"Mizbach Adamah Ta'aseh Li" - it must be connected to the ground. We may not build it over tunnels and arches."
Once in 70 years the Pirchei Kehuna would go take out the wine that was Nichrash.
Where did they do this? And isn't that a stira to here?
Tuvya Marcus, Jerusalem
1) The Mizbe'ach was not built over tunnels or arches, but Rashi in Sukah (49a, DH Shitin) describes the Shitin as a hollow under the Mizbe'ach opposite where the Nesachim were poured.
2) The Me'iri (Sukah 49a, DH Nekavim) cites an opinion that nobody could enter this hollow but they put a long stick inside and collect the congealed wine from the ground.
3) The Me'iri cites another commentary that there was a Kli inside the Shitin which collected the wine.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
See Zevachim 62a Tosfos DH v'Lo
Louis, thank you very much for referring us to this Tosfos.
Now I have a question. The Talmud Yerushalmi, in the first chapter of Sanhedrin, tells us that in the time of King Chizkiyah they found the skull of Auranah the Jebusite (from whom David ha'Melech purchased the site of the Beis ha'Mikdash) under the Mizbe'ch. Does this mean they found the skull in the Shitin, which Tosfos writes was a pit under the Mizbe'ach?
Yasher Koach,
Dovid Bloom
1) Tosfos 62a DH v'Lo writes that the pit of the Shittin [where the congealed wine built up -DB] was not considered a tunnel because it was needed for the Mizbeach. The prohibition to build the Mizbeach over tunnels does not apply if these are needed for the Mizbeach.
2) However Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer zt'l asks on Tosfos, in Even HaAzel Hilchos Beis Habechirah 1:13 (DH v'Hineh Hatos'), that even though the hollow may be necessary for the Mizbeach nevertheless its presence there will mean that the Mizbeach is not totally connected to the ground. Therefore Rav Isser Zalman writes that the crucial thing is that the Mizbeach should be connected to the gorund and there should be not be any hollow between the Mizbeach and the ground; but if the Mizbeach is totally connected to the ground and there is a tunnel underground, this does not bother us.
3) According to Rav Isser Zalman it seems that the hollow under the Mizbeach; which Rashi Sukah 49a calls the Shittin; was totally underground, whilst the Mizbeach itself was filled up with earth and there was no space between it and the earth of the azarah.
Dovid Bloom