Quoting Commentary for I Chronicles 22:1

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר דָּוִ֔יד זֶ֣ה ה֔וּא בֵּ֖ית יְהוָ֣ה הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְזֶה־מִּזְבֵּ֥חַ לְעֹלָ֖ה לְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (ס)

Then David said: ‘This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel.’ .

Rabbeinu Bahya

Remember that the offerings are divided into nine different categories when you include the fact that different offerings had to be offered at different locations such as the ones which had to be slaughtered on the northern side of the Altar, the ones which could be slaughtered anywhere within the courtyard (עזרה), etc.; The nine types include: עולה, מנחה, חטאת, אשם, תודה, שלמים, בכור, מעשר,פסח.You are aware already that the number nine represents the highest number of emanations and what they represent which can be attained by mortal man. The reason that the Torah provides for nine different categories of offerings is to keep the thought alive in our minds that all the offerings have to be addressed to what is beyond the ninth emanation, i.e. exclusively to Hashem. and not to any spiritual force or attribute of His below that level. This idea has also been spelled out in Torat Kohanim (Sifra Vayikra 2,5) whose author stresses that we never find any lower attributes of G’d mentioned in connection with offerings, such as אל, אלהים or אלוהיך, for instance, but only the tetragram, i.e. the attribute known as י-ה-ו-ה. The reason for this is not to enable anyone to claim subsequently that he had offered his offering to a different attribute.
Our sages (Sanhedrin 60) also stated that the meaning of the words בלתי לה' לבדו in Exodus 22,19 is that all sacrificial offerings must be directed to G’d’s attribute י-ה-ו-ה exclusively. Anyone dedicating his offering to a subordinate attribute even of G’d is guilty of a major trespass.
The sacrifice was presented on the Altar. The Altar was ten cubits high as we know from Chronicles II 4,1 “its height was ten cubits.” Seeing that according to the Torah (Exodus 27,1) the height of the Altar was three cubits high, we have to understand that the Torah referred only to the area on which the woodpile was prepared and lit. (the reference is to the “upper” cube, above the סובב, “rampart” on which the Priest walked around the Altar). The measurement given in Chronicles referred to the Altar in the Holy Temple, not the Tabernacle. Its location was never changed. This is the meaning of Chronicles I 22,1: “and this is the Altar for the burnt-offering.” The site is the place where G’d created first man, Adam (Jerusalem Talmud Nazir 7,2). This is based on the statement there that “Man was created in the very place whence his atonement occurs, (the Altar).” This was also the site where both Adam, and Kayin and Hevel his sons offered their respective sacrifices, the ones described in Genesis. This is also where Noach offered is thanksgiving offerings after the deluge. It is also the site where Yitzchak was bound and where Avraham offered the ram in Yitzchak’s place. From all of these historical facts we can see that this was a very special place and serves for the offerings of the righteous and pious in all ages.
Seeing that there is such a special site for all the nine types of offerings we described earlier you will find that in connection with the patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov this site was described in the Torah as מקום, as we note in Genesis 22,3 “he (Avraham) arose and went to the מקום; (Genesis 22,4) “he raised his eyes and saw the מקום from a distance.” Genesis 22,9: “they (Avraham and Yitzchak) arrived at the מקום.” Genesis 22,14 again mentions this מקום, this time as the site named by Avraham “the Lord will see.” In Genesis 28,11 the same site is referred to as the מקום where Yaakov spent the first night on his way towards Charan. In verse 16 of that same chapter Yaakov refers to that מקום as one at which G’d’s presence is manifest. In verse 15 there he is overwhelmed and awestruck by this מקום, so that in verse 17 he erects an Altar in that מקום there and in verse 19 he names this Altar as the forerunner of “the house of G’d.” If you will bother to count, you will find that the word מקום occurs nine times, an allusion to the nine kinds of offerings which we listed earlier and which are to be offered by the Jewish people on that site, (מקום).
When the first Temple was destroyed, this מקום was “swallowed” up by the earth [another manifestation of extra-terrestrial measurements occurring in connection with the Temple, the Holy Ark and the cherubs, as we mentioned earlier. Ed.] This is what the prophet Jeremiah referred to in Lamentations 2,9: טבעו בארץ שעריה, “its gates sunk into the earth.” If you will look at the text you will find that the letter ט in the word טבעו, “they sunk,” is written in a smaller script than the other letters. This is an allusion to the fact that the site, מקום, was swallowed up, not just the gates of the Temple. The letter ט, i.e. 9, referred also to the nine kinds of offerings which could no longer be offered on that site, מקום.
Ask a RabbiBookmarkShareCopy