[Avodah] questions re Mizbeach Adamah and walls of Mishkan

[Arie Folger]

R'n TK wrote:
> 1.  How did they fill the Mizbeach , aka the Mizbeach Adamah,  with
> dirt? This mizbeach was hollow and was filled with dirt AIUI  only
> when they camped, presumably to make it more solid and stable.
> But  how did they fill it? Picture a cardboard box, turned upside
> down, with  its open side lying face down on the ground.

Who says there was a top to the box? I always understood (ok,
me'ommedi 'al da'ati) that it only had four sides. However, there is a
Rashi that implied it had at least a partial top, as Rashi talks about
how the eternal fire was transported on the covered altar (it was
covered with a kind of wire mesh to keep the flamable cover away from
the heat).

But I do have another question, which is surely dealt with in the
gemara, but unfortunately, I must admit my ignorance: taking apart and
rebuilding the misshkan must have taken a serious amount of time.
Ditto for filling the mizbeach, especially accoridn  to the views that
it stood 10 amot tall. While they would arrive at destination, after a
desert sojourn, how would they bring the required sacrifices when the
mizbeach wasn't up and running yet?

> How did they hold the walls (sides) of the mizbeach  together?

It was plated in copper/bronze. If that plating was thick (think 2
millimeter, for example), it could be held together by the exterior
metal layer. But of course, I never tried to figure out whether it was
thick, or merely covered in fine sheets of bronze. Note that there are
Rishonim (Ramban is one of them) who raise serious objections against
the commonly accepted measurements of thickness of metal layers,
because they are impossible (not enough silver for each aden, not
enough gold in entire mishkan for either kapporet or one of the gold
boxes Rashi says the aron was made out of). So this needs serious
iyun.


Regarding the humanly impossible erection of the mishkan, R'nTK wrote:

> Was this a one-time miracle in Moshe's honor?  Why did he have
> to do it  himself, anyway?  Why not get several men together to put
> the walls  up?  And can we assume that whenever they took apart
> the mishkan and put it  back together during their travels in the
> desert (other than that first time),  the job was done by groups of
> men rather than a single man?

The Da'at Zeqenim Ba'al haTossafot writes that aron nesse et nosseav
was only a one time event. That, too, is an objection against Rashi's
measurements of the thickness of gold and silver laayers, for the aron
would be too heavy to carry, and neither the four kohanim nor the
baddim would be able to carry such a super heavy ark.

Anyway, by the same token, it is reasonable that the nes of Moshe
erecting the mishkan was a  one week event, while Moshe was erecting
and inaugurating it , erhaps to accentuate that Moshe was considered
as meritorious as the entire nation, and that the mishkan, and thus
the forgiveness of 'het ha'egel was entirely the doing of Moshe
(divrei 'atzmi - you are free to disagree).
-- 
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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