זאגט די Gemara. Here we're holding middle of מ״ט on top of the עמוד. אמר רב קטינא, רב קטינא said, בשעה שהיו ישראל עולין לרגל, when the Yidden went up to Yerushalayim for עלייה לרגל, in the middle, between מ״ט and נ׳, in the middle. מגללין להם את הפרוכת, what they would do is they'd open up the פרוכת of the קדש הקדשים, ומראין להם את הכרובים, and they would show the Yidden the ארון, and the Yidden would see the כרובים on top of the ארון, שהיו מעורין זה בזה, and the כרובים would look that they were like hugging each other, touching each other. ואומרים להם, and they would say to the אידן, ראו חיבתכם לפני המקום, look how beloved you are by השם, כחיבת זכר ונקבה, hugging like a man and a woman, and this is how the Aibershter loves you. Okay, this is what Rav Ketina said. מותיב רב חסדא, so Rav Chasda has a kashya. The pasuk it says, ולא יבאו לראות כבלע את הקדש, the לויים shouldn't come to see when the holy כלים are swallowed in, are covered. אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, רב יהודה אמר רב said, what does that mean? בשעת הכנסת כלים לנרתיק שלהם, when they put the כלים into their covers, so the לויים shouldn't see. So the כהנים would first come, cover up the כלים, cover everything up, and then the לויים were able to come in, because no one was able to see. The Aibershter didn't want in the משכן that this by this is that in Chumash, in the משכן. So the Aibershter didn't want that the people should see it. So how do we see now that that that they used to open up the פרוכת and they would see the ארון? That's the ultimate. Again, that's out of all the כלים, this is the real כלי. Yeah.

Even though according to the Rambam it's not a keli, it's even more than a keli. The Rambam when he counts the kelim of the Mishkan, of the Beit Hamikdash, he doesn't mention the aron: Shulchan, Menorah, the mizbeach. Because according to the Rambam, this is part of the building. This is There's certain furniture which is furniture of a house, and there are certain things which is part of the house. Or imagine, I'm just giving a mashal, you have a sink in the house. A sink is not part of the building, but that's a house must have a sink. A couch, that's already furniture. So according to the Rambam, because we see the Rambam when he mentions what the kelim are supposed to be, he doesn't mention the aron. So the Rebbe explains that the Rambam holds that the aron is part of the bayit. But the bottom line is here they showed the aron, which they shouldn't have shown. אמר רב נחמן, so Rav Nachman said, I'll tell you. It depends whether it is the Mishkan or the Beit Hamikdash. משל לכלה, mashal to a כלה, כל זמן שבבית אביה, in those days, when he got engaged, they gave him kiddushin, then for a year, even though she was an arusah, she was not a nesuah. She would stay home with her father, and then after a year, they would go to nisuin, chuppah, and then she would live with her husband. So while she's in her father's house, צנועה מבעלה, she's very modest even with her husband. כיון שבאת לבית חמיה, when she comes to her father-in-law's house, when she moves in with her husband, so then אינה צנועה מבעלה, then she's already closer to her husband, and the לשון הגמרא a lot of times is ליבה גס בו. So they feel comfortable, and then she's not so intimidated by him. So that's the answer that he gave here also. That in the

Mishkan, which was then the beginning, then it was like before she got married, yes, she's still she already knows her husband, she's an arusah, but she still has to be covered. She's still more modest from her husband. So the Eibishter didn't want, no one should see. But the second pasuk, the one that we're talking later when they opened up the parochet, that was already in the Beit Hamikdash. In the Beit Hamikdash, there things were different, there already they were closer. So then it says you're allowed to look. That's what he said, that's what that's the answer. We'll see. The Gemara's not finished yet. מותיב רב חנא בר רב קטינא, so Rav Chana bar Ketina asks, מעשה בכהן אחד, we learned this before, שהיה מתעסק וכולי. The Gemara doesn't doesn't fold it over again, but the Gemara tells the story that there was a kohen, he was involved, he was in the דיר העצים, in the room where they keep the wood, and his axe fell or whatever it is, and he saw, he noticed that the floor in one place was different than the floor in the rest of the room. And the Gemara says, ידעו בבירור, בייחוד, they knew for sure that because the aron is there, so this goes according to the opinion that the aron was hidden in the דיר העצים. And what happened? A fire