Rabbinic Descriptions of the Second Temple Structure

1:3. There were five gates to the Temple Mount: the two Huldah Gates on the south, which were used for both entrance and exit; the Kiponus Gate on the west, which was used for both entrance and exit; the Taddi Gate on the north, which was not used at all;¹ [and] the Eastern Gate, over which was a representation of the palace of Shushan and through which the high priest who burned the red heifer and all who assisted with it would go out to the Mount of Olives.²

4. There were seven gates in the courtyard: three in the north, three in the south, and one in the east. In the south were the Gate of Kindling, and next to it the Gate of the Firstborn, and then the Water Gate. In the east was the Gate of Nicanor, which had two chambers, one on its right and one on its left.³ One was the chamber of Phinehas the dresser, and the other was the chamber of the griddle-cake makers.⁴

5. On the north was the Gate of the Sparks, which was shaped like a portico. It had an upper chamber built on it, and the priests used to keep watch above and the Levites below, and it had a door opening into the ḥel.⁵ Next to it was the Gate of the Sacrifice, and next to that, the fire chamber.

6. There were four chambers inside the fire chamber, like sleeping chambers opening into a hall, two on sacred ground and two on common [ground], and there was a row of mosaic stones separating the holy from the common. For what were they used? The one on the southwest was the chamber of sacrificial lambs. The one on the southeast was the chamber of the showbread. In the one on the northeast, the Hasmoneans deposited the stones of the altar that the kings of Greece had defiled.⁶ Through the one on the northwest, they used to go down to the bathing place.

7. The fire chamber had two gates, one opening into the ḥel and one into the courtyard. R. Judah says: the one that opened onto the courtyard had a small opening through which they went in to search the courtyard.

8. The fire chamber was vaulted. It was a large room surrounded with stone projections, and the elders of the clan [serving in the Temple] used to sleep there, with the keys of the Temple courtyard in their hands. The priestly initiates used to place their bedding on the ground.

9. There was a place there [in the fire chamber] one cubit square on which was a slab of marble. In this was fixed a ring and a chain on which the keys were hung. When closing time came, the priest would raise the slab by the ring and take the keys from the chain. Then the priest would lock up from the inside while the Levite was sleeping outside. When he finished locking up, he would replace the keys on the chain and the slab in its place and put his garment on it and sleep there. If one of them had a seminal emission, he would go out by the winding stair that went under the building, which was lit by lamps on both sides, until he reached the bathing place. R. Eliezer ben Jacob says: He descended by the winding stair that went under the ḥel, and he went out by the Taddi Gate.

2:1. The Temple Mount was five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits. The greater part of it was on the south, after that on the east, after that on the north, and the smallest part on the west. The largest part was the part most used.

2. All who entered the Temple Mount entered by the right and went round [to the right] and went out by the left, save for one to whom something had happened, who entered and went round to the left. [He was asked,] “Why do you go round to the left?” [If he answered,] “Because I am a mourner,” [they said to him,] “May He who dwells in this house comfort you.” [If he answered,] “Because I am excommunicated,” [they said,] “May He who dwells in this house inspire them to draw you near again”—the words of R. Meir. R. Yosi said to him: You make it seem as if they treated him unjustly. Rather, [they should say,] “May He who dwells in this house inspire you to listen to the words of your colleagues so that they may draw you near again.”

3. Within it was the soreg,⁷ which was ten handbreadths high. There were thirteen breaches in it, which were originally made by the kings of Greece, and when they repaired them they enacted that thirteen prostrations should be made facing them.⁸ Within this was the ḥel, which was ten cubits [broad]. There were twelve steps there. The height of each step was half a cubit, and its tread was half a cubit. All the steps in the Temple were half a cubit high with a tread of half a cubit, except those of the porch. All the doorways in the Temple were twenty cubits high and ten cubits broad, except those of the porch. All the doorways there had doors in them, except those of the porch. All the gates there had lintels, except that of Taddi, which had two stones inclined toward one another. All the original gates were changed for gates of gold except the Gates of Nicanor, because a miracle happened with them.⁹ Some say: because their copper gleamed like gold. [ . . . ]

