Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 41:21: The Third Beit HaMikdash

The width of the Sanctuary from north to south was 20 cubits.¹⁷Yechezkel 41:2. In the center of its eastern wall, there was an entrance that was 10 cubits wide. This is derived from the verse, “On the flanks of the entrance, there were 5 cubits on one side and 5 cubits on the other.” “Its doorpost was rectangular.”¹⁸Ibid.:21.

Although the prophet does not say explicitly whether or not he saw a Menorah, there is no doubt that it will be present in the Future Beis HaMikdash, for the Future Beis HaMikdash will not lack any of the vessels described in the narrative God communicated to Moshe. Furthermore, Rav Yitzchak Abarbanel interprets the phrase,¹Yechezkel 41:21. The phrase is translated here according to Rav Yitzchak Abarbanel’s interpretation. According to Rashi and others, it would be translated differently. “Within the holy place, there was a light like a light” as meaning “Inside the Sanctuary (‘within the holy place’), the Menorah radiated light” (“there was a light”) throughout the entire Beis HaMikdash (“that was like a light”, i.e. like the light every person has at home near his table). [This interpretation can be derived from] the Shunamite woman, who says with regard to the prophet Elisha,²II Melachim 4:10. “Let us place there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him.” The word the Shunamite woman uses for lamp, is “menorah.”

“The entrance was six cubits” high. “The width of the entrance was seven cubits.” “Its doorposts were rectangular”⁸Ibid.:21. and “it had two doors”⁹Ibid.:23. that would close one opposite the other, one attached to the northern doorpost, and one to the southern one.