came out and burned him. He died. Why? Because the Eibershter was, see, they were afraid that they'll uncover it and they'll see it. So we see that even in the Beis Hamikdash Here we see it does. אמר ליה, he said, נתגרשה קא אמרת? Oh, this was the second Beis Hamikdash. Second Beis Hamikdash, it's like a wife that was already divorced. And נתגרשה וחזרה לחיבתה הראשונה. Oh, when she divorced, even though after you divorce and you come back, there's still the feeling goes back like before that you're not so comfortable with each other. So therefore, it comes out like this: in the Mishkan, it had to be covered, in the second Beis Hamikdash, it had to be covered, in the first Beis Hamikdash, in the first Beis Hamikdash they were married, so the first Beis Hamikdash didn't have to be covered, because there she's already like a wife who is more comfortable, but then after you get divorced and then you come back again, if you come back again, it's not. Truth is, they didn't give a get, that's what the Gemara says that, there's a pasuk: איזה איזה ספר כריתות אשר שלחתי אמכם? The Gemara says in another place, the Eibershter had a ta'anah to the Yidden, like, doch, and you went with others. So it's like a wife who was not faithful to her husband. So the navi says in the name of the of the Yidden, \"Well, you divorced us. If a person divorces his wife, כלום יש לו עליה? What, you got ta'anot to her? What is she supposed to do?\" So the Eibershter answers, \"איזה ספר כריתות? Where did I divorce? We're only separated, only כאשה שהלך בעלה למדינת הים, like a woman that her husband left her, and he went away somewhere, but didn't divorce her. So if you're not divorced, you can have ta'anot. So that's not a real divorce, it's so-so.\" I guess they opened the whole door of the heichal also. They stood outside in the in the in the עזרת נשים or even עזרת ישראל, and they opened up the door of the heichal, and then they opened up the parochet. No, a part was blocked, part of the entrance, but somewhere part was not, so they could see. I guess not much, but they could see. Then the Gemara asks: what's the peshat here? This is I mentioned yesterday this kashya: במאי עסקינן, what are we talking about? אי נימא במקדש ראשון, if we're talking about the first בית המקדש, מי הוי פרוכת? There was no parochet. We learned that in the first בית המקדש there was a wall between the קדש הקדשים and the היכל. The second בית המקדש, it says, they didn't know whether that wall, which was an אמה, is part of the קדש הקדשים, or part of the קודש. So what they did was they didn't build, they built two פרוכת's, and that was the division between the קדש הקדשים and the קודש. First בית המקדש, there was a wall. So if we're talking about the first בית המקדש, this is when they showed them the the the the this the ארון, it can't be. מי הוי פרוכת? There was no פרוכת there. There was a wall! We say they opened the פרוכת. אלא, במקדש שני? There was a פרוכת. מי הוי כרובים? The ארון wasn't there! The second בית המקדש didn't have the ארון. So there was no such thing to show them the כרובים, the whole idea was to show them: look at the כרובים that they're next to holding, they're hugging, to show that the Oibershter is hugging the Yidden and loves the Yidden. That couldn't be. So the גמרא answers: לעולם במקדש ראשון. באמת, we're talking about the first בית המקדש. ומאי פרוכת? פרוכת דבבא, the פרוכת of the door. There was a door in that wall, wasn't there? Had to be a door, how did the how'd the כהן גדול get in? So that wall had a door, and that door had a פרוכת! And that פרוכת is the one they opened, that they should be able to see through. So it's in the first בית המקדש. Right, so I said the היכל was opened also. They opened all the doors. Now the שאלה, we have to go into the חשבונות of the This is lower, a floor lower, and then there was a higher level, and then steps, and a higher level, so how could you see from here when this is a lower level? But if you're standing, because it says even if you're standing outside, you could see. If you're standing, which was a lower level, you could see. הנוגע to the פרה אדומה, when they brought the פרה אדומה, they had to do it outside, חוץ, פרה אדומה was made outside. But it says that you have to spritz the blood נכח פני אהל מועד, towards, facing, and you have to see inside. And that's the reason why the חשבון of the wall, the way they made this and the and the שערים, was all that when you stand down, you could see, you'll see the bottom of the higher level, but not much, but you'll be able to see. So they were able to see. But it was the the פרוכת of the door.

