We're holding here in the middle of the story, according to the opinion that the aron was hidden in the floor of the דיר העצים, the place where they had the wood. So, he told the story that there was once a kohen that was doing something and he saw, from one place, he noticed that the floor is different than the rest. So, he went to show his friends, and by the time he stopped to show them, already he died. And they knew that probably because the aron was there. And the Gemara here, this is where we're holding, מאי הוה קא עביד? What was he in the middle of doing? אמר רב חלבו, רב חלבו said, מתעסק בקרדומו היה. He was holding his axe, hammer, axe. And then, when, let's say, even it fell and it came to a certain fell on a certain point, he noticed. Why is it important to know what he was involved in? Because the Gemara wants the proof in this story that it was in the דיר העצים. It was in the room of the etzim. But from the story itself, we don't see it. All it says here, he was doing something and he saw the floor, so it could be anywhere, saw the floor different. But what was he doing with an axe? Where do you hold an axe in the בית המקדש? Where you chop, where you cut the wood. So, that's a re'aya that it was in דיר העצים. And the

Gemara tells another story: תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל, they taught in the yeshiva of רבי ישמעאל, שני כהנים בעלי מומים, there were two kohanim who were בעלי מומים שהיו שהיו מתליעין בעצים. They said that a בעל מום, a כהן בעל מום, cannot do the avodah. So, what did they give him kind of jobs? That they would check the wood. The wood were not allowed to have any any worms in it, because the worms make little holes, and even the wood have to be תמים, just like the korban has to be without a blemish, the wood has to be without a blemish. So, they have people checking it. So, these two people were checking the wood, and this definitely was in the דיר העצים, the place where the the room which is the wood. ונשמטה קרדומו של אחד מהם, and the axe of one of them fell, ונפלה שמה, and fell there, ויצא אש ואכלתו. It fell on that exact place where the aron must have been, and a fire came out and burned him up. Burned who? Him up, or the axe? Burned the axe, no? Well, the axe, or burned the person? Because the previous Gemara, it says he died. No, he didn't mean anything. But the the the Gemara The one who dies is the one who was going to tell over the secret. Right. But this one, he just the axe fell. It's not clear. Here, it says it fell and the fire came out ואכלתו, it ate it up. It or him, it could be him. Or the axe man, yeah. But it just shows that this is to bring out that this all fits to the opinion that it was hidden, and where was it hidden? דיר העצים. Which is, see, the other opinion we had was that it was taken away to Bavel. Then, there's another opinion which says it was hidden in the place of the קודש הקדשים, the aron under the קודש הקדשים. And here, it's a different thing. It was hidden in the בית המקדש in the bottom, but in the bottom of the דיר העצים. And I guess regular persons couldn't see it, but the guy who somehow noticed it, and he tried to tell the previous story, and he died.

What about that guy that the Rebbe was mekabel him, that goy that made he's a he's a he made an organization, Seven Mitzvos Bnei Noach, and he was always looking for all this stuff that's hidden in the בית המקדש, and he wasn't looking at he used to tell that it was under tunnels that would take him far away. And the Rebbe told him not to look. It was not him. It was Getz, Getz, the the רב הכותל, the רב הכותל. No, no, but what about the goy from the Seven Mitzvos Bnei Noach, that guy who made that who's at that organization, I can't remember his name right now. But he wanted to find the aron? He claimed that he found the the שמן שמן המשחה. Claimed he claimed he found certain things. Well, what with the שמן? Huh? Jones. Jones, Jones, yeah. Yeah, but the that the Rebbe said to him, I don't know. He was I saw a picture of the Rebbe talking to him and telling him that he's a great things that he's doing, and that he should Not looking for the ארון. Yeah, looking for all the stuff. Well, that I don't know. The Mishkan. He's looking for the Mishkan. Especially the Mishkan, yeah. The Mishkan, where? Where did he look for משכן, Shilo? He wants to find Shilo, the Mishkan Because of this, we know clearly that the Rebbe told him not to do it, Rabbi Getz. Rabbi Getz was the the רב of the כותל, he's in Not to do what? So, he thanks Well, it has to be at least 20 over 23 years ago, because since because I know there's should be 22 years. So, this must have been 35 years ago, right after they found the after they they they got Yerushalayim, a few years after that. So, there was a whole movement to try to find the ארון, and they were going to dig. They wrote to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe said, \"Immediately stop. Don't go ahead. Don't continue. Not for the ארון. Don't look for the ארון.