Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

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The Copper Altar

G-d instructs that a copper altar be made out of shittim wood. It should be square in shape, 5x5 amos. According to Rabbi Yehudah, it should be 3 amos tall. According to Rabbi Yosei, 3 amos should merely be its height from the edge of it's band and upwards, whereas its actual height should be double it's length, just like the interior altar (to be discussed later), i.e 10 amos.

This altar was filled with earth, which is why it is elsewhere referred to as the earthern altar.

The altar should have 4 horns carved into it. The altar should be covered with copper to atone for insolence. Copper is given as a metaphor for insolence in Isaiah 48:4.

All of the utensils of this altar should be made out of copper. These utensils are:

* Kettle pots and thin shovels (in the shape of a metal pot's lid) - used to remove ashes from the altar

* Sprinkling basins to catch the blood from sacrifices

* Prongs to dig into the meat on the altar and rotate it on the coals of the altar's fire and fire pans

* Fire pans - Convex pans to carry the coals for incense from the altar to the inner altar.

A copper grate should be made, to serve as a sieve for altar. This grate should have four copper rings placed on each of its four corners. The grating was 1 cubit wide and was situated at the halfway point of the altar from the ground, which was demarcated by a red line. This halfway point served as a designation point between the "upper and lower bloods" (some blood from the sacrifices was required to be sprinkled above the altar and some below).

The altar had two rounded grooves, one on top of the other. The top one was 3 cubits down from the top of the altar (this is according to the opinion that the altar was 10 cubits tall, not 3 cubits - see first paragraph above) and was to protect the Kohanim from slipping off the alter.

The one below that was 1 cubit wide and was for decorative purposes.

A hairsbreath away from the altar, to its south was a ramp. The base of this ramp reached till a cubit away from the hangings of the courtyard on the Mishkan's south side. According to the opinion that the altar was only 3 cubits tall, this ramp was 10 cubits long.

There should be poles made to carry the altar out of shittim wood, covered in copper. These poles were placed into and kept in the above mentioned rings so that there was one pole on either side.