Is there a list of every vessel used in the Beit HaMikdash?

Question

In the beginning of Ezra it says that Cyrus returned thousands of vessels of the Beit HaMikdash. I would like to know if there is a comprehensive list of all the vessels that were created and/or used in the Beit HaMikdash. The pesukim I have seen say things like the shulchan and its vessels but doesn't specify what they were, what they looked like, how many, what material etc.

Answer 1

A descriptive comprehensive list of the 5400 Keilim (Ezra 1:11) is unlikely to be found. The rest of the verses in Ezra there do describe the materials, and the Mefarshim discuss what the vessels may have looked like:

Ezra 1:9, JPS translation (which is based on Metzudos and Ralbag here):

וְאֵ֖לֶּה מִסְפָּרָ֑ם אֲגַרְטְלֵ֨י זָהָ֜ב שְׁלֹשִׁ֗ים אֲגַרְטְלֵי־כֶ֙סֶף֙ אָ֔לֶף מַחֲלָפִ֖ים תִּשְׁעָ֥ה וְעֶשְׂרִֽים׃

And this is the number of them: thirty basins of gold, a thousand basins of silver, nine and twenty knives;

Ezra 1:10, JPS translation (here based on Rashi):

כְּפוֹרֵ֤י זָהָב֙ שְׁלֹשִׁ֔ים כְּפ֤וֹרֵי כֶ֙סֶף֙ מִשְׁנִ֔ים אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת וַעֲשָׂרָ֑ה כֵּלִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים אָֽלֶף׃

thirty bowls of gold, silver bowls of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.

See Rav Weitz's comments below in regards to the unnamed vessels.

Ezra 1:11, JPS translation:

כׇּל־כֵּלִים֙ לַזָּהָ֣ב וְלַכֶּ֔סֶף חֲמֵ֥שֶׁת אֲלָפִ֖ים וְאַרְבַּ֣ע מֵא֑וֹת הַכֹּ֞ל הֶעֱלָ֣ה שֵׁשְׁבַּצַּ֗ר עִ֚ם הֵעָל֣וֹת הַגּוֹלָ֔ה מִבָּבֶ֖ל לִירוּשָׁלָֽ‍ִם׃

All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

Rashi there comments on the numbers, saying that the non-Chashuv vessels were not counted individually:

כל כלים – עתה כולל חשבון המנויין ושאינן מנויין כולן במניין אחד אבל החשובין הוא מונה.

Rav Yair Weitz suggests here that this applies to the 1000 vessels in the previous Passuk:

מסתבר ש´כלים אחרים´ אלו אינם כלים חשובים יותר מהמזרקים והסכינים שהוזכרו בשמם. והוא הדין לשאר הכלים המשלימים לחשבון 5400 הכלים, שלא היו חשובים מהכלים הנזכרים בשמם.

Based on what we know about counting and outlining names throughout the Torah, the Torah and Chazal tend to count and list only things that they consider significant. For this reason, says Rashi, the rest of the vessels used were not clearly explained, because they were insignificant.

Therefore, it would appear unlikely that someone composed a list of all of these vessels, if according to our tradition these details are unimportant here, as explained.