פתחו של היכל. שתים בפנים – in the thickness of the wall that is towards the inside.

ושתים בחוץ – in the thickness towards the outside, for the thickness of the wall of the hall leading to the golden altar (Hekhal) was six cubts, and at the end of the outer cubit of the thickness of the wall, there were the outer doors, one to the right of the opening and one to the left, each of these doors was five cubits wide, and when they were locked, the would touch each other and close the width of the cavity of the opening whose width was ten cubits, and when they were opened towards the inside, they cover five cubits of the thickness of the walls. But two other doors were like these measurements which were fixed at the end of the thickness of the walls towards the inner side, and when they were opened, they cover five cubits from here and five cubits from there from the width of the wall of the sanctuary/Heikhal inside, and there was no wall plastered with gold like in the rest of the Temple, because it was not visible.

אצטברמיטה (pivots, pins at top and bottom of a door turning in sockets) – boards of joints attached on the handles of the links and they are opened, and when he desires, they are bent and folded one on top of the other. Such were all of these doors, whether towards the inside or towards the outside, which were attached through these links, and at the end, one-half a cubit of the thickness of the wall they were fixed, between the doors that are inside and those that are outside, and five cubits of the thickness of the wall interrupt between the outer doors to the inner doors. But each door was five cubits attached from the two boards; each board was two-and one-half cubits, and when the outer door opened towards the inside, its half was bent and folded one on top of the other, and covers from the thickness of the wall two-and half cubits, and similarly, the door that is fixed on the inside, when it is opened to the outer side, it also was bent and folded and covers the two-and -one-half cubits that remained from the thickness of the wall.

שנאמר ושתים דלתות לדלתות שתים – so we see that each and every door was divided into two.

ושתי פשפשין – two small openings, one from the right of the large gate of the Hekhal and one from its left, slightly distant from the gate. The one that is from the south, it is written (Ezekiel 44:2 – regarding the outer gate of the Sanctuary that faced eastward that was shut): “[And the LORD said to me:] This gate is to be kept shut and not to be opened! [No one shall enter by it because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut],” of the future, for undefined, such it was in the Jerusalem Temple.

ופתח את הפשפש ונכנס משם לתא – and this is one small chamber that is open to the Hekhal, and from the compartment back of the Holy of Holies, he enters into the Hekhal, and walks in the open space of the Hekhal until the large gate that is at the end of the thickness of the wall from the inside, and he opens it and comes to the second gate that is at the end of the thickness of the wall from the outside, and stands inside and opens it.

רבי יהודה אומר בתוך עוביו של כותל היה מהלך – he holds that from the compartment back of the Holy of Holies he would not enter into the Hekhal, but from the compartment, he would walk along the thickness of the wall until he finds himself standing between the two gates, and he opens the doors of the outer gate from the inside and the doors or the inner gate from the outside.

תאים – chambers/compartments.

חמשה עשר בצפון – further on in our chapter (see Mishnah 7), when it considers that from the north to the south is seventy cubits, it teaches that the wall of the winding staircase leading ‘to a well] under the Temple (see also the fifth Mishnah of this chapter as well as Tractate Tamid, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1), that the winding staircase was five [cubits] and the winding staircase was three [cubits], the wall of the compartment was five [cubits] and the compartment/chamber was six [cubits]. And corresponding to them we consider the south. And this is not to say that the thickness of the wall of the winding staircase and the thickness of the wall of the compartment/chamber and the thickness of the wall of the of the Hekhal that is to the north side was that, but rather, the thickness of the wall with the empty cavity that is between it and the second wall he is counting, but the five [cubits] of the wall of the winding staircase and the three [cubits] of the winding staircase, and the five [cubits] of the wall of the chamber /compartment and the six [cubits] of the chamber/compartment and the six [cubits] of the wall of the Hekhal, in each one of them, the five [cubits] was the one chamber which is a compartment, hence there are five chambers in the north. And opposite them [a similar number] in the south. And on these five, they would build five others, and another five on top of the, hence, fifteen compartments to the north and fifteen compartments to the south. And similarly, in the west which we consider further on in our chapter (see Mishnah 7 once again) that the wall of the Heikhal was six [cubits] and the compartment was six [cubits] and the wall of the compartment was five [cubits], in each one of them there was a there was a chamber, for the wall was not six [cubits] thick other than the wall with the chamber/compartment that was in it that was six [cubits], for the one compartment that was outside of it was six [cubits] and the wall of the the other compartment that is outside of them with the compartment within it was five [cubits], hence three chambers. And three other chambers were built on top of these three, and two [chambers] on top of them, that makes the eight compartments for the west [side].

ואחד לפשפש – for the compartment that has in it the northern wickets that are in that compartment that one enters into the Hekhal. But the anonymous Mishnah is according to the Rabbis who stated above (Mishnah 2) that one enters the compartment and from the compartment to the Heikhal, and not like Rabbi Yehuda who stated (in Mishnah 2 of this chapter) that he would walk along the thickness of the wall.

