Sefer Yechezkel - Perek 41 March 30, 2025 [based on Dr. Tova Ganzel's From Destruction to Restoration]

(1) He then led me into the great hall. He measured the jambs, 6 cubits on either side; such was the depth of each jamb. (2) The entrance was 10 cubits wide, and the flanking walls of the entrance were each 5 cubits wide. Next he measured the depth [of the hall], 40 cubits, and the width, 20 cubits. (3) And then he entered the inner room. He measured each jamb of the entrance, 2 cubits [deep]; the entrance itself, 6 cubits across; and the width of [the flanking wall on either side of] the entrance, 7 cubits. (4) Then he measured the depth, 20 cubits; and the width at the inner end of the great hall was also 20 cubits. And he said to me, “This is the Holy of Holies.”

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Truly, that man is remembered for the good, and his name is Ḥananya ben Ḥizkiya, as if not for him, the book of Ezekiel would have been suppressed because its contents, in many details, contradict matters of Torah. The Sages sought to suppress the book and exclude it from the canon. What did he, Ḥananya ben Ḥizkiya, do? They brought him three hundred jugs of oil, for light and food, up to his upper story, and he sat isolated in the upper story and did not move from there until he homiletically interpreted all of those verses in the book of Ezekiel that seemed contradictory, and resolved the contradictions.

(4) The [design of the] structure built by [King] Solomon is described explicitly in [the Book of] Kings. [In contrast, the design of] the Messianic Temple, though mentioned in [the Book of] Ezekiel, is not explicit or explained. Thus, the people [in the time] of Ezra built the Second Temple according to the structure of Solomon, [including] certain aspects which are explicitly stated in Ezekiel.

(5) Then he measured the wall of the temple. [It was] 6 cubits [thick] on every side of the temple, and the side-chamber measured 4 cubits [across]. (6) The side chambers were arranged one above the other, in 33 sections. All around, there were projections in the temple wall to serve the side chambers as supports, so that [their] supports should not be the temple wall itself.

In a similar manner, the Gemara interprets the verse: “And the side-chambers were one over another, three and thirty times” (Ezekiel 41:6). What is the meaning of: “Three and thirty times”? Rabbi Levi says that Rav Pappi says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnei: If in the future Jerusalem will triple in size, so that it occupies three times its former area, then each and every dwelling will contain thirty stories upward. If the area of Jerusalem will be multiplied by thirty, each and every dwelling will contain three stories above every house.

(7) The winding passage of the side chambers widened from story to story; and since the structure was furnished all over with winding passages from story to story, the structure itself became wider from story to story. It was by this means that one ascended from the bottom story to the top one by way of the middle one.

and it wound higher and higher [Heb. וְנָסְבָה,] and it was surrounded by a spiral staircase, fiz in Old French. This is a stone structure similar to a pillar, with steps winding around it. It seems to the person who is ascending upon it that he is encircling a stone pillar. In German it is called a wendelstein. This is what is [meant when it is] stated regarding Solomon’s Temple (I Kings 6:8): “and upon winding stairs (לוּלִים) they went up into the middle [chamber].” That too is translated [into Aramaic] as וּבִמְסִיבָתָא, like וְנָסְבָה לְמַעְלָה לְמַעְלָה and it wound higher and higher. The spiral staircase continued to wind higher and higher up to the roof of the uppermost cell, as he proceeds to explain, [so] that the spiral staircase ascended from the nethermost cell to the middle one and from the middle one to the uppermost one.

