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4,089. The Wood for the Woodpile

Hilchos Issurei Mizbeiach 7:2

In the time of the Temple, they would bring rams from Moav, fattened sheep from Chevron, calves from the Sharon, young birds from Har HaMelech, wine from Karochayin and Chalutiyin, flour from Michmash and Yochanah, and oil from Tekoa. [All of these places were acclaimed for the quality of these things.]

Hilchos Issurei Mizbeiach 7:3

Any new (i.e., unused) wood is fit for the woodpile. They didn’t use olive wood or grape vines in order to facilitate the settlement of Israel (by not reducing the number of these important crops). They often used the branches of fig trees that grew in the forests of unsettled places, as well as branches of nut trees and of “oil trees” (a type of cedar). The logs that Moshe made were a cubit long by a cubit wide (about 18”x18”) with a thickness like that of the stick used to level the contents of an overflowing seah container. In the Temple, the same sized logs were used (even though the altar was much larger).

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