Sukkah 51b — the Talmud in English

The pious and men of deed would dance before them ![](pamud.bmp "

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with torches of fire in their hands,

which they would throw one after another, several torches, and receive them in their hands and throw and receive them again, without interruption.

And they would say before them words of songs and praises

which will be explained in the Gemara.

And the Levites

would play

on lyres, harps, cymbals, trumpets, and with every song without number.

And the Levites who played would stand

on the fifteen steps descending from the Israelite Court to the Women’s Court.

And these fifteen steps were

corresponding to the fifteen

Songs of Ascents in Psalms, upon which the Levites would stand with musical instruments and say song.

And two priests stood at the upper gate, which descended from the Israelite Court to the Women’s Court, with two trumpets in their hands.

At the time when

the rooster called

the rooster —

they sounded, gave a blast, and sounded,

and this was a sign that one had to go and draw water from the spring of Shiloah, in order to pour the water as a libation in the morning, together with the morning daily offering. And the two priests who sounded the trumpets began descending from the upper gate, on the fifteen steps descending from the Israelite Court to the Women’s Court.

They reached

the priests

the tenth step,

and again

they sounded, gave a blast, and sounded.

They reached the Court

the Women’s Court, at the end of the stairs —

they sounded, gave a blast, and sounded.

And thus

they would sound and proceed

that is, they would prolong the final blasts

until they reached the gate leading out on the east

of the Women’s Court. And they would proceed from the western direction toward the eastern direction, at the foot of the Temple Mount.

They reached the gate leading out on the east

of the Women’s Court, and it was aligned opposite the Nicanor Gate, on the western side, where the entrance to the Court was.

They turned their faces from east to west, and said:

Our ancestors who were in this place,

angered You, in that they had

their backs

turned

toward

the direction of

the Sanctuary, and

if

their faces

had been turned

eastward, and they prostrated themselves eastward toward the sun.

But

we —

our eyes are toward the Lord.

Rabbi Judah says: They would repeat

doubling

and say: “

We are toward the Lord, and our eyes are toward the Lord.”

Gemara:

The Sages taught: Whoever did not see the rejoicing of the Place of the Drawing of the Water —

never saw rejoicing in his days.

Whoever did not see Jerusalem in its glory —

never saw a beautiful city in all his life.

Whoever did not see the Temple in its construction —

never saw a magnificent structure in all his life,

and we raised a difficulty concerning it:

What is it?

Which construction of the Temple is being discussed?

Abaye said, and some say Rav Hisda: This is the construction of Herod.

With what did he build it?

With which stones did he build it?

Rabba said: With stones of green marble

green marble,

and white marble

white marble.

Some say: With stones of blue-green marble

marble colored blue,

and white marble.

He projected

it outward in the construction of the wall

one row

a row of stones,

and inserted

and recessed

one row,

recessing inward the row beneath it. And he made these spaces between the rows

so that it could receive plaster.

so that the wall would hold the plaster spread over it.

He intended to cover them with gold,

to cover the walls of the building and smooth them with gold.

The Sages said to him: Leave it,

leave the walls and leave them as they are,

for this is more beautiful, since it appears like the waves of the sea,

for they appear like the waves of the sea.

It was taught in a beraita, Rabbi Judah says: Whoever did not see the double colonnade

the magnificent building of the synagogue

of Alexandria in Egypt —

never saw the honor of Israel.

They said: It was like a great basilica,

a palace,

one colonnade within another,

a partition of one chamber within the partition of another chamber, for there were rows of honored chambers there, and

at times there were there six hundred thousand

men,

like those who went out of Egypt.

And some say: Twice as many as those who went out of Egypt.

And there were in it seventy-one golden chairs corresponding to the seventy-one of the Great Sanhedrin, each and every one of them not less than twenty-one myriad talents of gold.

And they established a Sanhedrin for them.

And a wooden platform was in its midst, and the synagogue attendant stood upon it, with the cloths in his hand.

And when he reached the point of answering “Amen,”

and because of the great size of the synagogue everyone could not hear the prayer leader,

he

the attendant

would wave the cloth, and all the people would answer “Amen.”

And they would not sit intermixed.

Rather,

makers of

gold sat separately, and

makers of

silver sat separately, and blacksmiths separately, and coppersmiths

coppersmiths

separately, and weavers

weavers

separately.

And when a poor man entered there, he would recognize the members of his trade and turn there,

and be hired by them.

And from there came his livelihood and the livelihood of the members of his household.

Abaye said: And all of them —

Alexander the Macedonian killed them.

For what reason were they punished?

Because they transgressed this verse

Deuteronomy 17: “

You shall not continue to return by this way anymore.”

And

if

they —

returned with him

they returned and came to Egypt.

When he came,

when Alexander the Macedonian came there,

he found them

and found them while

they were reading in a book

Deuteronomy 28: “

The Lord will raise against you a nation from afar.”

He said: Granted,

indeed,

that man,

the one concerning whom it was said that he would carry out this decree, for

I needed to come by ship in ten days,

I intended to come by ship on a route whose travel takes ten days,

but the wind was driven up

and a strong wind blew,

and the ship came in five days

and the ship arrived in only five days. And this miracle is a sign for me that I am the one who must carry out the punishment of the people of Alexandria.

He fell upon them and killed them.

We learned in the Mishna:

On the conclusion of the Festival day.

What is the great rectification?

Rabbi Elazar said: Like that which we learned

in a beraita:

The Court

flat

was

the Court

originally.

And they surrounded it with a gallery,

by placing beams in projections fixed in the wall.

And they instituted that the women should sit above and the men below.

The Sages taught: Originally the women were inside and the men outside, and they would come to frivolity.

They instituted that the women should sit outside

the Court, on the Temple Mount and in the rampart surrounding the Court,

and the men inside,

within the “Women’s Court.”

And still they would come to frivolity. They instituted

that the women should sit above and the men below.

And we raised a difficulty concerning it:

How could they do this

to establish a gallery in the Court?

But it is written

in the construction of the House, I Chronicles 28: “

Everything in writing from the hand of the Lord, He gave understanding.”

The verse teaches that every construction of the Temple must be only according to this writing!

Rav said: They found a verse, and expounded it.