We're holding here in the middle of the story, according to the opinion that the ארון was hidden in the floor of the דיר העצים, the place where they had the wood. They 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 ארון 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, Rav Helbo said, מתעסק בקרדומו היה. He was holding his axe, hammer, axe. And then when say even if 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 a proof from this story that it was in the דיר העצים, that it was in the room of the עצים. 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, he 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 the דיר העצים. And the

Gemara tells another story, תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל, it was taught in the ישיבה of רבי ישמעאל, שני כהנים בעלי מומין, there were two Kohanim who were בעלי מומין, שהיו שהיו מתליעין בעצים. They said that a בעל מום, a כהן בעל מום, cannot do the avodah. So, what did they give him? What 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, and 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 room which is the wood. ונשמטה קרדומו של אחד מהם, and the axe of one of them fell, ונפלה שמה, fell there, ויצאה אש ואכלתו. It fell on that exact place where the ארון must have been, and the fire came out and burned him up. Burned who? Him up or did it burn the axe? Huh? Axe or the person, because the previous Gemara says he died. That was by Rav Chelbo. It fell. He just No, he didn't mean anything. But the The one who dies is the one who was going to tell over the secret, but this one he just the axe fell and it was burned. Right. It's not clear. Here it says it fell and the fire came out ואכלתו, it ate it up. Burned it, yeah. It or him? It could be him. The axe or the axe man. 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 thing we say, it was hidden in the place of the קדש הקדשים, the ארון under the קדש הקדשים. And here it's definitely was hidden in the בית המקדש in the bottom, but in the bottom of the דיר העצים. And I guess 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 מקרב him, the goy that made he's a he's an made an organization for שבע מצוות בני נח, and he was always looking for all this stuff that's that's hidden in the בית המקדש? He wasn't looking for He used to sell there was underground tunnels that would take him far away. And the Rebbe told him not to look. It was not him. It was Getz, Getz. There were the the רב הכותל, the רב הכותל. No, no, but what about the goy from the שבע מצוות בני נח, that guy who made that who was at that organization? I can't remember his name right now. That he wanted to find the ארון? He claimed that he found the the שמן שמן המשחה. Claimed he claimed he found certain things. Well, was the שמן of Huh? Jones. Jones, Jones, yeah. But that did the Rebbe say to him, well, I don't know, because he was uh I saw a picture of the Rebbe talking to him, telling him that he's a great things that he's doing and that he should Looking for the ארון? Yeah, looking for all the stuff. That, I don't know. The משכן. He thinks he found the משכן. Especially if he's The משכן where? What is he looking for in the משכן? Shiloh? He thinks he's going to find in Shiloh the משכן. Because of this, we know clearly that the Rebbe told him not to do it, he Rav Getz. Rabbi Getz was the the rabbi of the Kotel. He's Not to do what? How many So, he begged Well, so it has to be at least 20 over 23 years ago because since he passed away, and it's already 22 years. So, this must have been 35 years ago, right after they found the after they got Jerusalem. A few years after that, so there was a whole movement to try to find the ארון, and they were going to dig. He 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 Jerusalem, they told me know where is the ארון. במערה, שנכנסנו שמה, בטאנעל. Oh, that's to know where the קדש הקדשים is, but the ארון? No. When you go to the מערות, you stop at an area that that you're 10 ft away from the קדש הקדשים. That's right behind קדש, that's something else. But the ארון is not there, so we don't know where it... Oh, they told me that it's buried down... That's what, according to one opinion, the Rambam paskens like that, but there's... Yeah, there's other opinions. 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 pasuk we see שארון במקומו נגנז, that the ארון was hidden in the קדש הקדשים. פרעגט די גמרא, אמר ליה רבה לעולא, מאי משמע? How does this pasuk tell us that the ארון was hidden there? So he

says, כתיב because the pasuk says there עד היום הזה. The pasuk says that 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, 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. Much like it says by קבורת רחל where they buried Rachel, the pasuk says this was קבורת רחל עד היום הזה. BaChumash it says. So those things stay forever. Umeimeila when it says here עד היום הזה, obviously it's there forever. פרעגט די גמרא, כל היכא דכתיב עד היום הזה לעולם הוא? Are you telling me that wherever it says the word עד היום הזה till today means forever? Because you could learn 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 it's 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 בירושלם עד היום הזה, and the Yevusim lived together with the בני בנימין בירושלים up to date. הכא נמי דלא נגלו? Are you telling me they didn't go to galut, that they were always there and there wasn't a time when they were not there, because עד היום הזה means that it was always there? והתניא doesn't it say in a ברייתא, רבי יהודה אומר, רבי יהודה says, נ\"ב שנה לא עבר איש ביהודה, for 52 years nobody lived in Yehuda. So the Yevusim they 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 מדבר I'm going to, the English word is laminate, is that? Lamentations, yeah. Yeah. כי נצתו מבלי איש עבר, because it's there without a person passing, ולא שמעו קול מקנה, and there's nothing there, they didn't hear the voice of מקנה, of cattle, מעוף השמים ועד בהמה, from birds to a בהמה, נדדו הלכו. And they were נדדו means they 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 in גימטריא 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 there was it was 52 years. So we see for 52 years wasn't there. We know in Kabbalah, Chassidus we also learn ב״ן, ב״ן is the גימטריא of בהמה. There's שם ב״ן and שם מ״ה. שם מ״ה the גימטריא אדם, שם ב״ן the גימטריא בהמה, because it's נ\"ב. Anyway, so we

