Dear Rav Kornfeld, Shlita, and the Members of the Kollel Iyun HaDaf, she'Yichyu
We greatly appreciate all of the work the Kollel does to assist the learning of Daf Yomi. May Hash-m shower you and the whole Kollel with all of His blessings.
The members of our Daf Yomi Shiur posed the following question:
It says in Sefer Melachim Aleph that at the Chanukas HaMizbeach, Shlomo HaMelech offered 142,000 Korbanos. Furthermore, the Gemara in Zevachim says that according to Rabbi Yehuda, the Mizbeach could not handle that many Korbanos and, therefore, they burned Korbanos on the floor of the Azara.
We are also told in Pesachim 65b that during the offering of the Korban Pesach, the blood ran ankle deep in the Azara. Now if that was true about Erev Pesach, it must have certainly been true during the Chanukas HaMizbeach, i.e. that the blood was ankle deep. If that's true, then according to Rabbi Yehuda who says they burned the Eimurin on the floor of the Azara, wouldn't the ankle deep blood have smothered and put out the fires on the floor of the Azara?
We eagerly await to be enlightened.
Baruch Robinson, Magid Shiur
Cong. Or Torah, Skokie, Illinois
Many thanks for yor good wishes!! May you have much Hatzlachah, bein b'Ruchnius bein b'Gashmius!
1) The Gemara Pesachim 65b tells us that on Erev Pesach they used to stop up the drainage system of the courtyard of the Beis Hamikdash. Rashi DH L'Divreichem explains that there was a hole in the wall of the azarah where the blood of the Korbanos would usually run out, but for the korban Pesach they kept this hole stopped up. According to Rabbi Yehuda this was in order that the part of the blood which provides atonement should not drain away, and according to Rabonon it was because it was praiseworthy that the Cohanim should walk up to their knees in blood, because this showed everyone how so many people offered Korban Pesach.
2) According to R. Yehuda we can now understand why it was not necessary to plug up the azara for the korbanos of Shlomo Hamelech, because those 142,000 shelamim were not brought for atonement. According to Rabonon we can also understand it, because the Rambam does not cite as Halacha that they plugged it on Erev Pesach. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt'l wrote in Igros Moshe Choshen Mishpat 2:61:4, at end, that this is because the Rambam learnt that it was not actually obligatory to block up the drains. There were platforms in the azarah which the Cohanim could walk on to prevent themselves becoming too dirty, but if it was difficult for the Cohanim to walk on these platforms they were entitled to release the plug in the azarah. Similarly we can say that at the Chanukas Hamizbeach, Shlomo Hamelech relied on the drainage system of the azarah to make sure that there was not so much blood on the floor that this would extinguish the fires on the floor of the azarah.
Good Shabbos
Dovid Bloom