Study Menachot folio 98A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
this is referring to the measurements of the corners of the altar, concerning which there is no difference with regard to this, their height, and there is no difference with regard to that, their width, as both are measured with a cubit of 5 handbreadths.
Accordingly, how many handbreadths is the height of the altar? It is 58 handbreadths high, as only 8 of its cubits are of 6 handbreadths, while two cubits, those of the base and of the corners, are of 5 handbreadths. How many handbreadths is the height of half of the altar? It is 29 handbreadths.
Therefore, how many handbreadths is the surrounding ledge short of half the height of the altar? It is 6 handbreadths above the halfway mark. And this correlates with that which we learned in the baraita: And if the priest performed the squeezing below his feet, even one cubit beneath the ledge, it
The Talmud adds that the language of the verse is also precise. The verse indicates that although it is referring to the height of the base, it is referring to the width of the surrounding ledge, as it is written with regard to the base: “The bottom shall be a cubit,” whereas with regard to the le
§ The Talmud (97a) cited a dispute between R' Meir and R' Yehuda. According to R' Meir all the cubits mentioned with regard to the Temple were medium cubits, except for the measurements of the golden altar, the corners of the external altar, its surrounding ledge, and its base. The Talmud asks: And