see here clearly that it says עד היום הזה and there was it wasn't always there. Says the Yevusim lived עד היום הזה, and it was not. V'tanya another thing we learn, רבי יוסי אומר, רבי יוסי says, שבע שנים נתקיימה בארץ ישראל גפרית ומלח. Seven years there was in ארץ ישראל 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 Oybershter is going to make that it should be like Sedom, 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 was the reason of רבי יוסי to say it was seven years? דאתיא ברית ברית. He had a גזירה שוה from the word ברית. כתיב הכא one pasuk it says, והגביר, הגביר ברית לרבים שבוע אחד, that the ברית was there for one שבוע, one שמיטה. What kind of ברית was there for one שמיטה? כדכתיב התם, the other pasuk says that we just quoted, ואמרו, the people are going to say, על אשר עזבו את ברית ה' אלקי אבותם, that why is there גפרית ומלח in ארץ ישראל? Because they left the ברית of their fathers. So we say make a גזירה שוה 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 ארץ ישראל had גפרית ומלח. So we see al kol panim from these places there were times it was empty, and the pasuk says that יבוסים lived in Yerushalayim forever. לעולם, it says עד היום הזה, so it means always. We see it wasn't always. Amar lei, so he said to him, there's a difference. הכא כתיב שם, התם לא כתיב שם. By the aron when he said that 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 sham, then we say it means takeh forever. And this pesuk It doesn't by the יבוסי it doesn't say sham. They were, they were, they were wherever, they're someplace else, could be. But to be there, it's only if it says sham. פרעגט די Gemara: וכל היכא דכתיב שם לעולם? 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 מבני 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, yeah, four, the children of ישעי, they went ahead, ויכו את שאר הפלטה 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. הכא נמי דלא גלו? Are you telling me that these people didn't go to galut? והא אמר 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. Sancheriv came, and he decided to mix everybody up. שנאמר, it says, 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, these were Emorim, these were Yevusim, these were this, Amalekim, they all had their place. And came Sancheriv and he took everybody away from their place, I mean not everybody, majority, and switched the places. He mixed up the gevulim, that's why nowadays, there is no such thing that a Mitzri can't marry into Klal Yisrael, because the din is a Mitzri till three generations can't marry. Who do you know who's a Mitzri? There's no Mitzri. Nowadays, there is no mitzvah of killing Amalek. We don't know who's Amalek, because בא סנחריב ובלבל את כולם. So, clearly that these people who came and lived in in in Har Seir are not the same people from Har Seir. 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. Didn't you say Reb Nosson Adler killed an Amalek? Well, if you ask me, I would say the Nazis were Amalek. But I thought in order to kill Amalek you need a melech, you need a navi at the same You still That's to kill off the whole nation. You get technical. Yeah, I know. It's always. Because you can't have a war with them. You can't go out unless the navi tells you. It says the seder is, first is is is מנוי מלך, מחיית עמלק, and בנין בית המקדש. So, but that has to be as a nation. Al kol panim, we see from here that even if it says שם עד היום הזה doesn't mean forever. So, how did we learn out before from the words that the aron was שם עד היום הזה means that it's still there? Teyuvta! A kashya! A good kashya! They have no answer to this kashya. The other day when we were learning the Gemara, remember, we always learned that le'olam is 50 years, 50 years is is is That's le'olam, but here it says עד היום הזה. Why, עד היום הזה? עד היום הזה kinda means till till today. So, basically where it says עד היום הזה, שם עד היום הזה doesn't It's lav davka. No, but mila it is, it 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 can mean a different thing in each in each That's how we learned it. Yeah. Some places it can mean k'pshuto. Pashut it doesn't mean that the pshat is not like that, you just have no הכרח. You're not forced to it. Huh? על כן לא יאכלו בני ישראל את גיד הנשה עד היום הזה. Could be. That's what the pasuk is. Kever Rachel was The HaAri z"l pointed her out, there was No, they knew that before, I think it was always known. Always? Never had it, never lost it. Me'arat HaMachpelah they always knew, yeah, that's what I'm saying. They don't know exactly where exactly where inside Me'arat HaMachpelah is, but they definitely knew where the building is, that's I know, that not, but that that's the area, that's definitely. Yes. Although they say, \"This is Yitzchak, this is Avraham,\" that's lav davka, that's the the Arabs made it up. But could be. 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 where the place, I don't know. Where everybody burns The seventh step. Ramban? That's something else. I mean, where Outside the wall. Seventh step is something else, yeah. The The Arabs allowed only seven steps in, that is right. There is an area that they point out outside Where? Outside the wall? Inside Outside the wall, outside. Everybody burns the candles, the whole wall is black over there. No, no, no, that's where the seventh stairs are, yeah. Oh, near that. 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 the the the מערה is. Not the way inside, you know, they have this is, is Avraham, this is Yosef, they have like a board over there. All around the complex, you'll see they are caves, these caves underneath that are guarded. Yeah, but this building is not that old. This cup is on the Arab side. Yeah, they don't let people in. What do you mean, how, not so old? Not from the time of Avraham Avinu. That building is, it's 800 years old. I know it, but it's not 3,000 years. Huh? I don't know. Migraine, migraine and they let Jews go seven steps only. Yeah, in those days, from the outside. They only let ever seven steps. When the Frierdiker Rebbe came to Eretz Yisrael, really? They got special reshut. They allowed Yidden when it was in the hands of the Arabs before so before 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 into inside the building. And he went in, but the government changed their mind. 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 he changed and they sent they ran to stop. 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 let. To some people it doesn't matter. Okay. הכא נמי למנכי נפשיה כי היכי דאימא זו, שכיבא ריחא דאימא זו. Doesn't say in the Shas? This is stuck דאימא זו. אה ולא? אבל אידנא לא שנא. זאגט די Gemara ווייטער: רבי יהודה אומר, רבי יהודה asked a kashya. כתיב, it says by the aron: ויאריכו הבדים ויראו ראשי הבדים, that the badim were long, and then when they put the aron in, they could see from the outside that you could see the badim. So it

