Nach Yomi A Deeper Look: Melachim Alef 6 "Windows on the World"

And we're told in the beginning of the process, in Pesach Vav, that Shlomo HaMelech built windows.

He made windows that are shakuf, which are windows.

The Mitzvot David points out, the Mitzvot Sion points out, means they were able to be looked at from the Lashon of Vayashkev, that one looks, and means they were closed, right? And of course, that's a fundamental stira in and of itself.

On the one hand, they were not able to be seen, and on the other hand, They were able to be seen.

And, you know, that seems to be a fundamental issue.

You know, why is this established? What's the purpose of windows that can be seen and not seen? That's contradictory in and of itself.

And by the way, if the windows... are identified, why is this the first thing that we want to identify in the New Beis Hamikdash, these weird windows? We have walls, we have dimensions, everything else.

Why is it more important than the windows? So from the Targum, it sounds like they were open from the inside and closed from the outside.

That is to suggest there were some sort of... shutters.

And perhaps that's the way we're supposed to understand things, and that's what the Vilna Gaon, as we pointed out in our basics here, in our Nachiomi summary, the Vilna Gaon makes the same idea.

In other words, they were built with shades, that they were able to be shutters, rather, that they were able to be opened and closed.

The Abarbanel says that no, the windows were made in the completion of work.

In other words, when...

When the kings, just like the way kings make situations and make buildings, they look like little notches, where the king is able to see anything and everything, but he's not able to be seen.

In other words, you can use it as sort of like a binocular shape.

Somebody on the outside wouldn't be able to see what's going on on the inside, but somebody on the inside is able to see what's going on on the outside.

In fact, the Abarbanel brings down that we're talking about glass windows.

They are glass windows that you can see through, but it's also possible the word Atum means that the breezes can't go through them.

So we're not able to have the transfer of the weather inside and outside, which is pretty amazing because that seems to suggest that at the time of Shlomo HaMelech, Shlomo HaMelech glass was quite expensive.

And so therefore, it is quite an interesting description according to the Abarbanel.

So far we have the Targum who seems to understand that it's a sign and that it has shutters and that these windows were there with shutters.

But the Abarbanel, to shut them, shot number one, it was a sign of royalty.

People on the inside can see out, but not the outside in, or perhaps that it had glass.

Chazal had a different understanding, and Rashi cites this on our Pesach based on which seems to suggest that it's about the light.

In other words, they were able to have something emanate from the outside.