars up to two thirds of the wall [which], from there on, slant to a point. Therefore, the third story was not narrow. This is what Scripture means (verse 6): “For they were three storied, and they did not have pillars”; they did not need to be strengthened as did the lower ones. “And they did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts,” i.e., the pillars of these chambers were not like all other pillars, insofar as other pillars are established beside walls for reinforcement, whereas these were [set] within the thickness of the wall, and protruded outward and inward. Therefore, they consumed part of the building.

[6] Therefore...were deprived Targum renders, דְּחִיקָן, were pressed, since they were in the thickness of the wall, protruding outward and inward, strengthening the chambers.

the lowest and middle stories...of ground space [Heb. מֵהָאָרֶץ, lit. from the ground] Toward the ground. This I found in the name of “a great oak.”)

three-storied [Heb. בַּשְּׁלִשִּׁים,] threefold, implying that those chambers were threefold - three, one over another; and the verses indicate this too, for [Scripture] states (verse 5): “And the uppermost chambers were narrow... more than the lowest stories and the middle stories.” But I could not understand, regarding these three verses, what the meaning of “for the ‘attikim’ consumed” is. What were those “attikim” and how did they consume parts of the upper stories and not any of the lowest and middle stories? And the explanation he gives for the matter, viz. that “they had no pillars” - I do not know how to understand it. (And I had no teacher or aid concerning this entire edifice; only as they showed me from heaven.)

And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits width to the innermost one, a pathway of one cubit It appears to me that since the interior of [each side of] the Outer [Court] was one hundred [cubits] wide from north to south, and of these, the chambers were [occupying a] fifty [cubit] width, and before them was a fifty [cubit] space on the north - here is [already accounted for] the entire width of the Court. It is thus found that the entire width of the [Inner] Court was blocked off, i.e., there was no space between the chambers and the extremity of the depository for the knives, and there was no passageway through which to enter the twenty [cubit] space between the chambers and the cells; The twenty cubit space that intervened between the cells and the chambers consisted of the fifteen cubits that were behind the depository for the knives, and five cubits in addition to them. Now if you ask, “If so, there is a space of five cubits between the corner of [the depository for] the knives and the corner of the chambers?” [I will answer that] the thickness of the wall that intervenes between the Inner Court and the Outer Court blocks him from east to west. For its thickness is six cubits, and its end terminates at the corner [formed by] the end of the one hundred [cubit] length of the Inner Court [meeting] with the corner of the depository of the knives. Therefore, there can be no passageway to that space of twenty [cubits], either in the Inner [Court] or in the Outer [Court] unless there would be a diagonal entrance [inserted] - where the end of the wall between the two courts terminates - in the thickness of the wall, a cubit [wide], enough for a man to enter. One would enter into the five cubit space that is between the [the depository for] the knives and the wall of the Chamber, and [then] walk through that space, toward the west, ten cubits. There, the extension of the depository for the knives terminates, and one enters the twenty [cubits] wide space. This is the meaning of what it says, “a walk of ten cubits width [going] to the innermost one, a way of one cubit.” For he enters it by way of an entrance of one cubit, which [starts to] enter diagonally at the end of the wall. Now why does he call it “a walk of...width”? Should he not say, “a walk of ten cubits length”? Because regarding the housing for the knives, it refers to the width, since the housing for the knives is fifteen cubits from north to south and only ten cubits from east to west.

and their entrances were to the north And the entrances of these chambers were to the north. I found [the following]: And this is the meaning of the northern entrance written above. There he stated it briefly, and here is its explanation.

And the uppermost chambers, etc. For they were three-storied, etc. I do not understand them at all.

because the pillars consumed [Heb. יוֹכְלוּ,] like יאֹכְלוּ, consumed. Consuming and decreasing the space of the chambers.

And the outer wall, etc. that intervenes between the chambers and the Outer Court of the eastern side.

its length being fifty cubits from north to south.

For the length of the chambers from north to south, was fifty cubits.

and behold, before the Temple from east to west, paralleling the Hall and the Temple and House of the Ark Cover, [i.e., the Holy of Holies] and the cells, were one hundred cubits.

And below these chambers I do not know whether this comes to teach that they had tunnels beneath them, or whether it comes to teach that there were chambers in the east of the Court, and [that] since the mountain slopes [downward] to the east, he calls it “and below these chambers.” And he is saying this: And at the lowest point of the Court, to the approach that was on the east as one comes to them from the outer Court.

Along the width of the wall of the Court, etc. One who comes from the east of the Outer Court and veers to the north by way of the outside of the northeastern corner of the Inner [Court’s] walls, to come to those chambers in the north, will find, facing the wall of the [Outer] Court, the eastern wall of the Inner Court, which is west of the Outer [Court] opposite the fortress and the building in the Inner [Court]. chambers adjacent to that wall, and standing in the Outer (Court).

And the way before them there was a road before these chambers whose width [was the same as] the space of the Court: fifty cubits. Its appearance was the same as that of the pathway to the chambers that were on the northern side, mentioned above (verse 4).

as was their length [The length] of the northern chambers was the length of these, and the same was so of their width.

and all their exits were like the exit of the northern chambers.

and as their measurements and as their entrances [i.e., the measurements and the entrances] of the northern chambers.

And as the entrances of the chambers that are toward the way of the south the eastern entrances of the chambers. For in the south, too, there were chambers separated from the southern cells by twenty cubits (as it is written) above (41:10): “And between the chambers was a [space] twenty cubits wide surrounding the House, round about.”

an entrance at the beginning of the pathway The eastern chambers had an entrance at the beginning of the pathway, and the pathway was before the wall of the musicians. Jonathan renders: the platform of the Levites. The expression הַגְּדֶרֶתהֲגִינָה means a stone wall structure made like steps upon which the musicians and the choristers stood.

the way of the east For the platform was in the east, as it is written in (II Chron. 5:12) in the chapter commencing: “was completed”: “And the Levites who sang, all of them - Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, etc., stood east of the altar.”

When the priests arrive, etc. Once they enter those chambers to eat.

they shall not go out of them, which are holy.

into the Outer Court with the holy raiment that is upon them.

but shall there leave their garments, etc., and they will approach those of the people And they may approach to touch the peoples’ garments if they wish, but they must not touch the [garments of] people with the priestly raiment, for they have higher degrees of ritual purity, and ordinary garments have midras contamination on them.

and he measured it round about the entire outer perimeter of the Temple Mount.

On four sides he measured it Three thousand cubits by three thousand [cubits], for the rod was six cubits long. This is what the Kalir asserted, “The Beloved will stretch out a line of three thousand cubits limited by three thousand cubits.” This is thirty-six times the original dimensions - for the Temple Mount was [originally] five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits; arrange 3,000 times 3,000 as strips of 500 cubits laid vertically and horizontally [forming a solid square], and you will have thirty-six squares of 500 cubits by 500 cubits. [3,000 x 3,000 = 9,000,000. 500 x 500 = 250,000. 9, 000,000 divided by 250,000 = 36.] Therefore, the poet states: “And thirty-six as it was multiplied.”

On four sides he measured it: its wall all around [i.e., the wall] of the Temple Mount.

around...five hundred in length and in width. This was the wall that encompassed the entire mountain.

to separate the people between the holy which was inside, and the profane which was outside. I found the completion of every measure. (This does not appear in other editions.)