page_title: Middot (Talmud)
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Middot (Talmud) / Structure
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Jerusalem Modell, herodianischer Tempel. Das Modell befindet sich im Israel Museum beim Schrein des Buches. English: Holyland Model of Jerusalem. A model of Herod's Temple adjacent to the Shrine of the Book exhibit at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Français&#160;: Maquette du Second Temple de Jérusalem, Musée d’Israël, Jérusalem Italiano: Modello del secondo Tempio di Gerusalemme, Museo d'Israele, Gerusalemme
context_page_description: Tractate Middot is the tenth tractate of Seder Kodashim of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. This tractate describes the dimensions and the arrangement of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Second Temple buildings and courtyards, various gates, the altar of sacrifice and its surroundings, and the places where the Priests and Levites kept watch in the Temple.
  The tractate is divided into five chapters and has no Gemara either in the Jerusalem Talmud or the Babylonian Talmud, nor a Tosefta.
context_section_description: The tractate consists of five chapters and thirty-four sections (mishnayot). It has no Gemara – rabbinical analysis and commentary on the Mishnah – in either the Jerusalem Talmud or Babylonian Talmud. There is also no Tosefta for this tractate.
  An overview of the topics of the chapters is as follows:
  Chapter 1 lists the places where the Priests and Levites kept watch in the Temple at night and describes the gates of the Temple Mount and the inner courts of the Temple building, and in particular, the chamber where the priests slept at night and a chamber in which the Hasmoneans preserved altar-stones from an earlier time:
  The first part of the chapter describes how priests kept guard in three places and the Levites in twenty-one, how these watches were controlled by the Captain of the Temple (Ish Har Ha-bayit), and the punishments meted out for falling asleep at the watch. The “place of the hearth" (bet ha-moḳed), a large hall with an arched ceiling is also described, where at night the older priests rested on stone benches around the walls and younger priests slept on the floor.
  The guarding of the Temple is similarly described in tractate Tamid and follows a commandment in the Torah to guard the Temple (Num. 18:1-5, Num. 1:53, Num. 3:38). According to several commentators (Rambam; Rash; Bartenura), this was not for protection as the gates were locked at night, but to enhance the splendor of the building, just as royal palaces are watched by a ceremonial guard. According to other commentators, the Temple was guarded by day as well for this reason (Hamefaresh, Ravad and Rosh). 
  There is also a description in this chapter of the gates to the Temple Mount; of note is the description of a representation of Susa, the capital of the ancient Persian Empire over the eastern gate of the Temple Mount, and symbolic of Persian dominance over the Land of Israel at the time of the building of the Second Temple (circa 516 BCE). 
  Chapter 2 provides the measurements of the Temple Mount and the buildings of the Sanctuary, including the courtyards, the chambers surrounding the courtyards that served various ritual and administrative purposes and the thirteen gates of the courtyard:
  The Mishna states that the Temple Mount covered an area of 500 square cubits (amot) surrounded by a massive wall; this is in accordance with the description in the book of Ezekiel (Ezek. 42:20).  The height and breadth of the steps and of the gates to the Temple are also given and all the doors except for those of the “gate of Nicanor” are described as covered with gold.
  The tractate gives the measurements of the Women’s Court and the Israelites' Court inside the Sanctuary and describes the how these two courtyards were connected by a flight of fifteen steps, allegorically corresponding to the fifteen “Songs of Ascent” in Psalms (Ps. 120 - 134 ); a choir of kohanim stood on these steps while the Levites played instruments to provide musical accompaniment to their singing. The Mishna then describes the structures surrounding the courtyards, including room in which the Levites kept their musical instruments.
  Chapter 3 describes the altar for offerings of burnt sacrifices that stood in front of the Sanctuary and its surrounding area; the place on the north side of the altar for killing the sacrificial animals, the laver between the porch and the altar, and the golden grape-vine decorating the porch.
  The Mishna specifies that the stones of the altar had to be in their natural form and could not be shaped with an iron tool or changed in any way. The reason given (Middot 3:4) is that iron is used to make weapons which shorten human life, while the altar serves to prolong life by making amends for sin; it is therefore not appropriate to use this cause of harm in building the altar.
  Chapter 4 describes the Inner Sanctuary (Heichal) and the chambers surrounding it, along with its doors, chambers, steps.
  Chapter 5 provides further information regarding the Sanctuary and its chambers. It describes a hall built of square stones called Lishkat ha-Gazit, where the Great Sanhe
caption: Model of the Temple Mount and the Second Temple, late 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE, reflecting descriptions in tractate Middot.
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.10", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:10 11:17:46", "Image Artist": "Berthold Werner", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Public Domain", "Image ExifOffset": "640", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2430", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5283", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:09 07:38:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:09 07:38:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "581", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2306", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}