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<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Rn'TK wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman">Was it "literally built
from soil"? I thought it was a hollow copper (or <BR>maybe brass)
block with a copper mesh covering, and that when they camped, <BR>they
filled the hollow copper block with soil. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman">CM
responds:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman">I believe that the copper
was more in the form of some sort of sheet metal or cladding over wood, rather
than mesh that to me means a surface with holes in it and permeable, which
would leave the adama exposed to the surface (actually the wood [that you did
not mention] between the adama and the copper that would be exposed to the
surface). (See more below on the construction of the
miszbeach).</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face=Calibri>Also I
recall seeing a medrash that there was a machlokes Tanaim how the mizbeach was
transported. One held as you did, that it was emptied for the transport and then
refilled, but the other held that it was transported full and not emptied and
refilled. They also differed whether the aish on the mizbeach remained
burning during transport or not.</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
face=Calibri></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT face=Calibri>In an
earlier post RZS [wrote, but not about the one in the Mishkan] and I
wrote the following about the interior of the
mizbeach:</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
face=Calibri></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri><FONT face="Times New Roman">
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>RZS wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>The mizbeach was not solid stone. It was four stone walls
surrounding<BR>a hollow that was filled in with earth. So the work would
have been<BR>tedious, but less so than you imagined.<BR><BR><FONT
face=Calibri>CM responds:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Not according to my understanding.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>What is your source that there were stones walls
filled with earth rather than a stone mortar-matrix throughout the entire
volume of the mizbeach. The Tani Levi I mentioned in my original post that
describes the construction of the mizbeach makes no mention of any earth fill.
The only shitos that I can recall, speak of 1) wood walls clad in copper with
earth fill (Mishkan, and according to some Shilo etc), 2) copper over stone
fill [not sure if there was also a mortar in the stone fill, though I tend to
assume so] (Shilo according to some), 3) and to my understanding entirely
of a stone-mortar matrix (Bayis 1 and 2 and Shilo according to some [if I
recall correctly]).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Kol tuv</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Chaim
Manaster</FONT></DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>