Friday, February 23, 2007

ASJ Asked: How did the Briach Hatichon make those 90 degree turns?


ASJ asked here and here, "How did the corners work? If it wasn't a miracle, how was the bolt in the center able to go into the next beam if it was at a 90 degree angle?"

I looked this up in the Sefer Shaarei Aharon this morning and found this very interesting pshat. (Shaarei Aharon can also be found for less here)

It is actually a machlokes. The opinion Yitz originally quoted (from ASJ's original post on the subject) is from the Gemara Shabbos Daf 98, which said that there was one 70 (or 72) Amah long briach hatichon that went through all three sides curving miraculously at the corners.

However Shaarei Aharon quotes the Malbim who quotes "Braisa D'Meleches Hamishkan," which says that there actually were 3 brichim tichonim; two that were 30 amos long for the sides and one that's 12 amos long for the back minus two at the corners. According to this there was no miracle necessary for the briach hatichon.

Shaarei Aharon points out that the Gemara Shabbos clearly disagrees with this Braisa regarding whether there were 3 brichim tichonim (according to the Braisa D'meleches Hamishkan), or 1 Briach Hatichon that miraculously curved, made from either the makal of Yaakov Avinu or the Aishel Avraham.

So that helps ASJ in his search for any possibly non-nais-driven pshat to explain the briach hatichon. Good Shabbos!

-Dixie Yid

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where did you see its from the Makal?

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

Fred, see the Shaarei Aharon. I don't have a copy of it to see what his source was. Kol tuv.