5. The Women’s Court was 135 cubits long by 135 wide. It had four chambers in its four corners, each of which was forty cubits. They were not roofed, and they will remain so in the time to come, as it says: Then he brought me forth into the outer court and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court, and behold, in every corner of the court there was a court. In the four corners of the court there were keturot courts (Ezekiel 46:21–22). Keturot means that they were not roofed. For what were they used? The southeastern one was the chamber of the nazirites, where the nazirites used to boil their shelamim and shave their hair and throw it under the pot.¹⁰ The northeastern one was the wood chamber, where priests with physical defects used to pick out the wood that had worms, every piece with a worm in it being unfit for use on the altar. The northwestern one was the chamber of those with skin disease. The southwestern one: R. Eliezer ben Jacob said: I forget what it was used for. Abba Saul says: they used to store wine and oil there, and it was called the chamber of oil. It [the Women’s Court] was originally smooth [without protrusions in the walls], but subsequently they surrounded it with a balcony so that the women could look on from above while the men were below, and they did not intermingle. Fifteen steps led up from it to the Israelite Court, corresponding to the fifteen [songs of] ascents mentioned in the book of Psalms, on which the Levites used to sing. They were not rectangular but circular like half of a threshing floor. [ . . . ]

3:1. The altar was thirty-two by thirty-two [cubits]. It rose a cubit and went in a cubit, and this formed the foundation, leaving thirty by thirty. It then rose five cubits and went in one cubit, and this formed the surround, leaving twenty-eight by twenty-eight. The horns extended a cubit in each direction, leaving twenty-six by twenty-six. A cubit on every side was allowed for the priests to go around, leaving twenty-four by twenty-four as the place for the wood pile [for the altar fire]. R. Yosi said: Originally, the total area [occupied by the altar] was only twenty-eight by twenty-eight, and it rose with the dimensions mentioned until the space left for the altar pile was only twenty by twenty. When, however, the children of the exile returned, they added four cubits on the north and four on the west like a gamma, since it is said: Now the hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve broad, square (Ezekiel 43:16). Is it possible that it was only twelve by twelve? When it says with four equal sides (ibid.), this shows that he¹¹ was measuring from the middle, twelve cubits in every direction. A line of red paint ran around it in the middle to divide between the upper and the lower blood. The foundation ran the whole length of the north and west sides, and it took up one cubit on the south and one on the east.

2. At the southwestern corner [of the foundation] there were two openings like two small nostrils through which the blood that was poured on the western side of the foundation and on the southern side flowed down until the two streams became mingled in the channel, through which they made their way out to the Kidron Valley.

3. On the floor beneath at that corner, there was a place one square cubit [in area] on which was a marble slab with a ring fixed in it, and through this they used to go down to the pit to clean it out. There was an ascent on the south side of the altar, thirty-two [long] by sixteen broad. It had a square window in its western side where disqualified sin offerings of birds were placed. [ . . . ]

5. There were rings to the north of the altar, six rows of four each—and some say four rows of six each—on which they used to slaughter the sacrificial animals. The slaughterhouse was to the north of the altar, and on it were eight small pillars, on top of which were blocks of cedar wood, in which were fixed hooks of iron, three rows in each, on which they would hang [the sacrifice], and they would strip its hide on tables of marble that stood between the pillars.

6. The laver was between the porch and the altar, a little to the south. Between the porch and the altar were twenty-two cubits. There were twelve steps there, half a cubit high and a cubit broad. There was a cubit, a cubit, and a level space of three cubits; then a cubit, a cubit, and a level space of three cubits [repeating the pattern three times for a total of nine steps and fifteen cubits]; then at the top, a cubit, a cubit, and a level space of four cubits [totaling twelve steps and twenty-one cubits, assuming an additional cubit between the altar and the first step]. R. Judah says that at the top there was a cubit, a cubit, and a level space of five cubits [totaling twenty-two cubits without an additional cubit between the altar and the first step]. [ . . . ]

4:1. The doorway of the hekhal¹² was twenty cubits high and ten broad. It had four doors, two on the inner side and two on the outer, as it says: And the hekhal and the shrine had two doors (Ezekiel 41:23). The outer ones opened into the interior of the doorway so as to cover the thickness of the wall, while the inner ones opened into the Temple so as to cover the space behind the doors, because the whole of the Temple was overlaid with gold except the space behind the doors. R. Judah says: they stood within the doorway, and they resembled folding doors. [One set of doors covered] two and a half cubits [of the wall], and [the other set covered] two and a half cubits, leaving half a cubit as a doorpost at the one end and half a cubit as a doorpost at the other end, as it says: And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves, two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other (Ezekiel 41:24).

