1 And you shall make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
2 And you shall make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.
3 And you shall make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his fleshhooks, and his firepans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
4 And you shall make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brasen rings in the four corners thereof.
5 And you shall put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar.
6 And you shall make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.
7 And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it.
8 Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.
9 And you shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:
10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
11 And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of an hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
12 And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
13 And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
14 The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
15 And on the other side shall be hangings fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
16 And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.
17 All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.
18 The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.
19 All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.
20 And you shall command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
h.ועשית את המזבח וגו׳ ושלש אמות קמתו AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR etc. AND THE HEIGHT THEREOF SHALL BE THREE CUBITS — These words should be understood as they are written (i. e. to mean exactly what they say — that its height was three cubits); this is the opinion of R. Jehudah. R. José, however, says: it is stated here, “[the altar shall be] square” and it is stated with reference to the inner (the golden) altar, (Exodus 30:2) “square [shall it be].” How was it there (in the case of the latter)? Its height was twice its length (“a cubit the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof,. .. and two cubits the height thereof”)! So, also, here: the height shall be twice its length, i. e. ten cubits. And if you ask, how, then, do I explain the words and three cubits the height thereof?” I reply that this gives the measurement from the edge of the surround (סובב) upwards (whilst 10 cubits was the actual height from the ground to the top of the altar) (cf. Zevachim 60a; Rashi on v. 5).
h.ממנו תהיין קרנתיו ITS HORNS SHALL BE OF THE SAME — i. e. he shall not make them separately and afterwards attach them to it (to the altar).
h.וצפית אתו נחשת AND THOU SHALT OVERLAY IT WITH COPPER — to atone for sins committed with effrontery (more lit., with impudence of forehead, the Hebrew expression for effrontery being, “having a copper forehead,”) as it is said, (Isaiah 48:4) “[Because I know that thou art obstinate] and that thy forehead is copper” (cf. our English expression “brazen-faced”) (Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 11).
h.סירתיו — a kind of pot.
h.לדשנו means TO REMOVE ITS ASHES in them. That is exactly as Onkelos translated it: למספי קטמה, to remove the ashes into them. For although in its primary sense דַּשֵּׁן would mean to cover with ashes, it has also the meaning of removing the ashes, for there are in the Hebrew language certain expressions with the peculiarity that the same word changes in meaning so as to be used to denote both “construction” and “destruction,” (having a positive and a negative meaning). Examples are: (Psalms 80:10) “and didst cause it to take deep root (ותשרש)”; (Job 5:3) “I have seen the foolish taking root (משריש),” whilst we have its opposite (negative) meaning in, (Job 31:12) “and thou wouldst root out (תשרש) all my increase.” Similar to it is, (Isaiah 17:6) “in the utmost fruitful branches (בסעיפיה),” and its opposite, (Isaiah 10:33) “The Lord of hosts shall מסעף”, i. e. shall lop off the branches thereof. Similar to it is also (Jeremiah 50:17) “And this last person עִצְּמוֹ” — “has broken his bones” although the primary meaning of עצם is to be strongboned. Similar to it is, (1 Kings 21:13) “and stoned him with stones (ויסקלהו)” i. e. heaped up stones above him, and its opposite is, (Isaiah 62:10) “סקלו the stones” — i. e. remove its stones; and so, too, (Isaiah 5:2) “And he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof (ויסקלהו).” Thus here, also, לדשנו means to remove its ashes. In 0. F. à discendrer.
h.ויעיו AND ITS SHOVELS — as the Targum renders it, מגרפות, shovels by which the ashes were removed. They had the form of the lid of a pot, of thin metal, but having a handle. In old French vedil.
h.ומזרקתיו AND ITS BOWLS, in which to receive the blood of the sacrifices.
h.ומזלגתיו AND ITS FLESHHOOKS — These had the form of bent hooks; they stuck them forcibly into the flesh so that they penetrated it, and with them they turned the flesh over upon the coals of the fire-place in order that it might become the more quickly consumed. In old French these are called crochets and in the language of our Sages צנוריות (Yoma 12a).
h.ומחתתיו AND ITS FIRE-PANS — These had a cavity to hold things so that the coals might be taken in them from the altar in order to carry them on to the inner altar for the incense. And because of their use for raking the coals into them (חתיה) they were called מחתות. This word is of the same root and meaning as the verb in, (Isaiah 30:14) “לחתות fire from the fire-place,” which has the meaning of drawing fire from its place. Similar is, (Proverbs 6:27) “Can a man rake (היחתה) fire into his bosom?”
