Hypermikdash
SHA'AR HANITZOTZ
This gate had two names (just to confuse you!).
The name, sha'ar hanitzotz (the gate of the spark) tells us of the twenty-four
hour flame that was kept burning in the gateway, just in case the eternal
flame of the altar should have gone out.
The other name, is sha'ar Yechaniya, named
after the great Judean king, Yechaniya. Now, of course, Yechaniya
also had two names: Yechaniya and Yehoyachin. But if you think
this is bad, wait 'till you see how many names there are for the mizbayach
(altar)!
Why was just this gate named after just this
king? Because it was through this gate that Yechaniya, in the last years
of the first Temple period, was led into captivity at the hands of Nevuchadnezzer.
Our people chose to remember Yechaniya for his final acts of courage and
heroism in this terrible captivity.
Outside the gate, overlooking the Temple Mount,
was a balcony built on two pillars. For an view if this balcony's
twin, that of Bais Avtinus, see this. Priests regularly
stood in this attic keeping watch over the Temple (it wasn't that the Temple
needed watching - they weren't usually afraid of attack - but ceremonial
guards lend a place an aura of importance).
There were three places where kohanim kept
an honor guard: here, in Bais Avtinus (a.k.a. the sha'ar
hamayim) and in the Bais Hamoked.
Many other places were guarded by levites (see the first Mishna in Midos).
THE SHA'AR HAMAYIM
This gate, like the sha'ar hanitzotz, had more
than one purpose. It too, had a balcony on the outside from which
a priest stood guard over the Temple Mount.
Above the gate itself were two rooms.
One, Bais Avtinus, was used by members of the Avtinus family who were experts
at preparing the ingredients for the ketorus incense.
The second room contained the
mikvah used by the
high priest for his first of five Yom Kipur immersions.
KETORUS
The Mishna in Yoma (38a) tells us about Bais Avtinus.
This family possessed the closely-guarded secret recipe for mixing ketorus
(incense) so that, when it was burnt, its smoke would go straight up, then,
at the ceiling, drift horizontally in all directions. Despite
early misgivings, our sages later understood and agreed with the reasons
they kept the secret to themselves (they were worried lest the wrong people
use it for the wrong reasons).
From the words of the sages, it seems clear
that the smoke rose, not as a miracle, but from the way the ingredients
were mixed.
There is another Mishna: In Pirke Avos
(5, 5) we learn that there were ten regular miracles in the Temple. One
caused the smoke from the altar to rise straight without being blown about
by the wind. This, we are told, was a miracle.
If it was a miracle, then of what use were
the special ingredients? And if it was the ingredients that did it,
why did they need a miracle?
The answer, if you did not already guess,
was that these two Mishnayos are describing two different altars - granted,
with similar names. The Avtinus
family produced the incense for the golden altar in the Heichal.
They helped the smoke from the incense rise in just the right way.
The smoke from the large alter in the courtyard outside rose straight by
way of a miracle from G-d.
The moral of the story? You always have
to check your sources before asking questions.
THE MIKVAH
The room next to Bais Avtinus contained a mikvah
used by the high priest on Yom Kipur. Where, you might ask, did
all the water come from? (We are probably referring to the drawn
water in which the priest actually immersed, but the
40 seah (seah: a unit of liquid measure) of the mikvah itself was most
likely rainwater).
Even modern plumbing requires pumps to raise
water to upper levels of a building against the force of gravity and this
mikvah in particular had to be at least 23 amos (about four storeys) above
the floor of the courtyard (twenty amos of the gate itself and three amos
of height to contain enough water for a kosher mikvah suitable for immersion).
What pushed the water up that great height?
Our sages (Yoma 31a) tell us that the water
for the mikvah (as well as much of the water used in the Temple) came from
a well (called Eyn Eitom) that sat at the top of a neighboring mountain,
some miles away. The water was brought by way of underground pipes.
Since this other mountain was slightly higher than that of the Temple,
it produced just enough pressure (thanks to gravity) to force the water
to rise to the top of the mikvah.
Just try getting your plumbing contractor
to do that!
SHA'AR NIKANOR
Each of the two doors that made up this gate measured
five amos wide by twenty high. That's pretty big. Unlike the
other doors in the Temple (which, as the Jews gained wealth, were covered
in gold), these were left in their original form; solid copper.
And there's a story behind that.
Nikanor was a Jew charged with travelling
to Alexandria, Egypt to buy doors for the main entrance
to the main courtyard. On his return boat voyage, there was a fierce
storm. The sailors threw out the first of the massive doors to try
to lighten the load, but the ship was still in danger.
When they came for the second door, Nikanor
embraced it, begging the sailors that, if the door had to go, he should
go with it. A miracle occurred and the storm subsided. Nikanor
was terribly upset about the loss of the first door - that is, until the
ship arrived safely in port and they all saw the heavy copper door floating
along beside the ship.
In honor of the miracle, the doors were never
covered in gold.
Just to clear my name, the reason you can't
see any copper doors in my images of the Temple
isn't because I forgot them, but because they were blocked by the blue
curtain hanging in front!
ALEXANDRIA
Now when the Gemara tells us that Nikanor was
sent to Alexandria, we have to wonder when this whole story took place.
For at the time of the building of the Second Temple, Alexander the Great
was not yet born - and before he was born, Alexandria had a different name!
After all, it was named after that famous Greek general.
It isn't very likely that the Gemara was telling
us how Nikanor was sent to the city which one day would be called Alexandria
(it would more likely give us its actual, contemporary name, or leave out
the city name altogether).
The odds are that the mission took place some
years after the original construction while those in charge of the Temple
were looking to renovate. So it seems that the main gate to the main
courtyard was without copper doors for some time before that...
The Talmud is very deep. If you don't
keep your eyes open, you could easily miss some seemingly insignificant
detail - a detail which could reveal an interesting historical point...