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.

Logistical Speculations!
One of the goals of this series of articles on the Beit HaMikdash is not only to "increase the knowledge, interest, and anticipation of the reader" but to also stimulate TT readers to actively study Hilchot Beit HaMikdash, Korbanot, Tum'a & Tahara, etc. in our classical sources. Review the Chumash, the Mishna, Gemara, Rambam, the Meforshim, historical works and read some of the excellent new books now available! Try to understand the underlying philosophy of the Mikdash as elucidated by the Ramban, the Malbim and so incisively explained by Harav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch! I always love to grapple (I try to anyway!) with some of the logistical problems which cropped up in the day to day life in the Mikdash. Recently I received an email containing some fascinating speculations and I want to share them with you. While I do not vouch for the accuracy of the numbers cited, I found them extremely interesting. Think Mikdash!

"Catriel, let's make a rough calculation: In a total population of 2 million people, 1 million are men. In a traditional Jewish population, 1/12 or 1/13 would have been from the Tribe of Levi (1,000,000/12 = or 83,333) [more now with the Lost 10 tribes, but I am being conservative in my calculations]." (Some 80 years after Cyrus King of Persia first permitted the Jewish exiles in Bavel to return home, Ezra HaSofer led a group of returnees back to Jerusalem (458BCE). This group numbering 1496 men and their families, but did not include "sons of Levi". Ezra, distressed by this deficiency, later persuaded 38 Levites to join him (Ezra 8:15-19).Because of the minute number of Leviyim, after the passing of Nehemiah, the 'large tithe', which had Biblically originally been assigned to the Leviyim, was somehow "redirected" to the Kohanim. The Talmud asks, "Why were the Levites penalized (by being deprived) of the tithe? Because they did not go up (on mass to Jerusalem)in the days of Ezra." Yevamot 86b. Though no doubt many other Levites returned to Eretz Yisrael over the years, their percentage of the total Jewish population cannot have been very large. But unlike the Leviyim, most of the Kohanim did return. C.S.) If one out every 10 Leviyim were Kohanim, we have 8333 male Kohanim in the population. Divide that by 24 (each Kohein was assigned to one of 24 Mishmarot) and we have 347 Kohanim in each Mishmeret. (During Bayit Sheini, the Kehuna was divided into 24 subdivisions which were called Mishmarot - literally "watches". The Mishmarot changed every week and the Kohanim of the new Mishmeret would begin their Avoda on Shabbat. Each Mishmeret in turn consisted of smaller family divisions called Batei Av. Every day another Beit Av served in the Mikdash and on the Shabbat, representatives from all the Batei Av participated in the Avoda. During the Shelosh Regalim when more Kohanim were required, Kohanim from all the Mishmarot served in the Mikdash.)

"However, only Kohanim between the ages of 20 (or 25 or 30) to 50 served in the Mikdash which is about a third the normal life span, we have 347/3 or 116 Kohanim. Not all Kohanim were physically fit to serve. For example, lefties were left out. Lefties constitute about 1/11 of the population. Along with other disqualifications, there might be another 10% or so of the Kohanim who could not serve. Let's say a total of 20% of the Kohanim were disqualified. 116-.2(116) = 93 'survivors'". (The Torah ordains, "For any man who has a blemish may not approach, a man who is blind or lame or flat nosed or (who has) one limb longer than the other; or a man who has a broken leg or arm; or has abnormally long eyebrows, or a membrane in his eye, or a blemish in his eye, or a dry skin eruption or a moist skin eruption, or has crushed testicles. Any man among the descendants of Aaron the Priest who has a blemish shall not approach to offer the fire offerings of G-d (Vayikra 21:18-21).In the 8th chapter of Hilchot Bi'at HaMikdash, Rambam list 90 disqualifications!) Thus, for every one million males in the Jewish population, about 100 fit Kohanim were available on a regular week for service in the Beit HaMikdash. With a population of 3 million males, 300 Kohanim would come.

On the holidays, however, there would be 24 times the Kohanim (and Leviyim). So for Pesach, Succot and Shavu'ot, with a population of 3 million males, some 7200 Kohanim would be present to serve in the Mikdash. And what about the Leviyim? If there are 9 Leviyim for every Kohein, then at least (since the disqualifying blemishes for the Leviyim were considerably less stringent) 64,800 Leviyim would come each holiday (and probably more like 75,000) or some 2700 for a regular week. The bottom line is that with a total Jewish population of some 6 million Jews over 3300 Leviyim and Kohanim would come to serve each week and over 82,000 on the holidays. (Historians vary considerably in their populations estimates of Diaspora Jewry, as well as the size of the Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael in Mikdash days. 6,000,000 might very well have been the total population of world Jewry, at least two-thirds of whom were disbarred from regular pilgrimage to Jerusalem because of distance. Therefore the number of required and available Kohanim and Leviyim would be considerably lower.) Somehow we forget the numbers. There are really only a handful of key jobs to be performed in the Temple. How many people do you need altogether? (True, not many Kohanim were required to offer the communal Korbanot but there were numerous private Korbanot as well. Large numbers of Kohanim were required just to sacrifice the two birds that every parturiens was obligated to bring. And Kohanim were accepting Bikurim throughout the summer and fall.) How many gates did the Leviyim have to guard? What was everyone else doing? Let's say that during a normal week we would have 2700 Leviyim. Assume 1/10 could sing and play instruments. That means some 270 were Meshoririm, singers. 270/7 days a week would leave us with 39 (say 40) singing and instrument playing Leviyim each day. Sounds reasonable. (Philo of Alexandria saw Levites cleaning the courtyards and doing repairs. They were not gate keepers nor were they singers or musicians.) There are 2700-270 = 2430 Leviyim left to guard the 12 gates. 2430/12 = 202 Leviyim per gate.

There was probably multiple Leviyim guarding any one gate at the same time. Let's say four, two on the other side of the gate. There are 168 hours in a week. For each gate, we need 4 x 168 man-hours = 672 total man-hours. This we divide by 202 (672/202) and we find that each Levy will do a total of about 3.3 hours of guarding during his week (that's 200 minutes). On each holiday, either we increase the number of guards (logically given the increased crowds) or we reduce their time. Say we do both. If we multiply the number of Levite guards by four (resulting in 16 Leviyim at each gate) and we have 24 times the number of Leviyim and it comes out that each Levi at the gate will be on duty for only 1/6 x 200 minutes or 33 minutes for the entire Yom Tov. That's it." (Hey you out there! Can you do better?)

Catriel is in the process of writing a book: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrims Prospective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service

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