(8) I observed that the temple was surrounded by a raised pavement—the foundations of the side chambers; its elevation was a rod’s length, or 6 cubits. (9) The outer wall of the side chamber was 5 cubits thick, and that which served as a walk between the Temple’s side chambers (10) and the chamber complexes was 20 cubits wide all around the temple. (11) Of entrances to the side chambers giving on the walk, there was one entrance on the north side and one entrance on the south side; and the space of the walk was 5 cubits thick all around. (12) And the structure that fronted on the vacant space at the [Temple’s] western end was 70 cubits deep; the walls of the structure were 5 cubits thick on every side; and it was 90 cubits wide. (13) He measured the [total] depth of the temple, 100 cubits; and the depth of the vacant space and of the structure, with its walls, also came to 100 cubits. (14) The front side of the temple, like the vacant space on the east, was 100 cubits wide. (15) He also measured the width of the structure facing the vacant space in the rear, inclusive of its ledges, 100 cubits. Both the great hall inside and the portico next to the court— (16) the thresholds—and the windows with frames and the ledges at the threshold, all over the three parts of each, were completely overlaid with wood. There was wainscoting from the floor to the windows, including the window [frame]s (17) and extending above the openings, both in the inner temple and outside. And all over the wall, both in the inner one and in the outer, ran a pattern. (18) It consisted of cherubs and palm trees, with a palm tree between every two cherubs. Each cherub had two faces: (19) a human face turned toward the palm tree on one side and a lion’s face turned toward the palm tree on the other side. This was repeated all over the temple; (20) the cherubs and the palm trees were carved on the wall from the floor to above the openings. As regards the great hall, (21) the great hall had four doorposts; and before the Shrine was something resembling (22) a wooden altar 3 cubits high and 2 cubits long and having inner corners; and its length and its walls were of wood. And he said to me, “This is the table that stands before GOD.”

(48) And Solomon made all the furnishings that were in the House of GOD: the altar, of gold; the table for the bread of display, of gold;

(30) And on the table you shall set the bread of display, to be before Me always.

(3) Rabbi Shimon said: if three have eaten at one table and have not spoken there words of Torah, [it is] as if they had eaten sacrifices [offered] to the dead, as it is said, “for all tables are full of filthy vomit, when the All-Present is absent” (Isaiah 28:8). But, if three have eaten at one table, and have spoken there words of Torah, [it is] as if they had eaten at the table of the All-Present, blessed be He, as it is said, “And He said unto me, ‘this is the table before the Lord’” (Ezekiel 41:22).

As for the virtue of prolonging one’s mealtime at the table, which Rav Yehuda mentioned, the Gemara explains: Perhaps a poor person will come during the meal and the host will be in a position to give him food immediately, without forcing the poor person to wait. The Sages elsewhere praised a person who acts appropriately at a meal, as it is written: “The altar, three cubits high and the length thereof, two cubits, was of wood, and so the corners thereof; the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were also of wood” (Ezekiel 41:22), and it is written in the continuation of that verse: “And he said unto me: This is the table that is before the Lord.” The language of this verse is difficult, as it begins with the altar and concludes with the table. Rather, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Elazar both say: As long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel’s transgressions. Now that it is destroyed, a person’s table atones for his transgressions.

(23) The great hall had a double door, and the Shrine likewise had (24) a double door, and each door had two swinging leaves: two for the one door and two such leaves for the other. (25) Cherubs and palm trees were carved on these—on the doors of the hall—just as they were carved on the walls; and there was a lattice of wood outside in front of the portico. (26) And there were windows with frames and palm trees on the flanking walls of the portico on either side [of the entrance] and [on] the Temple’s side chambers and [on] the lattices.

One can infer: But if were not for this decree, the beam would have to be returned to the owner as is, notwithstanding its change in name. Rav Yosef said: This is not a genuine change in name, as a beam retains its name even after it is inserted into a building. As it is taught in a baraita with regard to two obscure terms: The verse states: “And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch; there were also the tzalot of the house, and the ubbim” (Ezekiel 41:26). “Tzalot of the house”; these are the casings [hamaltetin]. “And the ubbim”; these are the beams [hamerishot]. This shows that a beam can retain its name even after it has been built into a house.

(13) The righteous bloom like a date-palm; they thrive like a cedar in Lebanon;