h.לכל כליו means ALL THE VESSELS THEREOF [THOU SHALT MAKE OF COPPER] (i. e. it does not mean: “thou shalt make things of copper, for (i. e. to serve as) all its vessels” but the ל is redundant; cf. Rashi on Exodus 14:28).
h.מכבר A GRATE — מכבר is an expression connected with כברה, a sieve which is called in old French crible. A kind of covering was made for the altar, constructed with many holes just like a net. The word of this verse are transposed, and its explanation is as follows: And thou shalt make for it a grate of copper, of network.
h.כרכב המזבח THE COMPASS OF THE ALTAR — כרכב is a surround. Anything which encompasses an object all the way round is called כרכב, just as we read in the Talmudical section beginning with the words הכל שוחטין (Chullin 25a): The following come under the description of unfinished wooden vessels — all such as have still to be polished and to be rounded off (ולכרכב; i. e. making a rim by hollowing out the centre). This is similar to the practice of making rounded grooves in the boards that form the sides of chests and wooden chairs. For the altar too he made a hollowing round about — its width was a cubit — in its wall for ornamentation. It was made at the end of three cubits of its height (measuring from the top of the altar). This is according to the view of him who says (cf. v. 1): its (the altar's) height was twice its length. And if you ask how, then, can I explain the statement, “and the height thereof shall be three cubits” I reply, that this gives the measurement from the edge of the surround upwards. This surround served only as an ornamentation, but a surround for the priests to walk upon when officiating the copper altar had only on its top within its horns (running from one horn to the other). Thus we read in Treatise Zevachim 62a: What is the כרכב? The sunken space between one horn of the altar and the other, this being a cubit in width, and, from that space inward (towards the centre of the altar) a space of another cubit upon which the priests could walk right round the altar, thus making a surround two cubits in width. These two cubits were called כרכב. The criticism is there made to this definition: But is it not written, “[and thou shalt put it (the grate)] under the compass of the altar beneath” — which statement teaches us that the כרכב was on the side of the altar and not on its top since the covering formed by the grate was beneath it? Whereupon the Talmud replies (lit., the replier replies), that in fact there were two surrounds, one for ornamentation (that below) and another (on the top) for the priests that they should not slip off when walking round. The one on the side of the altar was intended for ornamentation, and beneath it they put the grate as a covering and its width reached to the middle of its (the altar’s) height, measuring this from the ground. It also served to mark the middle of its height separating the two halves of the altars side upon which were put respectively the sacrifical blood which had to be sprinkled above (on the upper part; this was the blood of a חטאת) and the blood which had to be sprinkled below (that of עולה,שלמים and אשם). Corresponding to this there was made for the altar in the “Eternal House” (the Temple at Jerusalem) a sign consisting of a red line (Zevachim 53a; Mishnah Middot 3:1). As to the ascent (כבש — the inclined plane) upon which they went up to the top of the altar, it is true that Scripture does not expressly mention it in this section but we have it already implied in the statement in the section beginning with the words מזבח אדמה תעשה לי (Exodus 20:21—23): “Thou shalt not go up by steps [unto my altar]” — i. e. thou shalt not make steps on its ascent, but thou shalt make an unbroken ascent, — this tells us that it had such an ascent. — So do we read in the Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:23:1). — For the altar of earth there spoken of is identical with the altar of copper described here and it was called an altar of earth because they used to fill the hollow space within it (within its coppered walls) with earth at every place where they encamped in the wilderness. This ascent was on the south of the altar, its top standing away from the altar just a hair’s breadth (i. e. almost touching the altar). Its foot reached to the cubit adjacent to the hangings of the court on the south, (i. e. it was one cubit distant from those hangings of the enclosure). This latter statement is according to him who holds that its height (that of the altar) was ten cubits, whilst according to him who holds that the command, (v. 1) “and three cubits shall be the height thereof” is to be taken literally (cf. Rashi on v. 1) the length of the ascent was only ten cubits, for since the altar was lower the slope leading to its top could not be a very long one. So did I find in the Boraitha דמ“ט מדות (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 419). And as regards this statement that it stood away from the top of the altar just a hair’s breadth, in Treatise Zevachim 62b they (the Rabbis) derived it from a Biblical text.
