SHEYIBANEH BEIT HAMIKDASH...
A series of articles on Beit HaMikdash-related topics by Catriel Sugarman intended to increase the knowledge, interest, and anticipation of the reader, thereby hastening the realization of our hopes and prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash.

Herod Refurbishes the Mikdash
The next couple of Mikdash columns are in answer to a number of emails I received requesting more details about Herod's refurbishing of the Mikdash. Our readers also wanted to know why a "Rasha" like him would even want to restore the Mikdash. The answer is not simple; Herod had an exceedingly complex personality. In contradistinction to the Gemara's narration, where, after consultation with Baba ben Buta, Herod decided to refurbish the Mikdash as a "compensation" to Am Yisrael for "killing the sages" (Baba Batra 4a, see last week's TT), Josephus claims that master builder Herod embarked on this grandiose project simply because he was amegalomaniac and yearned for glory. Stunning in their beauty, size, brilliance, strategic importance and originality, Herod's monumental buildings changed the face of Eretz Yisrael and many Greek cities abroad as well. His most magnificent showpieces in Eretz Yisrael were the new (Greco-Roman) cities Caesarea Maritimaand Sebaste. The noted scholar Peter Richardson writes, "Caesarea Maritima… was a major outlet to the Mediterranean, home for the Judean navy, the largest harbor in the Mediterranean… it was a city where Hellenistic and Roman ideals jostled with Jewish convictions (it) included a large number of state-sponsored and royal structures: the harbor itself with its installations and warehouses; water and sewage facilities; gates; streets; …and the Temple of Roma and Augustus hovering over the whole at the focal point of the harbor.

Sebaste… (was) symbolically valuable (and built on the site of) the ancient capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel. The Temple of Roma and Augustus in Sebaste was built directly over the old royal palaces of Ahab, perhaps intended to make explicit the symbolic succession." The celebrated historian, Joseph Klausner, wrote, "All that can truthfully be said, is (that) he (Herod) sought honor and fame wherever he might get it; and since he knew that it was more easily obtained abroad than at home, from the Greeks rather from the Jews; and since he required abundant wealth for the buildings and statues and munificent acts which alone could ensure his fame and spread his reputation, for this reason he forcibly raised the means from his Jewish subjects and gave it to strangers…"

After the completion of these great projects, Josephus writes, "…Herod …undertook a very great work, that is to build of himself the temple of G-d, and make it larger in boundary, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions… to bring it to perfection; and this would be sufficient for an everlasting memorial… (Antiquities b.15:11;1). Though Herod boasted of his close ties with the ruling Romans, ("I am at amity with and well regarded by the Romans."), surprisingly enough, the Gemara conveys a totally different impression. When Baba ben But a suggested that Herod refurbish the Mikdash, he demurred, "I am afraid … (of Rome)." For all his haughty pretenses, bravado and "administrative massacres", Herod the "Great" understood that he was only a client king. He knew very well that he was not an independent agent and he understood that his Roman masters might not take kindly to his glorifying the Beit HaMikdash, always a center of anti-Roman agitation. They knew that a spectacular "world class" temple in Jerusalem would increase the prestige and renown of the most rebellious city in the Empire.

Striving to overcome Herod's fears, Baba ben Buta suggested, "Send an envoy, and let him take a year on the way and staying Rome a year, and in the meantime you can pull down the Temple and rebuild it. He did so and received the following message (from Rome); 'If you have not pulled it down, do not do so. If you have pulled it down, do not rebuild it. If you pulled it down and already rebuilt it, you are one of those bad servants who first do something and then ask permission." Even though Herod was "their man" in Eretz Yisrael and his extreme brutality served their interests, the Gemara notes exactly what the Romans thought of him. "Though you strut with your sword, your genealogy (lit. your book) is here. You are neither a Reka (rex, king) nor the son of a Reka. You are Herod the slave…" Rashi explains, "If you are proud of your weapons of war by which you killed the house of your masters (the Chashmona'im and the scores of thousands of other murdered Jews), …we know exactly what you are, a slave…" (Baba Batra 4a). The mass murderer Herod's sudden interest in the Beit HaMikdash terrified many people and his public address outlining his proposals fell on deaf ears. "…for they were afraid that he would pull down the whole edifice and not be able to bring his intentions to perfection for its rebuilding; and this danger appeared to them to be very great, and the vastness of the undertaking to be such as hardly be accomplished. But while they were in this disposition, the king encouraged them and told them that he would not pull down their temple until all things were gotten ready for building up entirely again. And as he promised this beforehand, so he did not break his word with them, but got ready a 1000 wagons, that were to bring stones for the building, and chose out 10,000 of the most skillful workmen, and bought a 1000 sacerdotal garments for as many of the priests, and had some of them (the Kohanim) taught the art of stone cutters, and others of carpenters, and then began to build: but not until everything was well prepared for the work" (Antiquities b.15:11;2). Herod's beautification of the Mikdash began in the fifteenth year of his reign, 25 BCE.

Rectangular in shape with asymmetrical sides, Herod's refurbished Temple Mount became the site of the largest religious compound in the ancient world. Its unprecedented massive retaining walls measured 485m on the west (the "Kotel" is only a small part), 315m on the south, 460m on the east and 280m on the south for a total length of 1540 meters. Doubling the area of Har Habayit, Herod filled in a valley to the north-east of Har HaBayit and erected a wall rising 38m above bedrock. The valley at the south-west corner of Har HaBayit was also closed in and a buttressing wall built to the height of 32m. Engraved with margins of 8 to 15 centimeters around a flat central boss, the size of the average stone used by Herod's stonecutters was 3m long and 1m high with many stones 12m long and weighing 100 tons. The largest ashlars were found in a side tunnel including a giant stone about 60m long, 3m high and 4m wide. This monster stone, the largest carved building block uncovered anywhere in the world, weighs about 400 tons! In order to withstand the soil pressure of the filling behind the retaining walls, the rows of stones were laid in a "terrace", each row being set back a few centimeters relative to the one beneath it. Constructed of enormous ashlar stones with great precision and without the use of cement, the walls thus slant slightly inward. This factor, the incredible weight of the stones, and the supreme accuracy of the cutting account for the extraordinary stability of these retaining walls. It is likely that the upper exterior faces of these walls - no longer extant - were built with pilasters- half columns - similar to those still visible in the upper courses of the original Herodian structure covering Ma'arat HaMachpeila in Hevron. <to be continued>

Catriel's book in progress: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrim’s Perspective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service