Zevachim 54a (נד.) — the Talmud in English

As it is stated

“He hovers over him all day”

[from the language of rubbing, as in: “A nazirite may hover and scratch”; for a person who is distressed and worried is accustomed to rubbing himself against his garments].

Therefore Benjamin the righteous merited becoming a host

an innkeeper

for the Holy One, blessed be He, because the Ark was in his portion.

because the Ark was in his portion,

As it is stated at the end of the verse:

and between his shoulders He dwelt.”

“And He dwells between his shoulders.”

The Gemara raises an objection:

How was the bird burnt-offering performed? It was melikah performed

by cutting with the fingernail

its head opposite its nape,

the back of the neck,

and severing

the head from the body by cutting the two identifying signs,

and pressing out its blood on the wall of the altar,

for he would press the place of the melikah against the wall of the altar, and the blood would be pressed out onto the wall.

The Gemara proves this and asks: The bird burnt-offering was performed at the southeastern corner [as explained in the Mishna below, 64b].

And if you say

that the southeastern corner

did not have a foundation,

one should wonder: Was

its melikah performed merely in the air,

so that the blood issuing at the time of the melikah would fall to the ground and be lost?!

And we answer:

Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: Say—

this is what they stipulated: The airspace

of that corner would belong to

Benjamin, and the ground

alone

to Judah!

That is, they made a small projection on the altar [three handbreadths above the ground] opposite that corner, so that the blood issuing during the melikah would fall not onto the ground but onto the projection of the altar. [Nevertheless, this projection was not called a “foundation,” since a “foundation” is only something founded in the ground.]

The Gemara explains:

What does “it did not have a foundation”

mean with regard to the southeastern corner?

Rav said: With regard to the construction,

as no foundation was built there, but only a projection, as explained above.

Levi said: With regard to the blood,

there was a foundation there, but they did not place blood upon it or opposite it, because it was in the portion of Judah. It did not have the “law of a foundation.”

And we explain their dispute:

Rav translates

the verse, “He shall eat prey until,” which is stated concerning Benjamin:

“In his inheritance the altar shall be built,”

meaning that the construction of the altar would be only in the portion of Benjamin. Whereas

Levi translates

“In his inheritance the Sanctuary shall be built,”

meaning that in his portion there would be

a consecrated place for the blood.

But the foundation extended around the entire altar, even though part of it was in the portion of Judah.

And we challenge this:

Come and hear: The foundation extended along the entire northern side and along the entire western side. It occupied

[that is, it seized]

on the southern side

one cubit

alone,

and on the eastern side one cubit.

This implies that there was no foundation at all on the east and south, apart from one cubit at the southwestern corner and one cubit at the northeastern corner, which is difficult for Levi!?

And we answer: Levi explains

“It occupied” also means: with regard to the blood!

The foundation consecrated for the blood occupied only one cubit on each side.

We challenge this further:

Come and hear: The altar was thirty-two cubits

in length

by thirty-two

in width! This implies that it was square, and that it had a foundation on all its sides, which is difficult for Rav!?

And we answer:

With what are we dealing here? From the side.

It was not thirty-two cubits on every side, but only on the northern and western sides; on the eastern and southern sides it was one cubit shorter on each side.

We challenge this further:

Come and hear: It turns out

that the ramp

spanned

[rose]

one cubit over the foundation and one cubit over the ledge

[This is how the Gemara below, 62b, resolves the question of how we learned that the combined length of the ramp and the altar was sixty-two cubits, when it should have been sixty-four. For the length of each of them—the ramp and the altar—was thirty-two cubits, making sixty-four cubits together. Rather, the uppermost two cubits of the ramp were “absorbed” within the cubits of the altar, because they overhung the two cubits of the altar’s recess: one cubit at the foundation and one cubit at the ledge.] This clearly indicates that the southern side of the altar had a foundation, since the ramp stood on the south, and it is taught that the ramp “spanned over the foundation”!?

And we answer:

Say

that the ramp spanned

opposite

the place where there ought to have been

a foundation cubit,

but there was no foundation there,

and over a ledge cubit.

In any event, that cubit was included in the calculation of the altar’s thirty-two cubits.

We challenge this further:

Come and hear

from

that which Levi taught: How was the altar built? They brought a frame

[a square framework made of four boards]

that was thirty-two

cubits

by thirty-two. Its height was one cubit. And they brought

moist, unhewn stones

damp,

both large and small. And they brought lime, molten lead,

molten lead,

and pitch. And they melted it,

that is, they melted it and poured it over the stones in order to join them, and they filled the entire frame.

And this is the place of the foundation!

And he again brings a frame

second,

which is thirty cubits by thirty cubits,

and sets it upon the construction of the first platform; the one cubit extending on this side and the one cubit extending on that side beyond it on each side constitute the foundation.

Its height

the height of the second frame

was five cubits. And he brings stones,

and does everything as before.

And he again brings a frame

third,

which is twenty-eight by twenty-eight cubits,

and builds it upon the second platform; the cubit extending beyond it on each side is the ledge, which served for the priests to walk around the altar for the purpose of burning the offerings and applying the blood.

Its height

the height of the third platform

was three cubits, and he brings stones

as before, and fills it.

And it is the place of the pyre,

at the top of the altar!

And he again brings a frame

fourth,

which is one cubit by one cubit

one cubit high, and sets it at the corner of the altar above.

And he brings moist, unhewn stones, both large and small. And he brings pitch and molten lead, melts it and pours it. And this is a horn. And so

he does

for each and every horn.

If so, this is difficult for Rav, for it is taught that the lower frame, which was the foundation, was thirty-two by thirty-two on every side?