\" When I was in Yerushalayim, they told me, \"You know where is the ארון? במערה, שנכנסנו שמה במנהרה...\" No, that's to know where the קודש הקדשים is, but the ארון is not there. When you go to the מערה, you stop at that area that that you're 10 feet away from the קודש הקדשים, that's right behind But the Gemara says like this: כתיב, there's a pasuk that says when they built the בית המקדש, it says, ויאריכו הבדים. The בדים, the boards, the poles of the ארון was long, ויראו ראשי הבדים. And the tips of the בדים, the heads of the בדים were able to be seen, that's what it says. So he says, מכאן, from this פסוק we see, דארון במקומו נגנז, that the ארון was hidden in the קודש הקדשים. פרעגט, אמר ליה רבא לעולא, רבא asks, מאי משמע? How does this פסוק tell us that the ארון was hidden there? So he says, דכתיב, because the פסוק says there, עד היום הזה. The פסוק says it was there and they saw the ראשי הבדים, and it's there עד היום הזה. עד היום הזה means that it was always there, and even today it's there. וכל היכא דכתיב עד היום הזה לעולם הוא. Wherever the pasuk says about something עד היום הזה, it means forever. Like it says by קבורת רחל, they buried Rachel, and the pasuk says this is קבורת רחל עד היום הזה. So, chumash it says. So, those things stayed forever. Umimeila, when it says here עד היום הזה, obviously it's there forever. פרעגט די גמרא, וכל היכא דכתיב עד היום הזה לעולם הוא? Are you telling me that wherever it says words עד היום הזה, till today, means forever? Because you could learn a different peshat. You could learn עד היום הזה means till the day when the chumash was the pasuk was written. The pasuk wrote till today. If we said no, so he says, are you telling me it means forever, that was always there? והכתיב, there's another pasuk it says, ואת היבוסי יושבי ירושלים לא הורישו, that the Yevusi who lived in Yerushalayim, they did not chase out, Bnei Binyamin. The Bnei Binyamin didn't chase them out. וישב היבוסי את בני בנימין בירושלים עד היום הזה. And the Yevusim lived together with the Bnei Binyamin in Yerushalayim up to date. הכא נמי דלא גלו? Are you telling me they didn't go to galut? That they were always there? And there wasn't time when they were not there, because עד היום הזה means that it was always there? והתניא, doesn't it say the ברייתא, רבי יהודה אומר, רבי יהודה says, נ״ב שנה לא עבר איש ביהודה, for 52 years nobody lived in Yehuda. So the Yevusim there were not there. Nobody was there 52 years. Where do we see it? שנאמר, it says in ירמיה, על ההרים אשא בכי ונהי, on the mountains I'm going to cry, ועל נאות מדבר קינה, and on the area of the midbar I'm going to, English word is laminate? Lamentations, yeah. Yeah. כי נצתו מבלי איש עובר, because it's there without a person passing, ולא שמעו קול מקנה, and there's nothing there, they didn't hear the voice of mikneh, of cattle, מעוף השמים ועד בהמה, from birds to בהמה, נדדו הלכו. And they were נדדו means they say it again? Wandering and they left. And this, so we see there was a time there was no one no one there. And how long? We said 52 years. How do we know 52 years? Because בהמה בגימטריא הכי. בהמה is a Gematria 52, and this word בהמה here is extra. It says that they didn't hear the voice, the noise of מקנה, of the cattle. Obviously, there was no בהמה there, because בהמה is part of cattle. So the word בהמה is extra, so what does the בהמה tell me? That it was 52 years. So we see for 52 years it wasn't there. We know in Kabbalah, Chassidus we also learn, ב״ן, ב״ן is the גימטריא בהמה. There is שם ב״ן and שם מ״ה. שם מ״ה בגימטריא אדם, שם ב״ן בגימטריא בהמה, because it's נ״ב. Anyway, so we see here clearly that it says עד היום הזה, and there was a it wasn't always there. Says the יבוסים lived עד היום, but it was not. והתניא, another thing we learned, רבי יוסי אומר, רבי יוסי says, שבע