מנחות דף צח ע"ב

…they pressed against the paroches and bulged out in it, looking like a woman’s two breasts,^[1] as it is said (Shir HaShirim 1:13): “My beloved is to me as a bundle of myrrh that lies between my breasts.”

כמין שני דדי אשה - So the poles ran from east to west, one end toward the west and one end toward the east, within the entrance; and we learn from this that the width of the Aron ran from east to west, which was the length of the House.

And how do we know that its poles ran along the width of the Aron?^[2] Perhaps they ran along the length of the Aron!

R’ Yehudah said: Two men cannot fit within an amah and a half.

תרי גברי באמתא ופלגא - Had the poles run along its length, there would have been only an amah and a half between one pole and the other.

And how do we know that they carried it four at a time?

For it is written (Bamidbar 10:21): “And the Kehasim set forward” – two; “the bearers of the Mikdash” – another two.^[3]

הקהתים שנים נושאי ארון המקדש שנים - “And [the Levites] set up the Mishkan,” when they wished to encamp, “before they arrived” – these were the bearers of the Aron.

The Rabbis taught: “Shlomo the king made ten tables,”^[4] as it is said (Divrei HaYamim II 4:8): “And he made ten tables and placed them in the Heichal, five on the right and five on the left.”

And if you say: five to the right of the entrance and five to the left of the entrance,^[5] then we would find a table in the south – yet the Torah said (Shemos 26:35): “And you shall put the Shulchan on the north side”!

וא"ת - That “on the right and on the left” means of the entrance.

אם כן מצינו חמש שולחנות בדרום - For the entrance was in the middle of the Heichal, in its eastern wall, so the five on the left of one entering would all be in the south.

Rather: Moshe’s was in the middle, five to its right and five to its left.

אלא של משה באמצע חמשה מימינו - To its south, and five on its left, to its north; and all of them were in the northern part of the Heichal. Further on the Gemara explains how they were placed.

The Rabbis taught: “Shlomo made ten Menoros,” as it is said (Divrei HaYamim II 4:7): “And he made the ten golden Menoros according to their prescribed form, and placed them in the Heichal, five on the right and five on the left.”

And if you say: five to the right of the entrance and five to the left of the entrance, then we would find a Menorah in the north – yet the Torah said (Shemos 26:35): “and the Menorah opposite the Shulchan”!

Rather: Moshe’s was in the middle, five to its right and five to its left.

One beraisa taught: “They were placed from half the House inward,” and another taught: “They were placed from a third of the House inward.”

תני חדא מחצי הבית ולפנים - All the tables were placed, and none of them stood in the outer half, toward the entrance.

And there is no contradiction: one master counts the Kodesh HaKodashim together with the Heichal,^[6] and the other master does not count the Kodesh HaKodashim together with the Heichal.

למר קא חשיב כו' - For the House was sixty amos long, as it is written (Melachim I 6): “And the House which King Shlomo built for Hashem etc.”; of those sixty, twenty were the Devir, as it is written (ibid.): “And before the Devir, twenty amos etc.”; and the Heichal was forty, as it is written (ibid.): “Forty amos was the House, that is the Heichal before it.” The tables stood in the twenty amos of the Heichal on the side of the Devir. The one who teaches “from a third of the House” counts all sixty amos of the Devir and the Heichal; the one who teaches “from half the House inward” counts only the Heichal by itself.

The Rabbis taught: “They were placed east and west,” the words of Rebbi.^[7]

מזרח ומערב מונחים - The tables: one end toward the east and one end toward the west, that is, their length along the length of the House.

Rabbi Elazar b’Rabbi Shimon says: “North and south.”

What is Rebbi’s reason?

He learns it from the Menorah: just as the Menorah stood east and west, so these too stood east and west.

מה מנורה מזרח ומערב - Three branches in the east and three in the west.

And the Menorah itself – how do we know?

