Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa 1 Mga Hari 3:4

And Solomon consecrated the interior of the court Our Sages differ in this matter (Zeb. 59): Rabbi Judah says: He consecrated the floor of the forecourt with the sanctity of the altar to burn offerings on the floor, because the copper altar was too small to contain [the offerings], because they brought many sacrifices. Rabbi Jose said to him: Was it not already stated (1:6): “And he offered up on it a thousand burnt offerings” on the altar that Moses had made? When you compute the number of cubits and the number of burnt offerings, you will find that this one of stones was larger than that of Moses, for on Moses’ altar, the place of its pyre was a cubit by a cubit, whereas on Solomon’s, the place of its pyre was twenty-four by twenty-four. The result is that Solomon’s [altar] was 576 times as large as that of Moses. If so, what is the meaning of (I Kings 8:64): “the king consecrated the interior of the court”? That he set the stone altar into it, fastened to the floor.

When they came to Nov and to Givon, bamot were [again] permitted. When Shiloh was destroyed and the ark was taken by the Philistines (I Samuel 4) the Tabernacle was set up in Nov (I Samuel 21). And after Nov was destroyed during Saul’s reign (I Samuel 21-22), they brought the Tabernacle to Givon (I Kings 3:4). While the Tabernacle was in Nov and Givon local altars were again permitted. It seems that these were not important central places, as were Shiloh and subsequently Jerusalem. Thus sacrifices could be offered outside of the Tabernacle.

The hollow part inside the altar would be filled with earth every time the Israelites made camp in order to enable them to offer sacrifices upon it. In this way the instruction of Exodus 20,21: “you shall construct an earthen altar for Me” was fulfilled.
A great miracle occurred on a regular basis on this altar. Although the fire on the altar burned around the clock, neither the wooden boards nor the copper overlay burned or melted. This was also one of the miracles mentioned in Avot 5,5 that even when it used to rain the fire on the altar where the wood was stacked would not be extinguished by the rain. It (the altar during the period when the Temples were standing) was standing in the area called עזרה, an enclosure without a roof, corresponding to the courtyard mentioned in connection with the Tabernacle.
In Tanchuma Terumah 11 we find the following comment:. Moses was afraid that the fire might burn the wood of the altar. G’d reassured him, saying: “why are you afraid Moses? Who ordered fire to burn? You should learn from your own experience. When you came up to the mountain and you entered the ערפל, and you walked between rows of fire you did not get burned. Moreover, you entered My domain, and I Myself Am consuming fire (Deut. 4,24) and you remained unscathed. Similarly, the altar’s boards and covering will not be burned either.” If someone were to say that the copper overlay over the boards of the altar was so thick that no miracle was required to protect it form melting, Rabbi Nechemyah said that it was no thicker than the coin called a דינר. Rabbi Pinchas, son of Bar Chama, said that the altar constructed by Moses (Betzalel) was more beloved by G’d than that constructed for Solomon’s Temple even though Solomon’s altar was much larger, seeing that we read in Kings I 3,4 that Solomon’s altar could accommodate 1.000 burnt offerings (presumably at one time).