דאמר רב זירא אמר רב, רב זירא said in the name of רב: שלש עשרה פרוכת היו במקדש. There were 13 פרוכת's in the מקדש: שבע כנגד שבעה שערים, seven by the seven gates; שתים, two of them, אחת על פתחו של one by the opening of the היכל, I mean of the the היכל, ואחת על פתחו של אולם, one at the door of the אולם. Which means like this: the the way the בית המקדש, we all know the way the shape of the בית המקדש was: outside you had the big wall around the עזרה, then in the middle you had the building. The shape of the building was three compartments: you had the front was the אולם, then you had the היכל which is קודש where you had the נרות, and then after that you had the קודש הקדשים. And there were doors in between. There was a שער of the אולם, there's a שער of the היכל, the שער of the קודש הקדשים, openings. That's what happened. So you had seven by the seven gates, one by the opening of the היכל, one by the opening of the אולם, which is the first part, שתים בדביר, two were by that separation, this is the second בית המקדש, the separation between קודש הקדשים and the and קודש, which is called the דביר. In the Tanach, that area of in between is called the דביר. ושתים כנגדן בעליה. And then, on the second floor, because the בית המקדש had a second floor, which was completely empty, nothing there, but the levels of קדושה on the second floor were similar to the bottom floor, and that's why in the second floor they had on the floor סימנים, like little pegs, till here is עזרת נשים, from here is עזרת not עזרת, because it's the the building, till here is the from here is the אולם, from here is the היכל. So they had שערים up there, פרוכת'ן in between the the second floor over the קודש הקדשים, between that and the היכל. So derveyl we see that they had פרוכת'ן, so many פרוכת'ן. So when it says they opened the פרוכת, it could be talking about the first בית המקדש. Takeh, and there was a פרוכת there, too. There was a פרוכת by that opening of the קודש הקדשים. So the roofs of the היכל and the היכל? It wasn't a roof, it was a second floor. Oh, no. This was the bottom. But this but the amount the amount of פרוכת'ן includes the ones on top. So there was a second floor above the above the קודש הקדשים. Above the whole thing! Above the whole, yeah. And the second בית המקדש was much taller than the first. The first בית המקדש was only 20 amah high. Second בית המקדש was 100 amah high. 100 amah! 40 amah was the first floor, then there was a whole bunch in the the in between, the ceiling and the roof, whatever, and then there was another 40 amah on top. And then there was a ceiling on top, that all together was 100 amah. Did they use that floor for anything? For nothing, never! But when you looked at it, you walked over and you saw the building, imagine a building of 100 amah! The minimum of 100 amah is 150 feet, if an amah is a foot and a half. According to some opinions, an amah is up to two feet. Imagine 200 amah, 150, I mean 200 feet, a building like that. How many how many stories is that? 20-story building! You walked over So when I always think of it, you always think of the kohanim went into the היכל, so you imagine they went into like a room like this, okay, not like this, this is a low ceiling, a higher ceiling. They went into a room that from where they were standing on the floor till the ceiling was was almost 40 amah, 80 feet! Imagine! They went into a hall that you just get That's why the pictures that they give out in all these booklets, they always show showed the room and the kohanim are just tiny. The room is till here and just because that's how it was, the proportion, just to give us a picture. Anyway, So they made elevators or something? They didn't have any Yeah, but they used to go sometimes to the second floor in order to fix something. If there's something broke and they have to fix it in the קודש הקדשים, how did they get in? They would go from the second floor and they would let him down in a box and they would lower him, and he would come down and to fix it, and he was closed in the box and he only could see whatever he has to fix. But how did they get up there? With a big ladder, I guess. And then they lowered it down with a rope, all the way down. That's the only time they went there. They had the מסיבה for that, the steps there. Went the מסיבה, did the מסיבה, went, yeah, מסיבה, that. Okay, רב אחא בר יעקב אמר, רב אחא says no, לעולם מקדש שני. It's talking about the second בית המקדש, like we said. But the question is, the second בית המקדש didn't have keruvim, so what does it mean they showed them the keruvim? It doesn't mean the כרובים of the aron. כרובים דצירי אכותא הוו קיימי. On the walls of the קודש הקדשים they had all kinds of pictures, pictures of כרובים, beautiful designs. דכתיב it says, ואת כל קירות הבית מסב, מקלעות, פתוחי מקלעות, פתוחי מקלעות means they were pictures like made of of like מקלעות means braided. That looked and כרובים ותימורות ופטורי ציצים וצפם זהב מישר על המחקה, and it