Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 41:16: The Third Beit HaMikdash

“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.

“There were doorposts… and the windows were covered,”²Ibid,:16. i.e. wooden frames were made for the windows and the frames “were covered,” plated with gold, for the entire Sanctuary was plated with gold, and gold plate cannot be applied to stone. There were large boards that would cover, “to the space above the height of the entrance… on the entire wall, all around,”³Ibid.:17. i.e., on all the walls of the Sanctuary, “in the inner [chamber],” i.e., the Holy of Holies, “and in the outer [chamber],” i.e., the Sanctuary. The boards were “carefully measured.” Designs were carved on these boards, including “cherubs and date palms; there was a date palm between one cherub and another. Each cherub had two faces, and there was a human face.”⁴Ibid.:18-19.

“He measured its length as 20 cubits and its width as 20 cubits…. He said to me, ‘This is the Holy of Holies.’ ”¹Yechezkel 41:4. “There were doorposts, covered windows, and corner structures… Opposite the doorpost, there were wooden boards all around, [from] the earth to the windows – and the windows were covered; to above the entrance, until the inner chamber, all around.”²Ibid.:16-17. The same description is found with regard to the walls of the Sanctuary in sec. 54, because, as the verse states, these features were common to all three of the areas mentioned.