The Chuldah Gates

The Chuldah Gates

The third Mishnah of Tractate Middot lists the gates of the Temple Mount. The ones on the south side were called the Gates of Chuldah. The Tosfot Yom Tov explains that the prophetess Chuldah would sit between these two gates during the end of the First Temple Era. As such, when they built the Second Temple, those gates were called by her name.

The fact that Chulda would sit between these gates is alluded to in II Kings which recounts how King Yoshiyahu sent messengers to the Prophetess Chulda. The verse says that יאִהְו תֶבֶשֹׁי םִַלָרשׁוּיִבּ הֶנְשִׁמַּבּ – “She was sitting in Jerusalem in the Mishneh.”

Interpretations of Mishneh

The word הֶנְשִׁמּ / Mishneh can be interpreted in various ways:

• A Beit Midrash (since Mishnah is studied in a study hall).
• Between the walls of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. (Mishneh means double.)
• She was teaching Mishna. (Although the Oral Torah had not yet been transcribed, it was transmitted orally at that time. This means that Chuldah was teaching the Oral Law to the sages of her generation.)
• She was teaching Mishnah Torah (the book of Devarim/Deuteronomy) whose verses the sages expound in the Oral Law.
• According to the Tosfot Yom Tov, it means that she was sitting between the two gates (as mentioned, Mishneh means double) on the southern wall of the Temple Mount. Later these became known as the gates of Chulda as explained above.