says all kinds of designs they had there. וכתיב כמער איש וליות, and that happened, כמער איש וליות. מאי כמער איש וליות? אמר רבה בר רב שילא, כאיש המעורה בלויה שלו. לויה means your escort, your your partner, your second half. And מעורה, כמער means מעורה means hugging. So this is what they saw, and there were pictures there of different people or maybe the same as the כרובים, and that's what they saw when they opened it up to show that the pictures, I guess the pictures, if the pictures were painted like that and it stayed that way, what does that show? Showing a picture! But it seems it changed, like it says, if they did retzono shel Makom, then they would be hugging; if they did not retzono shel Makom, they would That's the pshat there, the pictures themselves. Pictures themselves, like the כרובים. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So according to this pshat, whenever, you know, when it says that they showed them and it was not it was not the ארון. According to the first pshat, it was the ארון. And they showed it to them. But this according to this pshat, it was the pictures on the wall. No light inside the Kodesh HaKodashim. Yeah. No. How would you see from outside picture? Because the עזרה had light, the היכל had had windows. עזרה didn't have a ceiling. No light. No light, but there was the היכל, but the היכל had a lot of windows, and it had שקופים אטומים, you know the famous No light was in the Kodesh HaKodashim. During the middle of the day. So the If you open the door, certain light came in, I guess. You could see something. Take a picture in a dark room from the outside, you would hardly see. Yeah, but I guess if you look good you could see. Well, he's asking a good she'eilah. The Kodesh HaKodashim had no windows, and it was dark.

How could they see it? But the היכל had windows, and it looked, the lights came in, I guess during the day you could Another miracle, huh? And the avodah zarah, all they saw They had no torches? How do you When did they use When did they use torches? They No, they used the torches, it says, when they went down in the basement when they had to go They would go around with torches if it was in the middle of the week. Shabbos, the Rambam says they would put before Shabbos torches all over in case only, but like this, when did they use torches to go inside the Beis Hamikdash? Somebody said that gave off lights, like it gave off gave off light. There is something. Like what he brought over here that the pictures they changed, it says, no, and it's late from different sources. Yeah, no, but otherwise say even here, otherwise what's the re'ayah? Want to show them, look, the Aibershter loves loves a Yid, show, because I made a picture of Because they were like that, maybe. So that's what they show. So he said nobody ever saw it once, but he wanted to show them that the Aibershter still loves you. That's the famous Midrash that when Nevuchadnetzar came and they opened the came to the Beis Hamikdash and they found the ארון, they found the ארון that the that's what it says, the כרובים were hugging each other. That's right. But he's talking about The kushya is that the time of the churban was definitely אין עושין רצונו של מקום, and that's why there was a churban. So that's what the Rebbe has all the arichut that the omek of the churban is really for the gilui and it shows the Eibershter's love, all kinds of things. That only fits according to the first pshat that the keruvim are the ones on the aron that according to the second pshat, this never happened like that by the aron, it's only by the picture. Okay. So the Gemara write, אמר ריש לקיש, this גמרא, בשעה שנכנסו עכו״ם להיכל, when the Yidden

When the goyim came into the heichal, which means, and then they went to the קודש הקדשים, מצאו כרובים המעורים זה בזה. So they found the keruvim, and the keruvim at that time were hugging each other. And this obviously goes according to the second, the wall, but look, it fits more to the first pshat. Anyway, הוציאום לשוק, they took out the ארון, ואמרו, and they said, look, ישראל הללו, look at this nation, these יידן, שברכתן ברכה וקללתן קללה. They're such great people. A Yid A Yid give a brachah, it's a brachah. And a Yid, it's a klalah, it's a klalah. They're so special. And look what they're involved, עסקין בדברים הללו. Look what they're involved. Look what they have there. A man, a zachar and a nekeivah, a man and a woman, a female, a male and a female hugging. I mean that's that's what this thing is! מיד הזילום. And right away, the Yidden became gring geshetzt, became light, became in the eyes of the goyim. They stopped The respect that they had got lost because of this. שנאמר, it says, כל מכבדיה הזילוה. All those that used to respect it started being mezalzel. כי ראו ערותה. They saw the ervah. In other words, they saw something that's not, in their eyes, was not proper, was not That the goyim didn't understand really what this is. To us it's the opposite, and the goyim take the same thing farkert. They take it as a bad thing. Bichlal, a different Midrash it says that when they went in the they looted the בית המקדש and when they went in and they found the ארון, ah, they said, till now we thought that these people are serving one God. Now I see what they have there. This is their this is their עבודה זרה. This is they have something hidden there and this is their God. So also they didn't understand. Okay, that's pashut, that's a goyishe kop. It's not a goyishe kop, it's very simple. I was by a GE, visit all the institutes, yeah. So it gathers all Jewish people, and it's called a ritual service. This priest came in. \"Wait, is this prayer?