would seem pashut pshat that the badim stuck out into the heichal. The badim were very long, they took up a lot of space, and it was put down that 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 he 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 braita like this: ויראו ראשי הבדים, you could see the heads of the poles, יכול לא יהיו זזין 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 יהיו נוגעין, maybe it wasn't even touching, תלמוד לומר: ויראו, you could see it. So הא כיצד, what's the bottom line, how did it work? Oh, very pashut. דוחין ובולטין ויוצאין בפרוכת ונראין כשני דדי אשה. Inside, it touched the parochet and it pushed a little bit. So when you looked outside, you couldn't see the badim, but you could see indentations, and it gives an example. What does it mean: יכול לא יהיו זזין ממקומן? You're not you're not maziz them from the mekoman. No, that's not what it meant. It means that it was moved to stick. Like this, you could move it away from the parochet. And from here it's mashma that they moved it away, they didn't move it closer. Because when it says they saw it, it must be that it was closer to the parochet. If it was closer to the parochet, 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 aron, the badim were not that long. So in the mishkan the whole the whole Kodesh Hakodashim was 10 by 10. Here it was 20 by 20 in the Beis Hamikdash. But it was they moved it closer to the wasn't exactly in the middle like this, they moved it closer to the to the entrance. 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 parochet? So he says, no. What happened? It was right closer to the parochet and it stuck, and when you looked on the other side, you couldn't see it, but you could see it sticking out. And it gives a mashal like two breasts of a woman, that you could see you can't see, but you could see it sticking out, so you could see sticking out two ways. Shene'emar, it says: צרור המור דודי לי בין שדי ילין, that 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 she'elah, which we'll see later: which Beis Hamikdash are we talking about? The second. The second? The second had no Aron! Oh, the first. But the first had no parochet! Right. That's the thing. Right away you stop and think. But the The second didn't have the Aron. Rabbi, wasn't the same question like last week, they had the same question? Not on this פרט, not on this פרט. There was a different question. There it said like before we learned last week we learned about the Kohen Gadol, that the Kohen Gadol would take the the machtah and he would take it in, and he would put it down בין שני בדי הארון. So the Gemara is asking there, and it says he walked through the parochet, it says that he he went Listen, this is the this is the קדש הקדשים. There were two parochot here. Here was an opening. This one opened in the first parochet. The second parochet had an opening here, and there was space in between. You walked in like this and walked in like this. And he walked in, it said, and the Aron was here, he put down the machtah The Gemara says it's a setirah. First Beis Hamikdash didn't have a parochet. Had a wall. So we're talking about the second? Second didn't have the Aron. But that's a different kashya. Here the she'elah is on this the thing. We're gonna the Gemara is gonna ask that she'elah. The Gemara is gonna answer that it takeh doesn't mean the parochet of the Beis Hamikdash of the of the between the it means the first Beis Hamikdash, according to one peshat. First Beis Hamikdash and it was a wall, but parochet, there's a different parochet. The door, there was a door, yeah, in the first Beis Hamikdash there was a wall. But how'd they get in? There was a opening, and that door, that opening had a parochet. And that, the parochet, but that we're gonna learn later. Was that answered before also? Huh? Was

that answered to the last...? No. There we answered it doesn't mean it was in the Aron, it was in the מקום of the Aron, ke'ilu it was בין בדי הארון. In בית המקדש השני? בית המקדש השני.