Seat of the Sanhedrin, and place where the lots for the Kohanim were drawn. It straddles the north wall of the Azara, half within the sacred area, half outside it: the wall breaks off across its width, and the boundary is marked on the floor. Two openings, one onto the Azara in the south, the other onto the chol in the east, at the top of twenty steps coming up from the terrace of the Cheil. The Gemara calls them petachim, not sha'arim — they are not gates of the Azara. Its walls are of hewn stone broken by courses of cedar; in the chol half, where the court sits, the floor is of cedar and the far wall is lined with carved cedar panels. In the sacred half, the Kohanim stand in a circle for the drawing of lots, and they come there to read the Shema. The Sanhedrin sits in the chol half, since no one sits in the Azara except the kings of the house of David. It sits in a semicircle, so that the judges see one another: the Nasi in the middle, the Av Beit Din at his right, two scribes standing before them — three according to R. Yehuda —, and three rows of students seated facing the judges. It sits there from the morning Tamid until the evening one; on Shabbat and festivals, it sits on the Cheil. There it judges the Kohanim: one found unfit dresses in black and leaves, one found fit dresses in white and goes in to serve with his brothers. Two courts of twenty-three sit below, at the eastern gates of the Har HaBayit and of the Ezrat Nashim: one goes up from one to the other, then here (Sanhedrin 11:2).
Dimensions
- straddling the north wall
- half in the sacred area, half outside it, the boundary marked on the floor
- two petachim: to the south onto the Azara, to the east onto the Cheil
- the Sanhedrin in a semicircle, in the chol half
- the Nasi in the middle, the Av Beit Din at his right
- two scribes standing (three according to R. Yehuda), three rows of students facing the judges
Sources
- Yoma 25a“חֶצְיָהּ בַּקֹּדֶשׁ וְחֶצְיָהּ בַּחוֹל… שְׁנֵי פְתָחִים הָיוּ לָהּ”
- Yoma 25a“לשכת הגזית כמין בסילקי גדולה היתה, פייס במזרחה, וזקן יושב במערבה. והכהנים מוקפין ועומדין כמין כוליאר”
- Yoma 25a“אין ישיבה בעזרה אלא למלכי בית דוד בלבד”
- Rambam, Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 5:17“וּבַחֵצִי שֶׁל חֹל הָיוּ הַסַּנְהֶדְרִין יוֹשְׁבִין”
- Sanhedrin 4:3“סַנְהֶדְרִין הָיְתָה כַּחֲצִי גֹרֶן עֲגֻלָּה, כְּדֵי שֶׁיְּהוּ רוֹאִין זֶה אֶת זֶה. וּשְׁנֵי סוֹפְרֵי הַדַּיָּנִין עוֹמְדִין לִפְנֵיהֶם, אֶחָד מִיָּמִין וְאֶחָד מִשְּׂמֹאל”
- Sanhedrin 4:4“וְשָׁלֹשׁ שׁוּרוֹת שֶׁל תַּלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים יוֹשְׁבִין לִפְנֵיהֶם, כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד מַכִּיר אֶת מְקוֹמוֹ”
- Tosefta Sanhedrin 8:1“הנשיא יושב באמצע וזקנים יושבים מימינו ושמאלו”
- Rambam, Hilchot Sanhedrin 1:3“וּמוֹשִׁיבִין הַגָּדוֹל שֶׁבַּשִּׁבְעִים מִשְׁנֶה לָרֹאשׁ וְיוֹשֵׁב מִימִינוֹ וְהוּא הַנִּקְרָא אַב בֵּית דִּין”
- Sanhedrin 88b“בית דין של שבעים ואחד יושבין בלשכת הגזית… ששם יושבין מתמיד של שחר עד תמיד של בין הערבים. ובשבתות ובימים טובים, יושבין בחיל”
- Middot 5:4“לִשְׁכַּת הַגָּזִית, שָׁם הָיְתָה סַנְהֶדְרִי גְדוֹלָה שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל יוֹשֶׁבֶת וְדָנָה אֶת הַכְּהֻנָּה, וְכֹהֵן שֶׁנִּמְצָא בוֹ פְסוּל, לוֹבֵשׁ שְׁחוֹרִים וּמִתְעַטֵּף שְׁחוֹרִים, וְיוֹצֵא וְהוֹלֵךְ לוֹ. וְשֶׁלֹּא נִמְצָא בוֹ פְסוּל, לוֹבֵשׁ לְבָנִים וּמִתְעַטֵּף לְבָנִים, נִכְנָס וּמְשַׁמֵּשׁ עִם אֶחָיו הַכֹּהֲנִים”
- Tamid 4:3“וְיָרְדוּ וּבָאוּ לָהֶם לְלִשְׁכַּת הַגָּזִית, לִקְרוֹת אֶת שְׁמַע”
- I Kings 7:7“וְאוּלָם הַכִּסֵּא אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁפָּט שָׁם אֻלָם הַמִּשְׁפָּט עָשָׂה וְסָפוּן בָּאֶרֶז מֵהַקַּרְקַע עַד הַקַּרְקָע”
- I Kings 6:18“וְאֶרֶז אֶל הַבַּיִת פְּנִימָה מִקְלַעַת פְּקָעִים וּפְטוּרֵי צִצִּים”
- I Kings 10:19“וְרֹאשׁ עָגֹל לַכִּסֵּה מֵאַחֲרָיו וְיָדֹת מִזֶּה וּמִזֶּה אֶל מְקוֹם הַשָּׁבֶת”
- Yoma 19a“שָׁלֹשׁ שֶׁבַּצָּפוֹן: לִשְׁכַּת הָעֵץ, לִשְׁכַּת הַגּוֹלָה, לִשְׁכַּת הַגָּזִית”
- Sanhedrin 4:3“רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, שְׁלֹשָׁה”
- Tosafot Yom Tov Middot 5:4“אבל במקום שפתוחה היא לחול היו מעלות שעליה עולין וממנה יורדין לחול”
Project decisionAdopted: the distribution of Yoma 19a and the Rambam (Beit HaBechirah 5:17) — Melach, Parva and Medichin in the south, Etz, Gola and Gazit in the north. The standard text of Middot 5:3–4 reverses the two sides; Tosafot Yom Tov (Middot 5:3) notes the variant. The Rambam also places these chambers “in the Ezrat Israel”; the tour sets them against the wall of the Azara. Set aside: the orientation of the baraita in Yoma 25a, “the lottery in its east, and the elder sitting in its west,” from which Abaye infers that the sacred half is to the east and the non-sacred half to the west; straddling the north wall, the tour's room has its sacred half to the south and its non-sacred half to the north. Also set aside: R. Yehuda, for whom the scribes are three (Sanhedrin 4:3). Tour's choice: the opening onto the non-sacred area to the east, and its twenty steps — Tosafot Yom Tov (Middot 5:4) says one went up to it by steps, without giving their number; the decoration, which the Gemara only calls "like a great basilica", taken from the Tanakh and not from Roman architecture: courses of cedar beams in the stone as in the walls of Solomon's court, a cedar floor like his hall of judgment, a far wall of framed cedar panels whose rails carry the gourds and flowers of the Bayit, a ceiling of cedar beams; the three tiers and the Nasi's dais; seats modelled on Solomon's throne, with a rounded back and armrests but without its lions, the Nasi's overlaid with gold; the scribes' lecterns and the students' benches; the boundary marked on the floor, by analogy with the Beit HaMoked, of which Middot 1:6 says it. The room shows the layout of the court, not its numbers: seventy-one judges and three rows of students do not fit in it.