From what is written of the western lamp:^[8] (Vayikra 24:3) “He shall arrange it [Aharon etc.] before Hashem.”

מדכתיב בנר מערבי לפני ה' - For it is written (Vayikra 24): “Aharon shall arrange it etc. before Hashem,” which implies that “it” is before Hashem and no other is before Hashem. So only one lamp faced west, toward the Kodesh HaKodashim; hence the Menorah stood east and west, and the outer lamp on the western side is called the western lamp. For had it stood north [and south], all the wick-ends would face west alike.

This implies that all the others were not “before Hashem”; and if you think it stood north and south, all of them would be “before Hashem.”

And Rabbi Elazar b’Rabbi Shimon – what is his reason?

He learns it from the Aron: just as the Aron stood north and south, so these too stood north and south.

מה ארון צפון ודרום - Its length across the width of the House, as we said above; so it was placed, and so its poles lay.

Then let Rebbi too learn from the Aron!

We derive “outside” from “outside,” and we do not derive “outside” from “inside.”^[9]

חוץ מחוץ - The Menorah and the Shulchan are both in the Heichal.

Then let Rabbi Elazar b’Rabbi Shimon learn from the Menorah!

He would tell you: the Menorah itself was placed north and south.

But it is written: “Aharon and his sons shall arrange it”!

והכתיב אותו - Which implies one lamp before Hashem and no more.

He turned them at an angle toward it, as it was taught: (Bamidbar 8:2) “Toward the face of the Menorah the seven lamps shall give light” – this teaches that they turned their faces toward the middle lamp.^[10]

מצדד להו אצדודי - In fact it stood north and south, and even so only one faced west – the middle one, whose wick-end faced west – while the other wicks were turned with their ends toward the middle one: the three on the north side turned toward the south, and the three on the south side turned toward the north.

אל מול פני המנורה - The middle lamp stands on the body of the Menorah and the rest on the branches; and the pasuk implies that those on the branches are turned toward those of the west.

Rabbi Nasan said: “From here we learn that the middle one is the most distinguished.”

מכאן שאמצעי משובח - Regarding the three who read from the Sefer Torah on Monday and Thursday:^[11] we say in Maseches Megillah (21b) “one does not read fewer than ten pesukim,” and Rabbi Nasan says the middle one is the most distinguished and reads four, and the others three each.

Granted, according to the one who says east and west, that is how ten could stand within twenty amos.

היינו דיתבי י' - Ten tables in twenty amos, since we said above that they were placed from half the House inward, and you assume they stood end to end. One may say: although ten tables totalling twenty amos cannot fit within exactly twenty amos without some of them reaching outside the inner twenty amos, the beraisa taught above, “from half the House inward,” was not that precise.

But according to the one who says north and south, how could ten stand within twenty?

אלא למאן דאמר צפון ודרום - That is, across the width of the Heichal; but its width was only twenty, so how could ten tables totalling twenty amos stand within twenty amos? It is impossible to be so exact that there is no small gap between one table and the next.

And further: how could the kohanim go in?

ותו - Even if they could fit, they would fill the whole width of the Heichal; how then would the kohen enter the Kodesh HaKodashim on Yom Kippur? Also, every Shabbos four kohanim go in,^[12] as our Mishnah teaches: two to take the two old rows and two to arrange the two new rows, standing opposite one another, the handbreadth of the one removing beside the handbreadth of the one arranging. If the whole width of the Heichal were full, how would the kohanim who remove reach the other side of the tables?

And further: we would find five tables in the south!

ותו מצינו חמשה שולחנות בדרום - But the pasuk writes (Shemos 26): “on the north side.”

And further: where was Moshe’s table placed?

ותו שולחן דמשה - Which we said above stood in the middle – how was it placed?

And by your reasoning, according to the one who says east and west too, where was Moshe’s table placed?

ולמאן דאמר נמי מזרח ומערב שולחן דמשה היכא מנח - It would turn out that this table stood entirely in the outer twenty amos. And now he answers all the objections.

