Комментарий о цитате к Шмот 30:2

ועשית את המזבח וגו׳ ושלש אמות קמתו AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR etc. AND THE HEIGHT THEREOF SHALL BE THREE CUBITS — These words should be understood as they are written (i. e. to mean exactly what they say — that its height was three cubits); this is the opinion of R. Jehudah. R. José, however, says: it is stated here, “[the altar shall be] square” and it is stated with reference to the inner (the golden) altar, (Exodus 30:2) “square [shall it be].” How was it there (in the case of the latter)? Its height was twice its length (“a cubit the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, . . . and two cubits the height thereof”)! So, also, here: the height shall be twice its length, i. e. ten cubits. And if you ask, how, then, do I explain the words and three cubits the height thereof?” I reply that this gives the measurement from the edge of the surround (סובב) upwards (whilst 10 cubits was the actual height from the ground to the top of the altar) (cf. Zevachim 60a; Rashi on v. 5).

And it seems right to say that there is a hint for these levels: The altar had on it a molding, which is a symbol of the crown of priesthood, and the altar was one cubit by one cubit, so if you wrap a string around the altar which was one cubit by one cubit, such that the string wraps around the alter, the string will go around twenty-four handsbreadths, corresponding to the levels of priesthood---as a cubit is six handsbreadths. And the table, on which is a molding, symbol of the crown of kingship, was one and a half cubits tall and one cubit wide; if you wrap a string around the table, which is to say its height and it's width, then the string will be thirty handsbreadths, corresponding to the levels of kingship, which are thirty. And the ark was two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide and one cubit tall, if you wind a string around the ark, the string will be forty-eight handsbreadths, because two and a half cubits from the two sides are thirty handsbreadths, and the width on each side is nine handsbreadths: thus, forty-eight handsbreadths. And why didn't we also wrap the table from above, which would make it thirty-six handbreadths? Because certainly one has to wrap it in the shortest direction, and if you wrap the table in the short direction, it is the height and the width, and the shortet possible length for the table will be thirty handsbreadths, and also for the altar, one has to wrap the shortest, but for the ark, the string goes around the length and the width, which is the shorter distance, because if you wrap vertically, you also have to wrap the cover, and on it are the two cherubim, and that is a lot more, and for that reason the string circles the length and the width, which is the shorter for the ark, and the string circles the height and the width, which is the shorter for the table, and the string circles the length and the width, which is the shorter for the altar; thus we have differentiated all three levels in the vessels which had on them the symbols of the crowns.