Great Regulars: When a door has a bolt "that drags"--

that is, a bolt tied to a door with a cord so long that the bolt rests on the ground--one may not use it to lock the door on Shabbat. That is, one may not do so in the medina, "the provinces," which is anyplace outside the Temple grounds. But in the Temple, "one may lock with it." What is the reason for this distinction?

The answer seems to be that the Temple, geographically a tiny area, is metaphysically on another plane from the rest of the world.

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: In the Talmud's Timeless Laws, a Vast Temple of the Mind

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