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Parshat Terumah 5755

JUST AN EXAGGERATION...

The Parochet exaggeration

Make a Parochet (= a hanging curtain, intended to separate the Kodesh Hakodoshim section from the rest of the Mishkan) of turquoise wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, and spun linen.
(Sh'mot 26:31)
There is a Mishnah that says: "The pile of ash [from the burnt Korbanot, or offerings] in the middle of the altar sometimes had as much as three hundred Kors (=9000 Se'ahs, or over 75,000 liters) of ashes in it." Rava explained, "This number is an exaggeration."
(Gemara Chullin 90b)
There are three places where the Sages spoke with exaggeration: concerning the pile of ash on the altar, [concerning one other case,] and concerning the Parochet. The Mishna (Shekalim 8:5) tells us of the Parochet: " The Parochet [of the Beit Hamikdash] was the thickness of a handbreadth... and was forty by twenty Amos... and three hundred Kohanim would immerse it in a Mikveh (to make it ritually pure for use in the Beit Hamikdash)." Rashi: The exaggeration was the claim that 300 Kohanim immersed it.
(Ibid.)
The Vilna Gaon, in his Kol Eliyahu (Parshat Teruma), offers an ingenious explanation to account for the claim that three hundred Kohanim immersed the Parochet. As the Mishna quoted, the Parochet's dimensions were forty by twenty Amot. The Amot used in the Temple measurements consisted of five handbreadths each (Mishna Kelim 17:10). Thus, the perimeter of the Parochet was 2 x (40+20) = 120 Amot, or 600 handbreadths. Thus, if the maximum number of Kohanim would want to participate in the Mitzvah of immersing the Parochet, there would be room for exactly 300 people to grasp it, each one of them taking up two handbreadths of the perimeter with their two hands!

II

Exaggeration or not?

This explanation is so clever, however, that now we must wonder why the Gemara said that this number was an exaggeration. It is in fact an exact number!

It is possible to contend that the *other* sizes and figures concerning the Parochet (which are mentioned in the same Mishna in Shekalim) were the exaggeration -- not the fact that 300 Kohanim immersed it (see Perush HaMishna of the Rambam ad loc.). However, as the Sho'el U'Meshiv (vol. III 3:52) points out, that isn't likely. The other two exaggerations mentioned in the Gemara we quoted both involve the number 300. It is only logical to conclude as Rashi does, that the number 300 mentioned in the Mishna in Shekalim in reference to the immersion, was part of the exaggeration.

It would seem more appropriate to explain the Gemara in the following manner: Although it was *theoretically* possible for three hundred Kohanim to hold the Parochet, it was never *actually* handled by this maximum number of people. It would be too unlikely for the Kohanim's hands to be so closely spaced as to allow them to cover every inch of the perimeter. Nevertheless, the Mishnah did not choose the number 300 as its "exaggerated" figure randomly. Rather, this number was chosen because it represents the theoretical maximum number of Kohanim who could participate in this Mitzvah. In this manner, Chazal emphasized the large number of Kohanim that were involved. The exaggeration of the Mishna is demonstrating that even the entire maximum of 300 Kohanim would have taken part in the immersion, had the circumstances to do so arisen (see Kol Eliyahu that we referred to).

III

An inconsistency in the Gaon's calculations?

The Yefe Enayim (beginning of Massechet Tamid), however, raises a serious objection to this calculation of the Gaon. According to the Mishnah (Kelim 17:10) and the Gemara (Menachot 97b), the special five-handbreadth Amah measurement which was used in the Temple was only used for building the movable articles of the Temple, such as the Holy Ark, the Table of the Showbread, the Golden Altar, etc. When it came to the construction of the *buildings* of the Temple, however, the regular, six-handbreadth Amah measurement was employed. (This is the more liberal opinion of Rebbi Yehuda. Rebbi Meir maintained that the six handbreadth Amah was used in an even more limited fashion.) The Parochet, whose twenty-by-forty-Amah dimensions were for the purpose of filling the entire breadth of the Hechal (Sanctuary building) in order to enclose the Kodesh HaKodoshim, would then have to be measured with the same Amah that was used for measuring the sanctuary itself, or a 6 handbreadth Amah! The perimeter of the Parochet would then measure 720 -- not 600 -- handbreadths!

