The Temple Mount was five hundred cubits. It was enclosed by a wall

The greater part of it was on the south; next to that on the east. Meaning, the distance from the wall of the Temple Mount to the wall of the [Temple] Courtyard on the southern side was greater than the distance between those [walls] on the eastern side. And the distance between those [walls] on the eastern side was greater than the distance between them on the northern side. And the northern [side] was greater than the south[ern side].

Entered by the right and went around to the left. For instance, those entering through the Hulda gates that are on the right, they go around [and exit] through the Taddi gate. Translator's Note: Bartenura appears to be interpreting the terms right and left as idioms for south and north respectively. (See Genesis 14:15)

"Because I am a mourner" They ask him, "What is the matter that you go around to the left?" And he says, "Because I am a mourner." [So] they say to him, "The one who dwells in this house shall comfort you." etc.

You make it seem as if they treated him unjustly. If they [the people entering the Temple Mount] said this to him, it appears as if his friends warped the law and judged him incorrectly.

He should inspire you to listen to the words of your friends. This implies that he erred and needs repentance. The law follows Rabbi Yose.

Within. The walls of the Temple Mount.

Soreg(Lattice). A barrier made with many holes like a staff braided with cords. It was made from long narrow planks of wood that intersect each other diagonally.

They enacted that thirteen prostrations should be made facing them. As one reaches each breach, he prostrates and gives thanks for the destruction of the Hellenistic Kingdom.

Within The Lattice there was an empty area of ten cubits. It was called the Hel.

There were twelve steps there. To ascend from there to the Womens' Courtyard.

The height of each step. Each step was a half cubit taller than the previous step, and the first step was a half cubit taller than the ground.

Its tread. The measure of the width of the step, which is the place where the foot treads, was a half cubit.

Except for the Entrance Hall. Except for the stairs that were between the Entrance Hall and the Alter for they were not all like that. As it is taught in chapter three.

Except for the door to the Entrance Hall. As it is taught later on in the other chapters, its height was forty cubits and its width twenty.

They had lintels. A stone [that] is placed upon the two posts that the door rests on. Shekufot has the same root as Mashkof(lintel).

Because a miracle happened with them. As it is explained in Yoma chapter three (Yoma 38a).

Gleamed like gold. As in [the word] Mazhivot (Gleamed like gold), for their appearance was similar to gold. Therefore they did not need to [re]make it out of gold.

All the wall that were there. Regarding all the buildings on the Temple Mount.

They were veryhigh. Since all of their doorways were [already] twenty cubits tall, without [measuring the wall that continued] above the doorways.

Except for the eastern wall. It was the lowest of the ?retaining walls? (lit. feet) of the Temple Mount.

For the priest who burned the heifer would stand on the Mount of Olives (Har Hammishha). It is the Mount of Olives (Har Hazzeitim) that faces Jerusalem from the east. The priest would face west and look beyond the top of the wall [of the Temple Mount] through the gates that are within it to the doorway of the Hall, as he sprinkled the blood. As it is written: "Sprinkle it toward the front of the tent of meeting". (Numbers 19:4) If the wall was [as] tall [as the other walls], even though the gates were in line with each other, [meaning] the Temple Mount gate was directly opposite the Womens' Courtyard gate, and the Womens' Courtyard gate was opposite the Great Courtyard gate, and the Great Courtyard gate was opposite the doorway of the Hall, he would [still] not be able to see the doorway of the Hall through [all of] the gates, since the Mountain's slope increased to a height by which the ground of the doorway of the Hall was twenty two cubits taller than the ground on the foot of the Temple Mount, so the threshold of the Hall was higher than the lintel of the gate of the Temple Mount by two cubits, since the the gate of the Temple Mount was only twenty cubits tall as it was taught above. This means that the priest who slaughtered the heifer would not be able to see the doorway of the Hall through the gate [of the Temple Mount, therefore the eastern wall was shorter in order to allow the priest to see the doorway of the Hall from the Mount of Olives].

אורך – from the east to the west.

על רוחב – from the north to the south.

קטורות אלא שאינן מקורות – from the language (Genesis 19:28): “[and, (Abraham) looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, he saw] the smoke of the land [rising like the smoke of a kiln],” meaning to say, smoke rising, because they didn’t have a roof.

ומשלחים תחת הדור – to burn them in fire that is underneath the cavity in the gound laid out with clay/kettle where they cook the peace offerings/sacrifice of well-being, as it is written (Numbers 6:18): “[and take the locks of his consecrated hair] and put them on the fire that is under the sacrifice of well-being.”

And inside for the giving of wood on the altar of the Temple.

לשכת מצורעים = for there the lepers immerse on the eighth [day] of their purification which he comes to put his hand inside for the giving of wealth [for the giving of blood and oil] -, and even though he had immersed [in a ritual bath] from the evening.

אמר ר' אליעזר בן יעקב שכחתי מה היתה משמשת – it follows, that the entire first segment [of this Mishnah], Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said it. And this is proved in the Gemara of [Tractate] Yoma (16a), that an anonymous Mishnah of [Tractate] Middot is Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov (the first).

וחלקה היתה בראשונה – Maimonides explained, broken through/breached, that it was not surrounded by a partition.

כצוצטרא – like a balcony/כזוזטרא – that surrounded the women’s court (see Tractate Sukkah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1), that the women who were standing above on the balcony and the men were below to see the Rejoicing of the House of the Water-Drawing, in order that they would not come to frivolity.

חמש עשרה מעלות – the height of the ground of the Israelite court from the Women’s Court.

לא היו טררוטות (they weren’t half-closed, round) – long and filled with corrrners like the path of all the steps, but rather round like a round half-circle.

וראשי פספסין (the tops of the flag-stones in the pavement) – the tops of the beams that protrude and come out from the wall to distinguish between the Israelite Courtyard and the Priest’s Courtyard.

מעלה היתה שם (a step) – in the Israelite Courtyard.

וגבוהה אמה – and its length was as the length of he entire Courtyard.

והדוכן (platform) – of the Levites is built upon it and is made like a kind of portico/balcony, and the height of the platform is a cubit-and-a-half.

ובו שלש מעלות של חצי חצי אמה – that they ascend upon them to the platform.

כל העזרה – from the beginning of the Israelite Court until eleven cubits is a free space that was behind the House of the cover of the Holy Ark.

על רוחב – from north to south.

שלשה עשר שערים – as he considers them and then moves on. And the one who states that there were seven gates in the Temple courtyard (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 4) gives the reason for the thirteen prostrations corresponding to the thirteen breaches that the Grecian kings made in the Soreg/one of the approaches of the Temple fortification, as we stated above in our Chapter (see Mishnah 3). And all of our Mishnah is explained in the first chapter [of Tractate Middot].