Saturday 19 December 2015

mishkan tabernacle - How did Shlomo Hamelech figure out which way to build the Beit Hamikdash?


The Torah tells us how to build the Mishkan, but not the Temple. And the dimensions of many of the objects in the Temple were not the same as in the Mishkan (the Copper Altar was bigger, for instance) as well as having many duplicates (10 Menorahs, for instance).


How did Solomon have permission to make these changes? Was it in the Oral Torah? Even though he was a Navi, surely he couldn't use that to change the instructions in the Torah itself.


Edit: It doesn't help to transfer the instructions from David. He, too, could not go against the Torah.



Answer



Yalkut Shimoni, Nach 1081, says:




מגלת בית המקדש מסרה הקב"ה בעמידה.... משה מסרה ליהושע בעמידה... עמד יהושע ומסרה לזקנים בעמידה... עמדו זקנים ומסרוה לנביאים בעמידה, עמדו נביאים ומסרוה לדוד בעמידה... עמד דוד ומסרה לשלמה בנו בעמידה



In short, the "Scroll of the Beis Hamikdash," containing all of the details mentioned in the verses in Chronicles mentioned in Josh's answer, was given by Hashem to Moshe, and passed down from generation to generation until Shlomo.


See also Ohr Hachayim, Shemos 25:9, for an exhaustive discussion of the topic, including (a) that the measurements of the altar given to Moshe weren't necessarily binding even then (i.e., Moshe could have made it a different size if he had wanted, just provided it was square and had certain other features required by halachah), and (b) that many of the details of the Temple structure and furnishings are actually hinted at in the verses in Shemos there.


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