terumah and tetzaveh
sholem aleichem,
I’ve been thinking about gold as I read these two parshas. Over and over, haShem instructs the b’nei Yisrael to cover elements of the Mishkan with gold: “וְצִפִּיתָ֨ אֹת֜וֹ זָהָ֣ב טָה֗וֹר/you will cover [the incense altar] with pure gold” (30:3), “וְצִפִּיתָ֥ אֹתָ֖ם זָהָֽב/you will cover [the poles] with gold” (30:5), and many more.
Mishnah Middos teaches that, later on, the Temple itself was entirely covered in gold: “שֶׁכָּל הַבַּיִת טוּחַ בְּזָהָב/all the house [meaning the Temple] was covered in gold”.
But the Mishnah explains that this was only sometimes true. Let’s learn:
פִּתְחוֹ שֶׁל הֵיכָל, גָּבְהוֹ עֶשְׂרִים אַמָּה וְרָחְבּוֹ עֶשֶׂר אַמּוֹת
The opening of the Temple: its height twenty cubits, its width ten cubits.
וְאַרְבַּע דְּלָתוֹת הָיוּ לוֹ, שְׁתַּיִם בִּפְנִים וּשְׁתַּיִם בַּחוּץ שֶׁנֶאֱמַר וּשְׁתַּיִם דְּלָתוֹת לַהֵיכָל וְלַקֹּדֶשׁ
And four doors it had, two inner ones and two on the outside, as it is said “and two doors to the Temple and to the Sanctuary”
הַחִיצוֹנוֹת נִפְתָּחוֹת לְתוֹךְ הַפֶּתַח לְכַסּוֹת עָבְיוֹ שֶׁל כֹּתֶל
The outer ones opened toward the interior of the opening, to cover the thickness of the wall
וְהַפְּנִימִיּוֹת נִפְתָּחוֹת לְתוֹךְ הַבַּיִת לְכַסּוֹת אַחַר הַדְּלָתוֹת
and the inner ones opened to the interior of the Temple, to cover the area behind the doors
In other words, if you approached the Temple from the outside, you would encounter a pair of doors covering an opening in the Temple wall. Those doors would open inward. Once they swung fully open, they would completely cover the sides of the opening in the Temple wall.
As you went through the opening in the Temple wall, you’d encounter another pair of doors just before you enter the Temple proper. These would also open inward, and swing all the way around until they rested against the interior of the Temple wall.
What is the significance of this? Let’s go back inside the Mishnah:
שֶׁכָּל הַבַּיִת טוּחַ בְּזָהָב, חוּץ מֵאַחַר הַדְּלָתוֹת
because the whole Temple was covered in gold, except for the area behind the doors
As Dr. Kulp notes in his commentary on the Mishnah, the temple doors themselves were covered in gold. So when the inner doors swung open all the way to rest against the interior wall of the temple, they would cover up, with their gold, this bare section of the wall “behind the doors”.
In other words: when the doors were closed, there were sections of the Temple that were not covered in gold; when the doors were open, the entire temple appeared covered in gold.
So the Temple was only complete, in all its splendor, when its doors were open to the people.
The Temple needed a wall, to be sure, it needed doors. But when the doors were closed, when the wall separating the Temple from the world was complete, the wholeness and glory of the Temple itself was diminished.
good shabbos,
ada
p.s. Many thanks to the Mishnah and Chillers of Shel Maala Yeshiva for learning this Mishnah with me in February.
p.p.s. Sorry for the absence. I’ve been pulled to study more and try to write longer-form things. But I do hope to share some shorter ideas here still.