Hypermikdash
THE EZRAS NASHIM (WOMEN'S COURTYARD)
The women's courtyard was so named, not because
it was used by women any more than by men, but because under
normal circumstances, this was as far west (i.e. as close to the hearth
- heichal) as a woman would go.
The courtyard (whose walls enclosed an area
135 x 135 amos) had one chamber built into each of its four corners:
The south-east chamber was called the Office
of the Nazirites, There, nazirites (Jews who had accepted on themselves
temporary vows abstaining from wine, haircuts and contact with the dead
- see Numbers 5) would come at the end of their assigned terms to cut their
hair (and have it burnt) and cook their offerings.
The room to the north-east was used
by kohanim for making sure that no wood destined for the fires of the altar
was wormy (and hence, unfit). Beneath
the tiled floor of the room, lay more surprises.
To the north-west was the chamber of metzorayim.
Here, metzorayim at the end of their tuma'ah period would go to the mikvah
and prepare themselves for the final stage of their purification.
Finally there was the storehouse of wine and
oils in the south-west corner. There was a small flight of stairs
and a door that connected this room to the mail courtyard above it.
Sticking out of the inner walls of the courtyard
were beams, built to support temporary balconies.
The one other prominent feature of the Ezras
Nashim was the building set aside
for the second Sanhedrin of
twenty-three judges (out of the three on the Temple Mount).