The Gate of Nikanor opens the Azara to the east, at the top of the fifteen steps. It is the only gate of the Azara left in bronze when the others were plated with gold, in memory of the miracle of the gates that came from Alexandria; others say it was because its bronze shone like gold. According to Abba Yossi ben Chanan, two small side gates (pishpeshin) flank it.
Dimensions
- 20 amot high × 10 wide (standard dimension of the gates of the Azara)
- two side pishpeshin, according to Abba Yossi ben Chanan (Middot 2:6)
- bronze, against the gold of the other gates
- open bronze leaves, folded back into the gateway; the pishpeshin, closed, are bronze too (form: the tour's choice)
- two towers of 60 amot on either side, rising from the floor of the Ezrat Nashim: splayed windows, wide outside and narrow inside, closed by a clear screen, and at their head a bronze frieze of palms (after Ye'hezkel 40:14 and 40:16, Rashi, Radak and Metzudat David; form: the tour's choice)
- two bronze recessed orders between the opening and the frame; on the east side the frame runs down to the floor of the Ezrat Nashim (the tour's choice)
Sources
- Middot 2:3“כָּל הַשְּׁעָרִים שֶׁהָיוּ שָׁם, נִשְׁתַּנּוּ לִהְיוֹת שֶׁל זָהָב, חוּץ מִשַּׁעַר נִקָּנוֹר, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁנַּעֲשָׂה בָהֶן נֵס. וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁנְּחֻשְׁתָּן מַצְהִיב”
- Middot 1:4“שֶׁבַּמִּזְרָח, שַׁעַר נִקָּנוֹר, וּשְׁתֵּי לְשָׁכוֹת הָיוּ לוֹ”
- Yoma 3:10
- Yoma 38a“כְּשֶׁהָלַךְ נִיקָנוֹר לְהָבִיא דְּלָתוֹת מֵאֲלֶכְּסַנְדְּרִיָּא שֶׁל מִצְרַיִם”
- Middot 2:6“שֶׁבַּמִּזְרָח, שַׁעַר נִקָּנוֹר. וּשְׁנֵי פִשְׁפָּשִׁים הָיוּ לוֹ, אֶחָד מִימִינוֹ וְאֶחָד מִשְּׂמֹאלוֹ”
- Sukkah 5:5“שָׁלשׁ לִפְתִיחַת שְׁעָרִים”
Project decisionTour's choice: the gate is shown open, its leaves folded back into the gateway, as during the service; Sukkah 5:5 speaks only of trumpet blasts “for the opening of the gates”, without saying how long they stayed open. Closed, it would cut the line of sight that the low east wall is there to allow. The pishpeshin come from the list of thirteen gates of Abba Yossi ben Chanan (Middot 2:6); Middot 1:4 gives Nikanor two lishkot, those of Pinchas HaMalbish and of the Osei Chavitin. The towers: « וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת אֵילִים שִׁשִּׁים אַמָּה » (Ye'hezkel 40:14), and Ye'hezkel 40:32 gives the inner gates the same measures; Ye'hezkel describes the future Temple, so raising them at Nikanor is a choice, as is their form; their windows and the palm at their head follow Rashi, Radak and Metzudat David on Ye'hezkel 40:16. The recessed orders follow the stepped jambs that Radak and Ralbag read in Melakhim I 6:31. Set aside: R. Eliezer ben Yaakov (Yoma 38a), for whom it was a polished bronze, « נְחֹשֶׁת קְלוֹנִיתָא », that shone like gold.