Kaisipang Hudyo sa Ezekiel 46:2: The Third Beit HaMikdash

“They were forty [cubits] long and thirty [cubits] wide. The four [courtyards] were of the one measure…. There was a row of inlaid stones around all four of them and cooking places were made under these rows,”⁴Yechezkel 46:2-23. i.e., a row of inlaid stones jutted out from the wall around the earth. There were holes on top of the stones, with places to put pots. There was empty space below this row of stones where a fire could be kindled beneath the pots placed on top of the stones.⁵I.e., there was a series of cooking hearths around the inner walls of these courtyards.

“And the Nasi will enter the courtyard from the outside via the vestibule of the gate. He will stand at the doorpost of that gate,”³Yechezkel 46:2. i.e., at the northern wicket. “The kohanim will prepare his burnt-offering and his peace-offering. He will prostrate himself on the threshold of the gate and depart, but the gate will not close until the evening. The people of the land will prostrate themselves at the entrance to that gate on Shabbasos and the days of the New Moon before God.”⁴Ibid.:2-3. “When the Nasi will offer a freewill-offering… they shall open the gate.”⁵Ibid.:12. Previously, in his commentary,⁶Rashi, Yechezkel 45:17. Rashi states, “Here, the term Nasi refers to the kohen gadol. This applies whenever the term is mentioned in the passage. [However,] I heard in the name of Rabbi Menachem that it refers to the king.”