שנים נתקיימה בארץ ישראל גפרית ומלח. Seven years there was in Eretz Yisrael גפרית ומלח, גפרית is is sulfur and and salt. Why was it? Because in Parashat Nitzavim it says if the Yidden are not going to behave, the Oibershter is going to make that it should be like Sodom, that you're going to have גפרית ומלח. And takeh for seven years it was. Where does he get seven years? ואמר רבי יוחנן, רבי יוחנן said, מאי טעמא דרבי יוסי, what's the reason of רבי יוסי to say it was seven years? דאתיא ברית ברית. He has a gezeirah shavah from the word bris. כתיב הכא, one pasuk it says, והגביר ברית לרבים שבוע אחד, that the bris was there for one שבוע, one shemittah. What the what kind of bris was there for one shemittah? וכתיב התם, the other pasuk says that we just quoted, ואמרו, that people are going to say, על אשר עזבו את ברית ה׳ אלקי אבותם, that why is the גפרית ומלח in Eretz Yisrael, because they left the ברית of their fathers. So we make a gezeirah shavah that מה התם שבוע אחד, אף הכא שבוע אחד. Just there it says seven years, so this is also seven years. So for seven years Eretz Yisrael had גפרית ומלח. So we

see, al kol panim, from these places, there were times it was empty, and the pasuk says that Yevusim lived in Yerushalayim forever, לעולם. It says עד היום הזה, so it means always. We see it wasn't always. אמר ליה, so he said to him, there's a difference. הכא כתיב שם, התם לא כתיב שם. By the Aron, when he says it because it says the Aron was there עד היום הזה means even always, because it says ויהיו שם עד היום הזה. It says the word שם, then we say it means takeh forever. And these pesukim It doesn't, by the Yevusi it doesn't say שם. They were, they were! They were, where? Where? Where, or someplace else could be. But to be there, it's only if it says שם. פרעגט די גמרא, וכל היכא דכתיב שם לעולם הוא? So are you telling me that if it does say שם, it's forever? מיתיבי, I'll ask you a kashya. It says a pasuk in Divrei Hayamim: מהם מן בני שמעון הלכו להר שעיר, that from the בני שמעון they went to הר שעיר, אנשים חמש מאות, 500 people went to הר שעיר, ופלטיה ונעריה ורפיה ועוזיאל בני ישעי בראשם, and these few people, how many, five? פלטיה, נעריה, רפיה, עוזיאל - yes, four, the children of ישעי, they went ahead, ויכו את שארית הפליטה לעמלק, and they killed the leftovers of עמלק, וישבו

שם עד היום הזה, and they stayed there till today. And it says the word שם and עד היום הזה. והכא נמי דלא גלו? Are you telling me that these people didn't go to galut? והאמר מר, didn't we learn, שכבר עלה סנחריב סנחריב מלך אשור ובלבל את כל הארצות? We know that all the people from all the countries left their country. סנחריב came and he decided to mix everybody up. שנאמר, it says, that סנחריב said, ואסיר גבולות עמים. I'm going to take away the borders of the nations. Till then, it was borders. People that lived within these borders, אמוריים, אמוריים, these were יבוסים, these were this, עמלקים, they all had their place. And came סנחריב and he took everybody away from their place - I mean not everybody, majority - and switched the places. He mixed up the גבולין, that's why nowadays there's no such thing that a מצרי can't marry into כלל ישראל, because the din is a מצרי till three generations can't marry, but you don't know who is a מצרי, there's no מצרי. Nowadays there's no mitzvah of killing עמלק, we don't know who is עמלק, because בא סנחריב ובלבל את כולם. So clearly that these people who came and lived in in in הר שעיר are not the same people from הר שעיר. How come it says that they lived there forever, שם עד היום הזה? Still have the mitzvah, we can't do it. Huh? You still have the mitzvah. No, I don't I don't mean that. I mean we can't fulfill the mitzvah, the mitzvah is there. They say Rav Nisan Aharon killed an עמלק. Well, if you ask me, I would say the Nazis were עמלק. I thought in order to kill עמלק, you need a מלך, you need a נביא to say to kill. That's to kill off a whole nation. We got technical. Yeah, I know. It's wild. Because you can't have a war with them, you can't go out unless the נביא tells you. He says, the seder is, first is is is מחיית עמלק, מינוי מלך, מחיית עמלק, and בנין בית המקדש, but that has to be a real nation. So al kol panim, we see from here that even if it says שם עד היום הזה, it doesn't mean forever. So how did we learn out before from the words that the ארון was שם עד היום הזה means that it's still there? Tiyuvta! A kashya, a good kashya, we have no answer to this kashya. You understand the Gemara, because we always learn that לעולם is 50 years. 