Thirty-eight cells arranged over three floors gird the Heikhal and the Kodesh HaKodashim: fifteen to the north, fifteen to the south, eight to the west, connected to one another by openings. At the northeast corner, a turning ramp, the Messiba, rises toward the upper floor and the roofs of the cells; to the south, a strip three amot wide bears the name Beit Horadat HaMayim, “the house of the descent of the water.” Above the Heikhal and the Kodesh HaKodashim lies the upper floor, the Aliyah: hatches there open onto the Kodesh HaKodashim, through which workers were lowered in closed crates when it needed repair.
Dimensions
- 38 cells: 15 to the north, 15 to the south, 8 to the west
- north and south: five over five, and five above; west: three over three, and two above
- the cell widens floor by floor: 5, then 6, then 7
- the wall of the Heikhal recedes by one ama at each floor: 7, then 6, then 5 (tour's choice)
- the six of wall and six of cell in Middot 4:7 taken as the middle floor (tour's choice)
- three openings per cell: to the right, to the left, and toward the one above
- five openings for the one at the northeast corner: to the right, above, to the Messiba, to the pishpash, to the Heikhal
Sources
- Middot 4:3“וּשְׁלֹשִׁים וּשְׁמֹנָה תָאִים הָיוּ שָׁם”
- Middot 4:4“הַתַּחְתּוֹנָה חָמֵשׁ, וְרֹבֶד שֵׁשׁ. וְהָאֶמְצָעִית שֵׁשׁ, וְרֹבֶד שֶׁבַע. וְהָעֶלְיוֹנָה שֶׁבַע”
- Middot 4:7“כֹּתֶל הַמְּסִבָּה חָמֵשׁ, וְהַמְּסִבָּה שָׁלֹשׁ, כֹּתֶל הַתָּא חָמֵשׁ, וְהַתָּא שֵׁשׁ”
- I Kings 6:6“כִּי מִגְרָעוֹת נָתַן לַבַּיִת סָבִיב חוּצָה לְבִלְתִּי אֲחֹז בְּקִירוֹת הַבָּיִת”
- Middot 4:5“וְלוּלִין הָיוּ פְתוּחִין בָּעֲלִיָּה לְבֵית קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים”
- Tosafot Yom Tov Middot 4:4“אתאים גופייהו קאי ולהם היו מגרעות בכותל ההיכל שעוביו שש ממש”
- Bartenura Middot 4:4“מִחוּץ לְכֹתֶל הַמְּסִבָּה… לְפִי שֶׁכֹּתֶל הַמְּסִבָּה הָיָה הוֹלֵךְ וּמֵצֵר כְּלַפֵּי מַעְלָה”
Project decisionTour's choice: the height of each story of cells, their length and the thickness of the walls between them — the sources do not give them. Adopted: Rashi's reading, reported by Tosafot Yom Tov (Middot 4:4) — the widths in Middot 4:4 are those of the cells, and the recesses are cut into the wall of the Heikhal; the 7, 6 and 5 of that wall, which make the breakdown of Middot 4:7 the middle floor, are the tour's choice. Set aside: Bartenura and the Rambam (Beit HaBechirah 4:9), for whom these 5, 6 and 7 are galleries (yetzi'im) outside the wall of the Messiba, and it is that wall that recedes.