\" \"Prayer, what's prayer? Running around, putting on tefillin, what's that?\" Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, it is very surprising that National Geographic mentions Holy of Holies. We don't have any any picture. That's the only place Not as a not as a god. But still, to have something That's why the And

No, the Rashi says in the end of Parashat Parashat Parashat Yitro that the Eibershter, after מתן תורה, had to bavarnen to make sure that we shouldn't make an ארון with כרובים in every shul. In every shul. Because Rashi says, לא תעשון אתי אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב, so Rashi says what it means is to not make the כרובים in every בית כנסת. There would have been a hava amina, because the Eibershter wanted there should be some place בגשמיות down here where his שכינה will come through, so he made it as the כרובים. אז א מענטש קען זיך איינרעדן, maybe in that case, every shul should have the כרובים. So that's one of the ביאורים that the Rebbe connects to the egel. How did the Yidden make an egel? You got not normal! They just saw מתן תורה, גילוי אלוקות, and they made an עגל, פשוט עבודה זרה? So the Rebbe says it didn't mean עבודה זרה. Actually, they never said, \"We want another God.\" They said, \"We want,\" why did they make the egel? Because Moshe Rabbeinu they thought died. So they want another Moshe. Moshe Rabbeinu was a ממוצע between the Eibershter and the Yidden, a ממוצע המחבר not chas v'shalom Like the Kuzari, right. But the bottom line is like I've said, the Rebbe connects it, what made the Yidden think so? What made the Yidden think that make a calf and that'll be? So they said yes, that's what Rashi says, that the Yidden would have a hava amina The Eibershter, what makes it makes sense, the Eibershter said, \"Don't do it!\" That the כרובים should be something through which the גילוי אלוקות will come. And the

כרובים is the place where the גילוי שכינה came. Where did Moshe the Eibershter speak to Moshe? Through the כרובים. So the כרובים do have something there, not chas v'shalom a God that's that's עבודה זרה, but the Eibershter does bring it, and he has a certain place where he goes through בדרך מעבר and comes to the world. You know, like Torah Or explains in פרשת תרומה, the כרובים, כרוב אחד מקצה מזה and it says כרובים is כרובי, is זעיר אנפין, like that. That's what I You're really not allowed to have in your home like Yeah, you're not allowed to, right? And in shul, obviously, the same thing? No, if the if no, how could you have it in the in the קדש הקדשים? Because the Eibershter said. So the Yidden would think that maybe the Eibershter meant that, too. So the Eibershter said, \"I didn't mean it.\" Not he changed his mind, it's only כרובים you could have in the shul. Somebody took the Rebbe's picture and he like carved it in silver, No, if it's not three-dimensional. No, it's sticking out. Sticking out, but that's not three-dimensional. Like they made the coin, you know there's a whole tumult then when they made the coin of the when the government made a coin of the Rebbe, and it's also sticks out a little bit, but it's not It's not a full face, not a full. It's a different story. No, we're talking here about making a shape of an a צורה of an sculpture? Yeah. Yeah. I never saw it. I I have one. You

remember you gave it to Shmuli, I think, as a bar mitzvah present? Or to someone of my kids you gave it as a bar mitzvah present, to one of my kids. No, they made a whole bunch. They sold it for $100 This was 15 years ago, maybe? 10 years, more? Not more. And the government made it, or what? Yeah, to honor the Rebbe, different sizes. Oh, yeah? Yeah, there's a big one like this size, a big one like this size. I don't know, the one I have is like this way, this way. Next to my father's, my father's building, whatever that means. That's what we do. What? I always wanted to write my own sevara, to make a chiluk in Shulchan Aruch, but that's my own sevara. But to be in Chabad and just what it says you have to do like an alef, and have a Shulchan Aruch, like Kaddish, and Shemoneh Esrei, they have to do that. There's an ohel in the Gemara, Shemoneh Esrei, Kaddish. Okay, so that's By the way, after Maariv, is the שיחה שיעור. Everyone is invited.