Temple Measurements, Undescended Limbs, and Extra Legs

How measuring rods in the Temple prevent trespass, the blemish status of undescended testicles, and when an extra leg renders an animal a tereifah.

Expanded Cubits for Mikveh and Artisans

The Gemara discusses measuring rods kept in the Temple chamber of Shushan the capital, which were larger than the standard six-handbreadth cubit of Moses. The northeast cubit was larger by half an אצבע (fingerbreadth), and the southeast cubit by a full fingerbreadth. The Sages instituted this so artisans hired for sanctuary repairs would contract according to a smaller measure and deliver work according to an expanded larger cubit, ensuring they never inadvertently committed מעילה (misuse of consecrated property) by taking unearned sacred funds.

Rambam codifies this practice, stating that Temple building agreements were settled using a smaller cubit of twenty fingerbreadths but measured upon completion using an expanded cubit of twenty-four fingerbreadths. Later authorities apply this principle directly to contemporary ritual measurements: Maran in Beit Yosef rules that when calculating the minimal volume of forty סאה (se'ah) for a מקוה (mikveh), one measures with an expanded cubit (אמה שוחקת) of six full handbreadths, derived explicitly from the larger Temple cubits mentioned on our daf.

וּכְשֶׁמּוֹשְׁחִין לָהֶן מַה שֶּׁבָּנוּ מוֹשְׁחִין וּמְחַשְּׁבִין לָהֶן בְּאַמָּה גְּדוֹלָה בַּת עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבַּע אֶצְבָּעוֹת כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹּא יָבוֹאוּ לִידֵי מְעִילָה

And when they measure for them what they built, they measure and calculate for them with the large cubit of twenty-four fingerbreadths, so that they will not come to misuse consecrated property. (Mishneh Torah, Trespass 8:5)

Undescended Testicle in a Firstborn

A בכור (firstborn kosher animal) is consecrated from birth and may only be eaten outside the Temple if it develops a permanent מום (blemish). The Mishnah presents a dispute regarding a firstborn with two scrotal sacs but only one palpable testicle. Rabbi Akiva rules that one seats the animal on its rump and mashes the scrotal area; if a hidden testicle exists, it will emerge. In an actual case where one mashed and nothing emerged, the animal was slaughtered, and the missing testicle was subsequently discovered embedded in the loins. Rabbi Akiva permitted the meat because it was missing from its place during examination, whereas Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Nuri prohibited it as an unblemished offering slaughtered outside the Temple.

Rambam rules in accordance with Rabbi Akiva: if an expert seated the animal, mashed the area, and no second testicle emerged, the animal is validly slaughtered; even if the testicle is later found attached to the flanks, it remains permitted. However, if the examiner slaughtered it without this prior mashing and the testicle was subsequently discovered in the flanks, the carcass must be buried. The Tur notes that the Ramban and the Rosh rule leniently like the תנא קמא (first teacher), holding that having one testicle in two sacs is inherently a blemish and never requires prior mashing.

הֲרֵי זֶה מֻתָּר הוֹאִיל וּמִעֲכוּ. אֲבָל אִם לֹא נִמְעַךְ אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁנִּשְׁחַט עַל פִּי מֻמְחֶה הֲרֵי זֶה יִקָּבֵר

It is permitted since they mashed it. But if it was not mashed, even though it was slaughtered based on an expert, it must be buried. (Mishneh Torah, Firstlings 3:5)

Extra or Missing Limbs

The Mishnah lists an animal with five legs or three legs as possessing a blemish that disqualifies it from the altar. The Gemara clarifies through Rav Huna that this distinction applies only to a foreleg. If an animal is missing a hind leg or possesses a superfluous hind leg, it is not merely blemished; it is also a טריפה (mortally afflicted animal), because halachic tradition establishes that any extra is like removed (כל יתר כנטול דמי), making an extra hind leg equivalent to a severed leg.

Rambam rules in Hilchot Issurei Mizbe'ach that extra or missing legs are disqualifying permanent blemishes that permit slaughtering a firstborn. In the laws of kosher slaughter, Maran in Shulchan Arukh rules that an animal with a third hind leg branching from above the lower leg bone is ruled a tereifah. The Rema qualifies this, ruling that the superfluous appendage invalidates only if it possesses the form of a leg and stands in the leg area; otherwise, it is treated merely as dangling flesh and remains kosher.

Temple cubits set rigorous standards to protect consecrated items and mikveh volumes, while structural abnormalities determine whether an animal is merely blemished or prohibited as a tereifah.

Learn Bekhorot 40 on Super Daf