h.בטבעת [AND THE BARS SHALL BE BROUGHT] INTO THE RINGS — into the four rings made for the grate (v. 4).
h.נבוב לחת HOLLOW WITH TABLETS — Render it as the Targum does, חליל לוחין, hollow as regards boards (לוחין is what is termed an accusative of respect): boards of shittim-wood on all sides (cf. v. 1) and a hollow space in the middle; it shall not be in its entirety a single block of wood, the thickness of which in two directions should be five cubits by five cubits — like the trunk of a tree, which has been hollowed out.
h.קלעים HANGINGS — made like the sails of ships, full of holes, of plaited work and not weaver’s work. The rendering in the Targum, סרדין, is the same as the rendering of מִכְבָּר, which it renders by the singular סרדא; this is because they, both the hangings and the grate, are riddled with holes like a sieve. h.לפאה האחת FOR ONE SIDE — the entire side (not only the corner; cf. Rashi on Exodus 26:18) is called פאה.
h.ועמדיו עשרים AND TWENTY COLUMNS THEREOF — There was a space of five cubits between one column and the other
h.ואדניהם AND THE SOCKETS of the columns SHALL BE OF COPPER (i. e. the word נחשת is to be connected only with the preceding word ואדניהם, not with ועמדיו at the beginning of the verse). The sockets rested on the ground and the columns were inserted in them. There was made a kind of rail which is called pals in old French, six handbreadths by three, and a copper ring was fixed in its centre. They folded the upper edge of the curtaining round it (round each rail) by cords at the places where the curtaining came opposite each column and they hung the rail by its ring on the hook which was on the column and which was made like the letter ו — one of its ends being bent upward and the other end being driven into the column, like those hooks which are made to fix doors upon them, and which are called in old French gonds. Thus the width of curtain was hanging down and this width formed the height of the walls of the court.
h.ווי העמדים are the hooks already mentioned.
h.וחשקיהם AND THEIR FILLETS — The columns were encircled with silver threads. I do not know, however, whether this was done over their whole surface or at the top only or round the middle only, but I do know that חשוק denotes “tied on”, for we find in the account of the concubine of Gibeah (Judges 19:10): “there were with him a couple of asses saddled (חבושים lit., bound)” which latter word the Targum renders by חשוקים.
h.לפאת קדמה מזרחה ON THE EAST SIDE EASTWARDS — The last two words are the same as פני המזרח. The word הדם is synonymous with פנים, the face (the front side of any thing), and אחור is the same term as אֲחוֹרַיִם, the buttocks, the back-side. The East is therefore called קדם because it is the front part of the world; correspondingly, the West is called אחור, the back part of the world just as you speak of (Deuteronomy 11:24) הים האחרון the Hinder Sea, which the Targum renders by “the Western Sea.”
h.חמשים אמה FIFTY CUBITS — These fifty cubits were not all filled in with curtaining, because the entrance was there; there were only fifteen cubits of curtaining at the side of the entrance in the one direction, similarly on the other side thereof. Thus there was left the width of the open space at the entrance consisting of 20 cubits between (between the two lengths of curtaining to the right and left of the entrance). This is what is meant by: (v. 16) “and for the gate of the enclosure a veil of twenty cubits” — a veil serving as a screen for the entrance, twenty cubits long, equal to the breadth of the entrance.
h.עמדיהם שלשה THEIR COLUMNS THREE — There were five cubits space between one column and another column: between the column at the end of the southern row, standing at the southeast corner, to the first column which was one of the three in the east there were five cubits; from that to the second, five cubits, and from the second to the third, five cubits. It was similar at the other side of the entrance. And four columns for the screen are mentioned here, so that you have ten columns for the east corresponding to the ten columns in the west side (v. 12).
h.כל עמודי החצר סביב וגו׳ ALL THE COLUMNS ROUND ABOUT THE ENCLOSURE etc. — Because Scripture expressly mentioned hooks and fillets and copper sockets in connection only with the north and the south, and with regard to the east and the west there is no mention of hooks and fillets and copper sockets (cf. vv. 14, 15, where there is indeed mention of sockets but it is not stated that they should be of copper), therefore Scripture now comes and gives directions that the sockets of all the pillars that are round about should be of copper.