50 years is is That's לעולם, here it says עד היום הזה. עד היום הזה? עד היום הזה kann mean till today. Basically, where it says עד היום הזה, שם עד היום הזה, does לאו דוקא. No, the פילא did, doesn't mean it's not, it doesn't have to be. In other words, it's possible it should say עד היום הזה and it's not. So it could mean a different thing in each in each That's what we learned, yes. Yeah, some places it could mean k'pshuto. Pashut does doesn't mean it's meforash it's not like that, you just have no hechreach. You're not forced to it. Huh? Okay, על כן לא יאכלו בני ישראל את גיד הנשה, it says עד היום הזה. Could be. That's what the pasuk is. Kever Rachel was the Ari z"l point it out? No, they knew that before, I think it was always known. Always? They never had They never lost Kever Rachel. Me'arat HaMachpelah they always knew, yeah, that's what he said. They don't know exactly where, exactly where in Chevron somewhere, but they definitely know where the building is, that's I know, that not, but that area, that's definitely. Yes. Although they said, this is Yitzchak, this is Avraham, that's lav davka that the Arabs made it up, but could be, you know. Okay, there's one place outside Me'arat HaMachpelah, when you go up the steps, one side outside they have a siman that over there, that's what is the place, I don't know. Where everybody burns. That was the seventh step. The Ramban? That's something else. That means where Seventh step, something else The Arabs allowed only seven steps, these, this was There is an area that they point out outside. Where? Outside the wall. Outside the wall, outside. Where everybody burns the candles, the whole wall is black over there. No, no, no, that's where the seven stairs are. Yeah. So there's a place there where they point out that there's like a hole, I don't know, that over there, inside over there, that's where of course that the מערה is. Not the way it's inside, you know, they have this is this is Avraham, this is Yitzchak. But they have this like a hole. You know, if you look around the complex, you'll see there are caves, these caves underneath that are guarded. Anyway, this building is not that old. He's talking about on the Arab side. Yeah, they don't let people in. What do you mean by not so old? Not from the time of Avraham Avinu. You know the building, it's 800 years old, 900. I know it's not 3,000 years. Huh? Who built that? I don't know. Migraine, migraine and they let you go seven steps only. Yeah, in those days. From the outside. They only let, every- seven steps. When the Frierdiker Rebbe came to Eretz Yisrael, they got special reshut. They allowed Yidden. When it was in the hands of the Arabs before, so before the independence, so they let Yidden go seven steps, that's all. Only seven steps. No one went in. So the Frierdiker Rebbe, when he came, they managed to get through the connections, they got reshut to go in, inside the building. And he went in, but the government changed their mind, and they sent a messenger to stop, but it was too late already. He was in already. So he went in more. Yeah, but they sent- they changed it, and they sent, they ran. And he went all the way in to where we're able to go today? No, no, no, not that far. But he went into the building, and he went in further. I mean, there's certain places that they left. Stam people they didn't let. That's, הכין לית מוטלין גיד הנשה עד יומא דנן? שכיבא עד יומא דנן. Doesn't say in Chumash. Okay. This is טאקע עד יומא דנן? א ודאי. א גיד הנשה. Ya, zogt the Gemara vayter: רבי יהודה אומר, Rabbi Yehuda asks a kushya. Ksiv, it says by the ארון: \"ויאריכו הבדים ויראו ראשי הבדים\", that the בדים were long, and then when they put the ארון in, they could see from the outside that you could see the בדים. So it would seem, pashuter pshat, that the בדים stuck out into the heichal. Okay, the בדים were very long, they took up a lot of space and it was put down, and they were so long, that you could see them. וכתיב, the other pasuk says: \"ולא יראו החוצה\", that you couldn't see it outside. הא כיצד? So what, could you see it or not? So he