התחתוה חמש – from outside the wall of the winding staircase which is the outer wall of the Holy [of Holies], there were extensions/wings of the building, which are balconies surrounding the Temple from three directions – west, north and south, and these extensions/wings of the building were at the bottom, second story and third decks (see Genesis 6:16 – and the construction of Noah’s ark) . The lowest (i.e., bottom) wing/extension was five cubits wide, and the paved level space/terrace that was on it, which is the ceiling that was over the lowest, which is the floor of the lowest/bottom deck , six [cubits] by a cubit wide, because the wall of the winding staircase would go and become narrower towards the top, for when it reached to the paved level space between steps in the Temple/the landing/terrace, that is on top of the lowest deck, it would enter inwards by one cubit, and on that cubit that protrudes, they would place the beams of the extension/wing of the building, it was found that the lowest extension/wing was wider one cubit more from the bottom, that is, that one cubit that enters the wall inside. And similarly, when he reaches the landing/terrace that is upon the middle [wing], which is the floor of the third [level], the wall would become narrow and enter inwards one cubit, in order that the head of the beam would be placed on that cubit, that the middle wall protrudes and goes outside more than the upper wall, and it is found that the upper extension/wing is one cubit wider from the middle one and two cubits wider than the lowest one. And that is what is stated (I Kings 6:6): “for he (i.e., Solomon) had provided recesses around the outside of the House so as not to penetrate the walls of the House,” meaning to say that he would lessen and deduct in the thickness of the walls by one cubit from outside in the terrace/landing of the middle floor, and another cubit in the terrace/landing of the highest, in order that there would be room for him to place the heads of the beams of the landing/terrace, in order that he would not have to hold on to the walls of the house to make holes in the wall and to insert there the heads of the beams.

ומסבה (winding staircase) - like a cavity and a cave.

שבה היו עולים לגגות התאים – and because the one who ascends upon it goes up through the path of a circumference and descends through the path of a circumference, which is called a מסבה/winding staircase.

ולולין (small passageways in the loft which mechanics were lowered in boxes/closed elevators) – where apertures in the roof looking to the ground floor that they make in the upper stories.

משלשלים את האומנים – they lower them by rope in chests/boxes, in order that they will not benefit from seeing the House of the Holy of Holies, but rather only repair what is needed and re-ascend.

מאה על מאה – [the hall containing the golden altar/Hekhal] - one-hundred [cubits] long and one-hundred [cubit] wide [and at a height of one-hundred cubits].

אוטם (substructure/filled with earth, foundation) – a filled up/obstructed and closed building to be the foundation of the Temple, upon which we place the walls.

אמה כיור (one cubit for the paneling work – tablature of the ceiling in the Stemple) – the lowest beam of the ceiling had the thickness of a cubit, and because it was coated with gold and embroidered with nice embroidery, it is called a כיור/panel (abacus).

ואמתיים בית דלפה (two cubits – the receptacle of drippings – name of the second roof of the Stemple made for protection against an eventual leak in the upper roof) -the upper beams that lean upon the lower beam, their thickness is two cubits, and they are called: “The House/Receptacle of Dilfa/Drippings, because the boards of the ceiling are attached by them. The [Aramaic] translation of במחברת / joining or fastening - is the place of coupling/borders. But one cannot wonder/be amazed how the the lower beam was that everything leaned upon them was only one cubit thick, for the upper beams that do not handle a burden on this was two cubits thick, because the lower beam , since it was wider in thickness by a cubit was strong and healthy and could receive the building that was upon it, but the upper beams that were not wider than a handbreadth or less, need to be of greater thickness. Alternatively the upper beams were two cubits thick in order to distance the ceiling from the lower beam, because it was embroidered with nice embroidery, and if the ceiling was near it, the embroidery would not be seen and recognized so much.

תקרה – planed boards that they put on the beams were one cubit thick.

מעזיבה (a concrete of stone chippings/clay – used for paving floors- pavement covering the ceiling of the lower story and serving as flooring to the upper story) – he plaster and stones and plaster that they place on the boards.

כלה עורב (“keeping off the raven” – an arrangement of iron points on the roof the Temple/scarecrow)- a foil/plate of sharp iron similar to a sword and it was a cubit in height and was placed on top of the railing, in order that the birds would not rest upon it, therefore, it was called a “scarecrow,” that keeps back the ravens from there.

כותל האולם – thickness of the wall of the hall leading to the interior of the Temple to the eastern side was five cubits, and similarly, the wall of the Hekhal (the hall containing the golden altar, its thickness was six [cubits] to the eastern side.

ותוכו (its substructure) – the cavity of the Hekhal was forty cubits.

ואמה טרקסין (the two cedar-covered partitions – with a vacant space between – separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy and occupied the space of one cubit) – the wall that separates between the Heikhal/the hall with the golden altar and the Holy of Holies is called טרקסין, in that it closes over the Ark and the th Tablets that were given at Sinai. טרק in the Aramaic language is closing in/enclosure like [Tractate Berakhot 28a] טרוקי גלי/close the [college] doors. The [suffix] סין is Sinai. And the thickness of this wall was a cubit. But the Sages did not cast the deciding vote if its holiness is like the inner holinesss or like the outer holiness, therefore, during the Second Temple, they made two curtains, one outer and the inner, and between them the space of a cubit, to protect between them the airspace of the place of the wall that was one cubit thick [during the time of the First Temple].

כותל ההיכל שש – we have already explained above that there was no wall of the Hekhal on the western side of a thickness of six cubits, but rather, the thickness of the wall of the Hekhal with the free space that is between it and the second wall that is outside of it was six cubits. And the thickness of the second wall that is called a תא/compartment with the the free space that is between it and the fourth outer wall was five cubits. But the three free places that were between four walls were תאים/compartments. And upon them were other compartments , as we taught above (see Mishnah 3 of this chapter) that were in the west three on top of three, and two on top of them. And similarly, from the from the north to the south, the wall of the winding staircase was five cubits, etc., all of them with the cavity that is between one wall and another, it is all as I have explained above.

חמש עשרה אמה מן הצפון – the wall of the hall leading to the interior of the Temple its thickness is five cubits, and the hall is ten cubits to the north and similarly to the south.

בית החליפות – on account of the knives that they hide there, it is called בית החליפות for in the Roman language, they call the large knives חלפים/HALAFIM.

צר מאחוריו – to the western side, and wide from before him to the eastern sine. But it was not explained to me how, for there was one-hundred [cubits] by one-hundred [cubits] for what it was worth. \