Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 41:12: The Third Beit HaMikdash

The 15 cubit projections on either side of the building extended only 10 cubits. This is evident from the statement concerning the building of the Beis HaMikdash,⁷Yechezkel 41:12. “Its length was one hundred cubits.” This verse is teaching us that the length of the building from west to east, until the Beis HaChalifos, is 90 cubits. The entire building including the projections, i.e., Beis HaChalifos, is 100 cubits, as will be explained in sec. 65. Thus from east to west, Beis HaChalifos is only 10 cubits. Rashi offers a similar explanation in his commentary to the verse,⁸Yechezkel 42:4. “In front of the chambers, there was a passageway of ten cubits.”

Rashi equates the side-chambers described here with the balconies that existed in the Beis HaMikdash built by King Shlomoh, as will be explained below. Concerning the balconies, it is written:²⁶I Melachim 6:10. “And he built the balcony… it was five cubits high.” Similarly, Rashi comments on the term הגזרה,²⁷Yechezkel 41:12. “Targum Yonason translates it as בְּצוּרְתָא, ‘the tall structure.’ I say that this term refers to the tall edifice of the structure. The low cells around it are called בנין, ‘the building.’ ” Thus, it is obvious that Rashi does not think that the side-chambers were the same height as the main structure of the Beis HaMikdash.

“The building that was on the outer side of the edifice on its western side.” Rashi interprets הגזרה as the main edifice of the Beis HaMikdash. Radak²⁸See Radak, Yechezkel 41:12. – and similarly, Rav Yitzchak Abarbanel,²⁹See Abarbanel, Yechezkel 41:14. questions this interpretation, noting that shortly thereafter, the narrative states,³⁰Yechezkel 41:14. “the width of the outer side of the House and the גזרה on the east.” According to Rashi, the verse is redundant, because the גזרה and “the House” are identical.