answers, נראין ואינן נראין, you could see, but not see it. What does that mean? So he explains. תניא נמי הכי, there's a beraisa like this: \"ויראו ראשי הבדים\", you could see the heads of the the the poles, יכול לא יהו זזים ממקומן, you would think it was never moved, in other words didn't stick out, תלמוד לומר \"ויאריכו הבדים\", that they were long. יכול יהיו מקרעין ויוצאין בפרוכת, so I would think if they were long and they stuck out, they made a hole in the פרוכת, תלמוד לומר \"ולא יראו החוצה\", but you couldn't see it outside. אי \"ולא יראו החוצה\", יכול לא יהו נוגעין, maybe it wasn't even touching, תלמוד לומר \"ויראו\", you could see it. So okay, what's the bottom line? How did it work? Oh, very pashut. דוחקין ובולטין ויוצאין בפרוכת ונראין כשני דדי אשה. It inside, it touched the פרוכת and it pushed a little bit, so when you looked outside, you couldn't see the בדים, but you could see indentations. And he gives an example! What does it mean: יכול לא יהו זזים ממקומן? You're not זז, you're not moving them from מקומן? No, that's not what he meant. Means that that it was moved to stick. Like this you could move it away from the פרוכת, and from here is mashma that you didn't, they moved it away. They didn't move it closer. Cuz when it says they saw it, it must be that they- it was closer to the פרוכת. If it was closer to the פרוכת, it stuck out. In other words basically, the way it seems, if it would be in the middle of the room exactly, it wouldn't stick out, because the room was 20 by 20. The ארון, the בדים were not that long. So in the משכן, the whole ארון- the whole בית קדש הקדשים was 10 by 10. Here it was 20 by 20 in the בית המקדש. But this was- they moved it closer to- wasn't exactly in the middle. Like you said, moved it closer to the to the entrance. Well, but if it says they didn't see it, maybe it was moved away, it wasn't close. So we're saying, no, it was there that you could see it. But how could you see it? Maybe it stuck and cut through the פרוכת, so he says, no. What happened? It was quite close to the פרוכת and it stuck, when you looked on the other side, you couldn't see it, but you could see it sticking out. And gives a mashal like two breasts of a woman, that you could see- can't see, but you could see it sticking out, so you could see it sticking out two ways. שנאמר, it says: \"צרור המור דודי לי בין שדי ילין\", that it's- he lives between the two breasts. Okay? So here we see from here that you you could see it, if you want to call it see it, you could see it, you can't see it. The only thing, the Gemara is going to ask a שאלה, which we'll see later: Which בית המקדש are we

talking about? The second. The second? The second didn't have the ארון! The first. The first had no פרוכת! Right. I'm saying, right away you stop and think. The second didn't have the Aron. The second didn't have the Aron. Rabbi, wasn't this the same question like last week? You had the same question? Not on this prat. Not on this prat. That was a different question. There it said, like Before we learned on the Last week we learned about the Kohen Gadol, that the Kohen Gadol would take this the machta and he would take it in, and he would put it down בין שני בדי הארון. So the Gemara was asking there, and it says he walked through the paroches, it says that he he went like this is the this is the Kodesh Hakodashim, so with two paroches's near, here was an opening, this one open in the first paroches, the second paroches had opening here, so there was space in between. You walked in like this and walked in like this. And he walked in, it said, and he Aron was here, he put down the machta... The Gemara, it's a stira. First Beis Hamikdash didn't have a paroches. Had a wall, so we're talking about the second. Second didn't have the Aron. That's a different kushya. Here the she'eilah is on the the seeing. We're gonna, the Gemara is gonna ask that she'eilah. The Gemara is gonna answer that it takeh doesn't mean the paroches of the Beis Hamikdash, of the between the, means the first Beis Hamikdash according to one pshat, first Beis Hamikdash, and it was a wall, but paroches is a different paroches. The

door, there was a door, yeah. First Beis Hamikdash there was a wall, but how did they get in? There was an opening, and that door, that opening had a paroches, and that the paroches. But that we're gonna learn later. Was that answered before also? Huh? Was that answered? No. There we answered that doesn't mean it was in the Aron, it was in the makom of the Aron, k'ilu it was בין בדי הארון. Beis Hamikdash Hasheni. Beis Hamikdash Hasheni.