2. The great gate had two small doors, one to the north and one to the south. No one ever entered through the one to the south. Ezekiel spoke about it explicitly, as it says: And the Lord said to me: this gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut (Ezekiel 44:2). He [the priest] took the key and opened the [northern] door and went into the cell, and from the cell he went into the hekhal. R. Judah says: he used to walk along in the thickness of the wall until he came to the space between the two gates. He would open the outer doors from within and the inner doors from without.

3. There were thirty-eight cells there, fifteen on the north, fifteen on the south, and eight on the west. On the north and on the south there were five over five and five again over those; on the west there were three over three and two over those. Each had three openings, one to the cell on the right, one to the cell on the left, and one to the cell above. In the [one at the] northeastern corner there were five openings, one to the cell on the right, one to the cell above, one to the mesibbah,¹³ one to the door, and one to the hekhal. [ . . . ]

5. The mesibbah went up from the northeast corner to the northwest corner, by which they used to go up to the roofs of the cells. One would ascend the mesibbah facing the west, traversing the whole of the northern side until one reached the west. Upon reaching the west, one turned to face south and then traversed the whole of the west side until reaching the south. Upon reaching the south, one turned to face eastward and then traversed the south side until reaching the door of the upper chamber, since the door of the upper chamber opened to the south. In the doorway of the upper chamber were two columns of cedar, by which they used to climb up to the roof of the upper chamber, and at the top of them was a row of stones showing the division in the upper chamber between the holy part and the holy of holies. There were trapdoors in the upper chamber opening into the holy of holies, by which the workmen were let down in baskets so that they would not feast their eyes on the holy of holies. [ . . . ]

7. From east to west was one hundred cubits: the wall of the porch five cubits, the porch itself eleven, the wall of the hekhal six cubits and its interior forty, a cubit for the space between and twenty cubits for the holy of holies, the wall of the hekhal six cubits, the cell six cubits, and the wall of the cell five. From north to south was seventy cubits: the wall of the mesibbah five cubits, the mesibbah itself three, the wall of the cell five, the cell itself six, the wall of the hekhal six cubits, its interior twenty, then the wall of the hekhal again six, the cell six and its wall five, then the place of the water descent three cubits and its wall five cubits. The porch extended beyond this fifteen cubits on the north and fifteen cubits on the south, and this space was called the house of the slaughter knives, where they used to store the knives. The hekhal was narrow in the back and broad in front, resembling a lion, as it says: Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped (Isaiah 29:1):¹⁴ Just as a lion is narrow in the back and broad in front, so the hekhal was narrow in the back and broad in front. [ . . . ]

5:1. The whole of the courtyard was 187 cubits long by 135 broad. From east to west it was 187. The space in which the Israelites could go was eleven cubits. The space in which the priests could go was eleven cubits. The altar took up thirty-two. Between the porch and the altar was twenty-two cubits. The hekhal took up one hundred cubits, and there were eleven cubits behind the kapporet.¹⁵ [ . . . ]

3. There were six chambers in the courtyard, three on the north and three on the south. On the north were the salt chamber, the parvah¹⁶ chamber, and the washers’ chamber. In the salt chamber, they used to keep the salt for the offerings. In the parvah chamber, they used to salt the skins of the animal offerings. On its roof was the bath used by the high priest on Yom Kippur. In the washers’ chamber, they used to wash the entrails of the sacrificial animals, and from it a winding way went up to the roof of the parvah chamber.

4. On the south were the wood chamber, the chamber of the exile, and the chamber of hewn stones. The wood chamber: R. Eliezer ben Jacob says: I forget what it was used for. Abba Saul says: It was the chamber of the high priest, and it was behind the two of them, and one roof covered all three. In the chamber of the exile, there was a fixed cistern with a wheel over it, and from there water was provided for all of the courtyard. In the chamber of hewn stone, the great Sanhedrin of Israel used to sit and judge the priesthood. A priest in whom a disqualification was found used to put on black garments and wrap himself in black and go away. One in whom no disqualification was found used to put on white garments and wrap himself in white and go in and serve along with his brother priests. They used to make a feast because no blemish had been found in the seed of Aaron the priest, and they used to say: Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, for no blemish has been found in the seed of Aaron. Blessed is He who chose Aaron and his sons to stand to minister before the Lord in the holy of holies.