Commento su Ezechiele 42:3

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.)