Ezekiel’s Altar מזבח יחזקאל
A measured, practical reconstruction of the altar described in Ezekiel 43: the yesod (יסוד), sovev (סובב), gevul (גבול), upper working level, ma’arachah (מערכה), horns, and ramp — together with the surrounding earth and the cheik (חיק) channel as they fit into the practical form of the altar.
The altar — where the covenant between the people and God takes concrete form
Every modern state gives physical form to its foundational ideas: sovereignty is expressed through institutions, justice through courts, national memory through places and ceremonies, and public responsibility through institutions that carry those commitments from one generation to the next. In this way, ideas become a visible and lived part of national life.
So too with the altar within the Torah’s framework for Israel. The covenant between the people and God does not remain an abstract idea: gratitude, closeness, responsibility, dedication, and atonement are given public and practical expression through the acts established by the Torah.
In Ezekiel’s vision, the altar stands at the heart of this order. A nation does not live by infrastructure, security, and economics alone; it also lives by identity, memory, values, and institutions that give those things form. The altar is one of the places where Israel’s deepest identity becomes tangible.
The geometry at a glance
| 32 × 32 | The lower altar envelope; the yesod projects one amah where it is present. |
|---|---|
| 30 × 30 | The middle altar body after the first setback. |
| 28 × 28 | The complete upper architectural platform. |
| 24 × 24 | The designated ma’arachah zone within that same 28×28 plane — not an additional body, step, or raised platform. |
| 2 amot on each side | One amah for the horn zone and one amah for the Kohanim walking zone. |
| The ramp | On the south, beginning at ground level and reaching the upper working level without a step between them. |
The altar, ramp, earth, cheik, and drainage channel at full scale
What does the SketchUp / Trimble model show?
The attached model is a three-dimensional translation of the measurement system and the structural interpretations used in the reconstruction. Its purpose is not merely to create an atmospheric image, but to show clearly how the parts of the altar fit together in real space and how the structure can be understood as an actual built form.
- The ramp faces south and reaches exactly to the upper working level.
- The yesod is asymmetrical: full on the north and west, with a one-amah continuation on the east from the northeast corner and a one-amah continuation on the south from the southwest corner.
- The sovev is the horizontal ledge created by the transition from 30×30 to 28×28, not a separate cornice or molding.
- The 24×24 ma’arachah is marked within the same plane as the 28×28 upper surface; it is a functional zone, not another architectural level.
- The immediate altar environment shows stone paving, a band of earth, and a cheik channel used in the reconstruction as a possible drainage system.
- A Kohen scale figure is included only to establish scale, allowing the viewer to understand the size of the architectural masses immediately.
The cheik, the earth, and the drainage channel
R. Eliezer of Beaugency (ר׳ אליעזר מבלגנצי), commenting on Ezekiel 43, interprets the “cheik” as a trench cut into the earth around the altar: one amah deep and one amah wide. He further states that a strip of ground one zeret wide remains between the altar and the edge of the trench, so that the altar does not stand immediately on the lip of the channel.
In the model, the zeret-width earth band is maintained symmetrically around the altar envelope. Where the yesod is present, the stone yesod occupies the projecting amah. Where the yesod is absent, that same amah is shown as additional exposed earth. The result is a wider earth zone on the sides where there is no yesod before the drainage channel begins.
Above the trench, the model shows slotted stone covers that integrate with the court paving while allowing liquids to descend into the channel below. These stone covers are not a detail explicitly stated by R. Eliezer of Beaugency; they are a reconstruction solution intended to combine an active drainage channel with a dignified and usable paved court.
See: Ezekiel 43:13–14; R. Eliezer of Beaugency on the verses. Mikraot Gedolot HaKeter.
The sovev, gevul, and yesod
The sovev is the horizontal ledge created by the transition from the 30×30 body to the 28×28 body, and it surrounds the altar. It should not be rendered as an upright curb or decorative molding.
The gevul is a separate feature: a narrow projecting structural marker associated with the division between upper and lower blood applications. In the reconstruction, it appears as a thin structural projection rather than a heavy cornice.
The yesod does not surround all four sides equally: it is full on the north and west, turns at the northeast corner and continues one amah southward along the east side, and turns at the southwest corner and continues one amah eastward along the south side. The southeast corner has no yesod.
How this differs from the Second Temple altar
The structural envelopes are very similar: 32×32, then 30×30, then 28×28. Within the 28×28 upper surface lies the 24×24 ma’arachah zone, but it is not an additional physical stage. The major difference between Ezekiel’s altar and the Second Temple altar is the vertical division: in Ezekiel’s vision, the yesod rises two small amot followed by four regular amot; in the Second Temple altar, the yesod was one amah followed by five amot. Both are ten amot in nominal count, but the Ezekiel reconstruction preserves the distinction between five-tefach and six-tefach amot.
What stone might be suitable?
The visual direction is an exceptionally light, high-quality, durable stone with a nearly monolithic appearance. Any final choice would of course require engineering review for thermal behavior, absorption, structural performance, and available block size.
Reconstruction principle
The Rivkin Reconstruction distinguishes between an explicit dimension, an interpretation required to make the structure coherent, and a visual or engineering choice used to make the structure intelligible. We therefore do not add stairs, curbs, ornament, or architectural levels without a clear basis. Where a reconstruction hypothesis is introduced — such as the covering of the cheik channel or the additional exposed earth where the yesod is absent — it is identified explicitly as reconstruction.
The current scale is derived from a regular amah of 52.5 cm. Every dimension in the model is built from the same constant in order to preserve consistency between the altar, ramp, earth interface, and visualizations.
Primary sources used in the reconstruction: Ezekiel 43; Mishnah Middot, chapter 3; Rambam’s altar measurements and commentary; Malbim; R. Eliezer of Beaugency; and the metrological framework of the Rivkin Reconstruction.