Rather, do you think they stood in one row?

מי סברת בחד דרא הוו יתבי - All ten, end to end.

They stood in two rows.^[13]

בתרי דרי הוו יתבי - Five of them end to end, Moshe’s beside them in front, not in their row, and another row of five beside Moshe’s, not in its row, those five also end to end.

Tosfos

דוחקין ובולטין בפרוכת ודומין כמין שני דדי אשה - It was a miracle. For the Aron stood in the middle of the Kodesh HaKodashim, with ten amos on every side, and the place of the Aron took up no space, as stated in the first perek of Megillah (10b). If so, even according to the one who says the poles were drawn to one side, how did they reach the paroches? They were not ten amos long! Rather, by a miracle the poles grew longer until they pressed and bulged and looked like a woman’s two breasts, because of Hashem’s love for Israel.

מזרח ומערב מונחין - And the Mishnah that teaches “their length along the length of the House” follows Rebbi.

מדכתיב בנר מערבי לפני ה' - The second of the two eastern lamps is called the western lamp, as I explained in Perek Kol HaKorbanos (above, 86b, s.v. “from it”); and the Mishnah in Tamid (3:9), which speaks of finding the two eastern lamps burning, follows Rebbi, who says they were placed east and west – for according to the one who says north and south, “eastern lamps” does not apply.

שאמצעי משובח - Rashi explains it of the three who read from the Torah, where no fewer than ten pesukim are read and the middle one, who reads four, is the most distinguished; and on this the beraisa is brought there, in the third perek of Megillah (21b). But [it is difficult]: there other beraisos are [also] brought, that the first and the last are the most distinguished. Therefore it seems that this [beraisa here] is taught about three walking on the road, where the greatest walks in the middle, as stated in Perek Amar Lahem HaMemuneh (Yoma 37a); and in Megillah (21b) it is brought because, since he is the most distinguished in other matters, it is fitting that he read four pesukim.

תרי דרי הוו - Now all the objections are answered. According to the one who says north and south, although when five are set end to end it is impossible to fit five tables totalling ten amos into exactly ten amos, even so, since it exceeds by only a handbreadth, it is not counted. As for the beraisa in Perek Amar Lahem HaMemuneh (Yoma 33b): “The Shulchan was in the north, drawn two and a half amos from the wall, and the Menorah in the south, drawn two and a half amos from the wall, and the Mizbe’ach in the middle, standing centred and drawn slightly outward” – because it is written “and the Menorah opposite the Shulchan,” meaning they must face each other – it can be explained even according to the one who says north and south: it speaks of Moshe’s Shulchan, while Shlomo’s tables were close to the wall. And the beraisa in Perek Hotzi’u Lo (Yoma 51b): “He walked between the Mizbe’ach and the Menorah – the words of Rabbi Yehudah; Rabbi Meir says: between the Shulchan and the Mizbe’ach” – although Rabbi Meir holds they were placed north and south, as concluded there, it works well that he could walk between the Shulchan and the Mizbe’ach: Shlomo’s tables stood in two rows and Moshe’s Shulchan between the two rows, two and a half amos from it to the outer row and two and a half amos from it to the inner row, and drawn two and a half amos from the northern wall; and the Mizbe’ach was between Moshe’s Shulchan and Moshe’s Menorah, only drawn slightly outward; and the golden Mizbe’ach was one amah by one amah, so there was plenty of free space to walk between the Mizbe’ach and the tables. And the sugya in Shekalim (11a) must be reconciled: there, in Perek Shelosh Esreh Shofaros, it brings the dispute of Rebbi and Rabbi Elazar bar Shimon found here, but it is taught the other way round – for Rabbi Elazar bar Shimon east and west, and for Rebbi north and south. Then it says: according to the one who says east and west, all of them were fit for service – and this seems to follow Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua below, who says they arranged [the bread] on all of them;^[14] and according to the one who says north and south, so that the Shulchan is in the north and the Menorah in the south, they arranged it only on Moshe’s – that is, like Rabbi Yosi b’Rabbi Yehudah below, for on Shlomo’s tables one could not arrange it, since the head of the row was pressed close against the northern wall. And then it teaches: “The Shulchan was placed from half the House inward, drawn two amos from the corner, and the Menorah in the south, and the golden Mizbe’ach was placed within the House, dividing the House, from half the House inward, drawn slightly outward” – and all of them from a third of the House inward. That beraisa can be explained only according to the one who says east and west; “drawn from the corner” means from the wall, and it was drawn two and a half [amos], but the copyist skipped “and a half.” And as for the first part of the beraisa saying “from half the House” and the last part “from a third” – as we answered above: the first part does not count the Kodesh HaKodashim with the Heichal, and the last part does count the Kodesh HaKodashim with the Heichal.

