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Wood in the Walls in Ezra
The passuk in Ezra (6:4) says that when Koresh (and later, Daryavesh) gave the Yidden permission to build the second Beis Hamikdash, he told them to make the walls of “נִדְבָּכִין דִּי־אֶבֶן גְּלָל תְּלָתָא וְנִדְבָּךְ דִּי־אָע חֲדַת-three rows of marble stone and one row one wood”. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 4a) says that the reason he…
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The Surviving gates of the Har Habayis
The Medrash in various places (Sh’mos Rabba 2:2, Bamidbar Rabba 11:2) says that the shechinah even today rests on the western wall (the Kosel), and it therefor will never be destroyed. This is also brought down in Shir Hashirim Rabba, although the Medrash there is slightly different, and says the following:הִנֵּה זֶה עוֹמֵד אַחַר כָּתְלֵנוּ,…
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The Size of the Heichal in Ezra
The Passuk in Ezra (6:3) says that when Koresh gave the Yidden permission to build the second Beis Hamikdash, he told them to make it 60 amos wide and 60 amos tall. The question arises, however, that the Mishnah (Middos 4:6) writes that the Heichal was 100 amos wide, long, and tall. The Rambam…
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The Materials of the Tables in the Beis Hamitbachayim
In the first Beis Hamikdash, the tables in the Beis Hamitbachayim were made of silver;1 in the second Beis Hamikdash they were made of marble.2 (However, even in the first Beis Hamikdash there were marble tables in other places,3 such as the table next to the ramp where they put the meat of the Korbanos until they were…
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Golden Fruit
The Gemara in Yoma (21b, 39b) says the following:אָמַר רַב זוּטְרָא בַּר טוֹבִיָּה: לָמָּה נִקְרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעַר, דִּכְתִיב: ״בֵּית יַעַר הַלְּבָנוֹן״, לוֹמַר לָךְ: מָה יַעַר מְלַבְלֵב — אַף בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ מְלַבְלֵב. דְּאָמַר רַב הוֹשַׁעְיָא: בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבָּנָה שְׁלֹמֹה בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, נָטַע בּוֹ כׇּל מִינֵי מְגָדִים שֶׁל זָהָב, וְהָיוּ מוֹצִיאִין פֵּירוֹת בִּזְמַנֵּיהֶן. וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהָרוּחַ מְנַשֶּׁבֶת בָּהֶן…
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The Northern Wall of Har Habayis
The north wall of the expanded Har Habayis was mostly destroyed, and virtually no remains can be seen above ground, besides for a few stones in the northeast and northwest corners. (The Kaftor Vaferach already observed this fact, as he writes (chapter 6) that the northern wall is destroyed, as opposed to the other walls,…
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Bereichas Yisro’el
On the north side of the Har Habayis, in the eastern part, there is a large pool, called by the Arabs Birket Isra’in, a corruption of Birket Beni Israil, pool of the sons of Yisroel. It is first mentioned by this name by Muqadassi, an Arab geographer, in the tenth century. There are different…
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The Northeast corner of Har Habayis
Above the ground, the northeast corner of the (expanded) Har Habayis can be clearly seen, and to the north of it is the more modern eastern city wall of Yerushalayim. However, underground the Har Habayis wall does not end at this point, but runs further, for another 38.4 meters (126 feet). Warren writes…
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The Eastern Wall of Har Habayis, part 4
The northern part of the eastern wall of Har Habayis, from the northern joint to the northeast corner of the Har Habayis, a distance of around 121 meters (397 feet) is from Hurdus’s expansion. This wall crossed over the Bezesa valley and continued onto the hill north of Har Hamoriah. By the northeast…
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Burning the Parah Adumah
The Parah Adumah was burned on top of Har Hamishchah, which is Har Hazeisim, the Mount of Olives. (The ashes of the Parah Adumah-red heifer were used to purify people from Tumas Meis.) This place was located directly to the east of the Beis Hamikdash, as learned from the Passuk (Bamidbar 19:4) “Elazar the kohen shall take…
What is New?
I have added more pictures to the lego gallery.
Hashem said to Yechezkel, “Its reading in the Torah is as great as its building. Go and say it to them, and they will occupy themselves to read the form of it in the Torah. And in reward for its reading, that they occupy themselves to read about it, I count it for them as if they were occupied with the building of it.
(Tanchuma tzav 14
)