In defense of the Gaon, it could be said that when grasping the Parochet for the purpose of immersing it, the Kohanim would not hold it on all four sides. One side had to be left free, in order to lower the Parochet into the Mikveh. If the Kohanim held it on the three sides that measured 40, 40 and 20 Amot, and left the other 20-Amot side free, they would have covered 100 Amot, or 600 handbreadths, of the perimeter. This is probably what the Gaon said, and not as recorded in the Kol Eliyahu.

IV

The 300 Kor of ash

The Gaon's brilliant interpretation explains why the Mishnah used the figure of 300 Kohanim in its exaggerated statement. The Gemara, however, gives two other examples of exaggerated numbers mentioned in the Mishnah. Can a similar line of reasoning be used to account for the choice of the exaggerated numbers used in these Mishnayot as well?

I once heard an ingenious explanation for the exaggeration of the 300 Kor of ash on the altar along these same lines, from Reb Dovid Yisroel Slutzkin, a retired banker who presently lives in Rehavia, Jerusalem.

The Kor is a measure of volume corresponding to 30 Se'ah-measures. Mr. Slutzkin pointed out that according to the Gemara (Pesachim 109b), the minimum size of a Mikveh -- 40 Se'ah-measures of water -- corresponds to three cubic Amot of water. Accordingly, each cubic Amah contains in it the volume of 40/3, or 13.33, Se'ahs. Since a Kor is equal to thirty Se'ahs, the 300 Kors mentioned by the Mishnah in connection with the ash on the altar would correspond to 9000 Se'ahs of ash. This is equal to 9000/13.33, or 675, cubic Amot of ash.

In Mishnayot Middot 3:6 we learn that the base of the altar was 32 by 32 Amot. We are told, however, that there were two places along the height of the altar where there were indentations that reduced the width and length of the altar. Since each indentation was one Amah thick, there was a reduction of two Amot in the dimensions of the altar on each of its sides -- south, east, north and west. Thus, the top surface of the altar measured only 28 by 28 Amot. On the four corners of the roof of the altar, there were four protrusions referred to as Keranot [~horns]. Each Keren was one Amah by one Amah by one Amah, a perfect cube. Because the Keranot were an Amah wide, the entire outer Amah of the altar (even the part between the Keranot) was referred to as the Keranot area (Middot, Ibid.), and was never used for burning Korbanot. Therefore, the area on top of the altar that remained available for burning Korbanot was 26 Amot x 26 Amot -- an area of 676 square Amot.

How high was the accumulation of ashes on the top of the altar allowed to reach? In Tehillim 118:27 it says, "Tie up the offerings, up to the Keranot of the altar." The Keranot of the altar, as we have already seen, jutted up one Amah above the surface of the altar. The verse in Tehillim seems to imply that the sacrifices burned on the altar were never piled higher than the height of the Keranot -- a height of one Amah. (Such a concept may be alluded to in Sukkah 45b, where we are told that the giant eleven-Amah-tall willow branches that were propped up against the altar on Sukkot were bent over at their tops. Perhaps they had to be bent over, in order that they not be higher than the altar's Keranot.)

Now that we have determined that the surface of the altar measured 676 square Amot and that the ashes were never piled higher than one Amah, we can see that the maximum volume of ash on the altar was 676 cubic Amot. However, we know that there is a requirement to have a fire burning on the roof of the altar at all times (see Vayikra 6:6). If we allow for a space of one square Amah to be left free of ash (this was the normal size of the firewood used on the Mizbe'ach, Zevachim 62b), to allow the fire to continue burning on the roof of the altar, we will have a maximum volume of 675 cubic Amot of ash, which corresponds exactly to 300 Kors, as shown above! Once again the Mishnah did not choose a random number in its exaggerated account of the ashes on the altar, but the exact number of Se'ahs that could have accumulated in the theoretical maximum accumulation scenario!

Mr. Slutzkin added that the word Chazal use to describe an exaggeration, "Guzmah," might be understood as an abbreviation for the words "Gam Zo Mah" -- "This is also something." Even when the Sages exaggerated, they did so with an exact calculation in mind!

What about the third exaggeration? I'm afraid that will have to wait for another time....


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