Notes

1. 1. The beraisa begun on the previous amud reconciles the two halves of a pasuk (Melachim I 8:8): the ends of the Aron’s poles were seen, yet they were not seen outside. The poles pressed against the paroches and bulged into it, so they showed as two bulges without coming through.
2. 2. The Aron was 2½ amos long and 1½ amos wide (Shemos 25:10). If its poles ran along its width they were 2½ amos apart; if along its length, only 1½ amos apart.
3. 3. Kehas was the Levite family that carried the Aron. The Gemara reads the plural “Kehasim” as two and the plural “bearers” as two more – four carriers, two at each pole, which needs more than 1½ amos between the poles.
4. 4. The Shulchan was the golden table on which the twelve loaves of lechem hapanim (show-bread) lay from Shabbos to Shabbos. Besides Moshe’s Shulchan, Shlomo made ten more for the first Beis HaMikdash, and the Gemara asks how they were arranged.
5. 5. The entrance of the Heichal was in its eastern wall, so one entering faces west: his right is north and his left is south. The Torah puts the Shulchan in the north and the Menorah in the south (Shemos 26:35).
6. 6. The Heichal was 40 amos long and the Kodesh HaKodashim (the Devir) behind it 20, sixty in all. The tables stood in the inner 20 amos of the Heichal: the inner half when the Heichal is counted alone, and from one third of the way in when all sixty are counted.
7. 7. Rebbi and Rabbi Elazar b’Rabbi Shimon dispute how the tables (and the Menorah) were turned: lengthwise east–west, along the Heichal, or north–south, across it.
8. 8. The Ner Maaravi (“western lamp”) is the lamp the pasuk singles out in the singular: “he shall arrange it… before Hashem.” If the Menorah stood east–west, one lamp is nearer the west, toward the Kodesh HaKodashim; if north–south, all its lamps would face west alike.
9. 9. The Shulchan and the Menorah stood “outside,” in the Heichal; the Aron stood “inside,” in the Kodesh HaKodashim. A law is learned from a comparable case, so Rebbi learns the Shulchan from the Menorah, not from the Aron.
10. 10. The wicks of the six branch lamps were turned toward the middle lamp on the central shaft, so even on a north–south Menorah only the middle lamp faced west. This removes Rebbi’s proof.
11. 11. On Mondays and Thursdays three people are called to the Torah and at least ten pesukim are read (Megillah 21b). According to Rashi, Rabbi Nasan teaches that the middle one reads four.
12. 12. Each Shabbos the old lechem hapanim was taken off and the new set down by four kohanim, two removing and two arranging, so that the table was never without bread (Mishnah, Menachos 99b).
13. 13. Five tables stood end to end in one row, Moshe’s table in front of them outside the row, and a second row of five beyond it. Two short rows answer every objection: they fit, leave a passage, stay on the north side, and give Moshe’s table its place.
14. 14. Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua and Rabbi Yosi b’Rabbi Yehudah (below) dispute whether the lechem hapanim was arranged on all ten of Shlomo’s tables or only on Moshe’s.