h.ארך החצר THE LENGTH OF THE ENCLOSURE — i. e. its north and south sides which run from east to west, SHALL BE A HUNDRED CUBITS.
h.ורחב חמשים בחמשים AND THE BREADTH FIFTY EVERYWHERE — The part of the enclosure in the east side was a square of fifty by fifty cubits, for the Tabernacle was thirty cubits long and 10 cubits wide. Its entrance was placed in the east at the end of the outer fifty cubits of the length of the enclosure; consequently it (the Tabernacle) was entirely within the inner (the western) fifty cubits and its length finished up at the end of another thirty cubits (thus using up eighty cubits in the middle of the length of the enclosure); it followed therefore that it had a space of twenty cubits behind, between the hangings of the enclosure in the west and the curtains of the back of the Tabernacle. The breadth of the Tabernacle was using up ten cubits in the middle of the breadth of the enclosure; thus it had a space of twenty cubits on the north and on the south between the hangings of the enclosure and the curtains of the Tabernacle and there was a similar space in the west, as shown above, whilst fifty by fifty was the court in front of it (cf. Eruvin 23b).
h.וקמה חמש אמות AND THE HEIGHT FIVE CUBITS — The height of the partitions of the enclosure was five cubits and this was formed by the breadth of the curtaining.
h.ואדניהם נחשת AND THEIR SOCKETS OF COPPER — This statement is intended to include the sockets of the screen — that you should not say: sockets of copper are prescribed only for the columns of the curtaining (v. 17), but the sockets of the screen which are not stated to be of copper (v. 16) may be of another material; this, it appears to me, is the reason why Scripture repeats these words after having used them in v. 17.
h.לכל כלי המשכן ALL THE VESSELS OF THE TABERNACLE that were necessary for erecting it and for taking it down as, for instance, hammers to drive in the pegs and the columns.
h.יתדת PEGS — a kind of copper nail made for the curtains of the אהל (the second layer of curtain over the top) and for the hangings of the enclosure, fastened to these by cords all the way round them on their lower edge in order that the wind should not lift them up. I do not know for certain whether they were stuck in the ground or whether they were merely tied to the edges and hung down, their weight loading the edges of the curtains that they should not move about in the wind. But I would say that their name (i. e. the name given here to these pieces of metal) shows that they were stuck in the ground, and for that reason they are here called יתדת. The following verse supports me in my opinion: (Isaiah 33:20) “A tent that shall not be taken down; its stakes (יתדותיו) shall never be plucked up.”.
h.ואתה תצוה… זך CLEAR — without lees; and this was effected not by straining the oil but as we learn in Treatise Menachoth 86a “He lets it (the olive) ripen on the top of the olive-tree etc.”
h.כתית BEATEN — he pounds the olives in a mortar and must not grind them in a mill, so that there may be no lees; and after he has thus extracted the first drop of oil he may bring them into the mill and grind them. The second oil (that obtained by grinding) is unfitted for use in the candelabrum but is permissible for the meal-offerings (which had to be mingled with oil) since it is said here, “Beaten for the light”, and hence it is not essential that it should be beaten for the meal-offerings (Menachot 86a; cf. Rashi on Exodus 29:40).
h.להעלות נר תמיד TO CAUSE THE LIGHT TO BURN (lit., to ascend) CONTINUALLY — he must enkindle it until the flame ascends by itself (Shabbat 21a).
h.תמיד CONTINUALLY — doing something every night, as is described here, may be termed תמיד, continually, just as you speak of (Numbers 27:6) “The continual (תמיד) burnt-offering”, although this was sacrificed only from day to day. So, too, in the case of the meal-offering made in a flat pan it is said, (Leviticus 6:13) that it should be brought continually (תמיד) and yet it was only brought thus: “Half of it in the morning, and half of it at evening”. However, the expression תמיד which is used in connection with the show-bread (Exodus 25:30) denotes the whole period without a break from Sabbath to Sabbath).
h.מערב עד בקר FROM EVENING TO MORNING — Give it its due measure of oil so that it may burn from evening to morning. Our Rabbis estimated half a log of oil as sufficient for the nights of Tebeth which are long, and they ordained a similar quantity for every night of the year, and if any were left over on the shorter nights it did not matter (Menachot 89a).