His lyrics measure the distances of intimacy under the cover of darkness, where the space between two people might be a handbreadth or a chasm.
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In Biblical exegesis the hand measurement, as for example in the Vision of the Temple, Authorized Version , is usually taken to be palm or handbreadth, and in modern translations may be rendered as "handbreadth" or "three inches".
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Rabbi Judah, however, taught that the cubit of the Ark equaled only 5 handbreadths, meaning that the Ark was 12½ handbreadths long. The tablets (each 6 handbreadths wide) were deposited next to each other in the Ark, accounting for 12 handbreadths. There was thus left half a handbreadth, for which the two sides of the Ark accounted. Accounting next for width of the Ark, Rabbi Judah calculated that the tablets took up 6 handbreadths and the sides of the Ark accounted for ½ handbreadth, leaving 1 handbreadth.
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Rabbi Hanina taught that one can deduce the Ark-cover's height from the smallest of the vessel features, the border of the table, concerning which says, "And you shall make for it a border of a handbreadth round about." Just as the height of the table's border was a handbreadth, so was it also for the Ark-cover. Rav Huna taught that the height of the Ark-cover may be deduced from which refers to "the face of the Ark-cover," and a "face" cannot be smaller than a handbreadth. Rav Aha bar Jacob taught a tradition that the face of the cherubim was not less than a handbreadth, and Rav Huna also made his deduction about the Ark-cover's height from the parallel.
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But for the Ark-cover, gave its length and breadth, but not its height. Rabbi Hanina taught that one can deduce the Ark-cover's height from the smallest of the vessel features, the border of the table, concerning which says, "And you shall make for it a border of a handbreadth round about." Just as the height of the table's border was a handbreadth, so was it also for the Ark-cover. Rav Huna taught that the height of the Ark-cover may be deduced from which refers to "the face of the ark-cover," and a "face" cannot be smaller than a handbreadth.
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Taking a cubit to be about 18 inches and a handbreadth to be about 4 inches, the ratio of the described dimensions of the bowl differs from by less than 1%.
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Rav Aha bar Jacob taught a tradition that the face of the cherubim was not less than a handbreadth, and Rav Huna also made his deduction about the Ark-cover's height from the parallel..
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Thus the tablets accounted for 12 handbreadths, leaving 3 handbreadths unaccounted for. Rabbi Meir subtracted 1 handbreadth for the two sides of the Ark (½ handbreadth for each side), leaving 2 handbreadths for the Torah scroll. Rabbi Meir deduced that a scroll was in the Ark from the words of "There was nothing in the Ark save the two tablets of stone that Moses put there." As the words "nothing" and "save" create a limitation followed by a limitation, Rabbi Meir followed the rule of Scriptural construction that a limitation on a limitation implies the opposite — here the presence of something not mentioned — the Torah scroll.
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Rabbi Jose differed with the Mishnah to teach that the handbreadth-high frame described in not props, held the showbread in place, but they interpreted the table's rim to exist only at the feet of the table, not at its surface.Tosefta Menachot 11:6. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction, translated by Jacob Neusner.
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"overshadowed" by that house), if there was a hole or crevice in the dividing wall the size of a handbreadth in diameter, or what is approximately 8 cm. (3.1 inches) to 9 cm. (3.5 inches) (), defilement by the corpse passes to the other house as well.Mishnah (Ohalot 13:4–5) Any opening less than this defiles by a rabbinic decree.
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After hearing of the death of a close relative, Jewish beliefs and traditions instruct individuals to tear their clothing as the primary expression of grief. The process of tearing the garment is known as keriah. The tearing is done while standing and is required to extend in length to a tefach (handbreadth),, s.v. Hilkot Avel 8:1–2 or what is equivalent to about .
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English units of length The English palm, handbreadth, or handsbreadth is three inches (7.62cm) or, equivalently, four digits. The measurement was, however, not always well distinguished from the hand or handful, which became equal to four inches by a 1541 statute of Henry VIII. The palm was excluded from the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 that established the imperial system and is not a standard US customary unit.
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The distance the twilight zone travels in one such tierce at the equator, which would be one-billionth of the circumference of the earth, would be a new unit of length, provisionally called a half-handbreadth, equal to four modern centimetres. Further, the new tierce would be divided into 1000 quatierces, which he called "microscopic points of time". He also suggested a week of 10 days and dividing the year into 10 "solar months". Decimal time was officially introduced during the French Revolution.
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Model of the Second Temple When the Temple was rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity, the Ark was no longer present in the Holy of Holies; instead, a portion of the floor was raised slightly to indicate the place where it had stood. In Jewish tradition, two curtains separated the Holy of Holies from the lesser Holy place during the period of the Second Temple. These curtains were woven with motifs directly from the loom, rather than embroidered, and each curtain had the thickness of a handbreadth (ca. 9 cm.).
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In some societies, such as in the villages around Aleppo, in Syria, the earthen oven (tannour) was vaulted and egg-shaped, the opening of which was made in the front, and the entire structure built above-ground by having it propped-up upon an earth and stone base. (reprinted from 1935 edition) Its outer shell was thick, and could be anywhere between a handbreadth () to in thickness. Such shapes were typically found in Europe and in the British isles. In Europe and Britain, however, bread was baked on the floor of the oven, usually made of brick or tile.
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The palm is an obsolete anthropic unit of length, originally based on the width of the human palm and then variously standardized. The same name is also used for a second, rather larger unit based on the length of the human hand.. The width of the palm was a traditional unit in Ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome and in medieval England, where it was also known as the hand,. handbreadth, or handsbreadth.. The only commonly discussed "palm" in modern English is the biblical palm of ancient Israel. The length of the hand—originally the Roman "greater palm"—formed the palm of medieval Italy and France.
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38Its wick trimmers and trays > are to be of pure gold. 39A talent of pure gold is to be used for the > lampstand and all these accessories. 40See that you make them according to > the pattern shown you on the mountain.Exodus 25:31-40, New International > Version. Numbers, chapter 8, adds that the seven lamps are to give light in front of the lampstand and reiterates that the lampstand was made in accordance with the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain.Numbers 8:1-4 In Jewish oral tradition, the menorah stood 18 handbreadths/palms (three common cubits) high, or approximately .Babylonian Talmud (Menahot 28b); Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Beit ha-Baḥirah 3:10 ). Figure is based on the accepted rabbinic view that there are four finger-widths to every handbreadth/palm, and each finger- width is estimated at 2.25 cm.
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He is attributed as the author of the Mishnat ha-Middot (ca. AD 150), making it the earliest known Hebrew text on geometry, although some historians assign the text to a later period by an unknown author. The Mishnat ha-Middot argues against the common belief that the Bible defines the geometric ratio (pi) as being exactly equal to 3, based on the description in 1 Kings 7:23 (and 2 Chronicles 4:2) of the great bowl situated outside the Temple of Jerusalem as having a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30 cubits. He maintained that the diameter of the bowl was measured from the outside brim, while the circumference was measured along the inner brim, which with a brim that is one handbreadth wide (as described in the subsequent verses 1 Kings 7:24 and 2 Chronicles 4:3) yields a ratio from the circular rim closer to the actual value of .
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