The moral behind the miracle: a crowded Temple and the need to make space for others

One of the more mysterious mishnayot in Avot is 5:7, which lists 10 miracles that are said to have taken place in the Temple. Some commentators examine them simply in terms of their miraculous content. Others however, mindful of the role of Pirkei Avot in conveying moral instruction, look beyond the miracles on the ground, as it were, and seek to frame them within a larger or more contemporary setting. 

A good example of this can be found in relation to the miracle that, though the Temple was extremely crowded and the order of the day was "standing room only", there was always enough room for worshippers to bow down. Rabbi Eliezer Prins (author of the second half of the Lehmann-Prins Pirkei Avoth) explains this part of the Mishnah figuratively, sending out a powerful message to late 19th century German Jewry that has a curiously contemporary ring to it:

 [W]e see that this miracle still happens today. When all people stand up and oppose one another, there is never enough room for everyone; but when each individual gives way to the next man, all find a place. It is ironic that our fathers managed to earn their daily bread in the narrow ghettos into which they were crowded, and yet had time to maintain their spiritual life, to learn and fulfil the Divine Torah; our generation, however, enjoys the freedom of the whole world but complains that the world is too narrow, competition too great, the fight for existence too severe to allow study of the Torah and fulfilment of its precepts!

A point well made, if ever there was one.