Shit

The hollow beneath the altar into which the nessakhim — the wine and water poured at the top of the Mizbeach — run down through a channel pierced in the altar: the shitin. In the paving, against the south-west corner, a marble slab one ama by one ama bears a ring: it is lifted to go down into the shit and clean it.

Dimensions

• marble slab one ama by one ama, with its ring, against the south-west corner
• beneath the slab, a shaft one ama wide and a cedar ladder
• the hollow: 9 × 9 amot and 6 high, beneath the south-west corner of the altar
• the channel of the nessakhim descends from the top of the south-west corner

Sources

• Middot 3:3“לְמַטָּה בָרִצְפָה בְּאוֹתָהּ הַקֶּרֶן, מָקוֹם הָיָה שָׁם אַמָּה עַל אַמָּה, וְטַבְלָא שֶׁל שַׁיִשׁ, וְטַבַּעַת הָיְתָה קְבוּעָה בָהּ, שֶׁבּוֹ יוֹרְדִין לַשִּׁית וּמְנַקִּין אוֹתוֹ”
• Bartenura Middot 3:3“לֶחָלָל שֶׁתַּחַת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כְּנֶגֶד מְקוֹם הַנְּסָכִים”
• Rambam on Middot 3:3“מתקבצים ג"כ במקום אחד תחת הארץ יקרא שית”
• Meilah 3:3“יָצְאוּ לַשִּׁיתִין, אֵין מוֹעֲלִים בָּהֶם”
• Sukkah 4:9“עָלָה בַכֶּבֶשׁ וּפָנָה לִשְׂמֹאלוֹ”
• Sukkah 49a“שִׁיתִּין מְחוֹלָלִין וְיוֹרְדִין עַד תְּהוֹם”
• Tiferet Yisrael Middot 3:3“ויורדים משם בסולם אל החלל הקטן שתחת היסוד”
• Rambam, Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 2:11“וְהֵן הַנִּקְרָאִין שִׁיתִין שֶׁהַדָּמִים יוֹרְדִין בָּהֶן”

Project decisionAdopted: the shit is the cavity beneath the altar into which the wine and water of the libations flow, as Bartenura and the Rambam read it in their commentaries on Middot 3:3. In the Mishneh Torah, the Rambam also gives the name shitin to the two holes through which the blood runs down (Beit HaBechirah 2:11). Set aside: the Tiferet Yisrael, for whom it is the cavity into which the blood drains. Not shown: the two blood holes and the channel that carries the blood away (Middot 3:2). Tour's choice: the place of the slab, the size of the cavity, the ladder and the duct.