Chagigah

for the Divine Law cans it Wood.1 For it is written: The altar, three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits, was of food, and so the corners; the length thereof and the walls thereof, were also of wood; and he said unto me: ‘This is the table that is before the Lord’.2 — [The verse] begins with the altar and ends with the table! R. Johanan and Resh Lakish both explain: At the time when the Temple stood, the altar used to make atonement for a person; now a person's table makes atonement for him.3 ALL THE VESSELS IN THE TEMPLE HAD SECOND SETS ETC. THE ALTAR OF BRONZE’4 for it is written: An altar of earth5 thou shalt make unto Me.6 ‘THE ALTAR OF GOLD’, for it is written: The candlestick and the altars;7 thus, the altars are likened one to another. BUT THE SAGES SAY: BECAUSE THEY WERE OVERLAID [WITH METAL]. On the contrary, since they were overlaid, they were susceptible to uncleanness!8 — Read: ‘But the Sages declared them Unclean because they were overlaid’. Or, alternatively, I can explain: The Rabbis say it to R. Eliezer: What have you in mind?9 The fact that they were overlaid?10 But their Plating was quite nullified in regard to them.11 R. Abbahu said that R. Eleazar said: The fire of Gehinnom12 has no power over the Scholars. It is an ad majus conclusion [to be drawn] from the salamander.13 If now [in the case of] the salamander, which is [only] an offspring of fire, he who anoints himself with its blood is not affected by fire, how much more so the Scholars, whose whole body is fire, for it is written: Is not My word like as fire? saith the Lord.14 Resh Lakish said. The fire of Gehinnom has no power over the transgressors of Israel. It is an ad majus conclusion [to be drawn] from the altar of gold. If the altar of gold, on which there is only a denar thickness of gold,15 is not affected through so many years by the fire, how much less so the transgressors of Israel, who are full of good deeds16 as a pomegranate [is of seeds]; for it is written, Thy temples are like a pomegranate split open.17 Read not ‘thy temples’ [rakkathek] but ‘thy worthless ones’ [rekanim shebak].18 fact that it used to be lifted to exhibit the showbread on it, would not be susceptible to uncleanness. San. 103b (Sonc. ed., p. 705). on them which are insusceptible to uncleanness (v. p. 168). terms them earth, but not because they are utensils made for resting things on them? nights; but Rashi here postulates seven years, and the Aruch (s.v.) seventy years. For a fun account of the legend, v. J. E. vol. X, pp. 646-7. not good, for even the transgressors, devoid of merit as they may seem, still have innumerable good deeds to their credit.