The Veil of Seventy Two Threads and Rabbinic Hyperbole

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel says in the name of Rabbi Shimon the deputy [high priest]: The veil's thickness was a handbreadth, and it was woven on seventy-two strands, and on each and every strand were twenty-four threads. Its length was forty cubits and its breadth twenty cubits; it was made from eighty-two myriads, and they make two each and every year, and three hundred priests immerse it. Shmuel said: In three places the sages spoke in the language of exaggeration: the apple-heap, the vine, and the veil. (Shmuel said this) to the exclusion of Rava's view, for we learned: they gave the daily-offering lamb to drink from a golden cup, and Rava said this was an exaggeration. We hold: these indeed are exaggerations, but there it is not so, for there is no poverty in a place of wealth. The veil, this is what we said. The apple-heap, as we learned: they began to bring up ashes onto the apple-heap; an apple-shaped heap was in the middle of the altar; sometimes there were upon it about three hundred kor. Rava said: an exaggeration. The vine, as we learned: a vine of gold stood at the entrance of the Sanctuary, trained over poles, and whoever volunteered a leaf or a berry or a cluster would bring it and hang it on it. Rabbi Elazar bar Tzadok said: it once happened that three hundred priests were counted to clear it.