역대하 7:24의 Chasidut

The Talmud records (Megillah, 10b) the tradition received from our forefathers that it was impossible to measure the space in the Holy of Holies, as from the measurements given, the Holy Ark would not have taken up any space.²⁵²The passage in the Gemara (Megillah, 10b) reads: Rabbi Levi further said: We have a tradition from our ancestors that the ark took up no space. It has been taught to the same effect: “The ark which Moshe made had around it an empty space of ten cubits on every side.” Now, it is written (Melakhim, 6:20), “And in front of the Sanctuary was twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in breadth,” and it is also written after that (verses 24-25) that the wing of the one cherub was ten cubits and the wing of the other cherub was ten cubits. Where then was the ark itself? We must therefore conclude that it stood by a miracle without occupying any space. In other words, if the wings of the golden cherubs, positioned to the right and left of the ark, each took up ten cubits, then, theoretically, there was no place left for the ark to stand between them. Similarly, the Mishnah records that, “on the Day of Atonement the crowd in Holy Temple was so packed together that it would normally have been impossible to move, yet when it came time to fall prostrate on the ground, everyone had enough room.” ²⁵³When the High Priest would pronounce God’s ineffable name in the Holy of Holies of the Temple on Yom Kippur, the crowd, which had been standing so tightly packed that people could barely move, would fall down on their faces, hands and feet spread out on the ground; yet not one of the worshipers touched any other surrounding him. This is a physical impossibility. One body cannot enter the space of anther body without one of them being negated.²⁵⁴Since the area of the Temple courtyard did not expand, as mentioned below, the people on the ground had to be occupying each others space, normally considered impossible. Yet indeed, for one who believes in God and believes that even understanding and the power of the intellect are also created entities that God can renew and arrange according to His desire, then there is no problem in understanding and believing the words of the Sages as they are written. Of the place of the Holy Temple it is written (Divrei HaYamim 2, 7:16), “My eyes and heart shall be there at all times.” God illuminated the place of the Holy Temple with an illumination that is above all orders of the natural world, and above the ability of the human mind to comprehend. All who entered the Holy Temple in a holy and pure state would perceive this even through human eyes. He would understand with his mind and intellectual power on a level which is beyond the capacity of perception for someone anywhere else in the world. The Holy Temple was a place where God revealed miracles and made them perceptible to the mortal mind. When the Israelites fell prostrate in the Holy Temple, which was the moment when they heard the Name of God being pronounced by the High Priest in a state of sanctity and purity, God sent them an awesome illumination, and they understood on a level beyond all orders of creation and the capacity of human understanding. At this moment they understood that there is no contradiction between standing jam-packed in a crowd unable to move anywhere, and being able to freely fall to the ground with arms and legs spread out, yet not coming into contact with the people around you.²⁵⁵In other words, not only did a miracle occur in the Temple, when the congregation prostrated themselves on the ground, the consciousness of the people there itself expanded, so that they were able to cognitively grasp why such a thing is possible. The space of the courtyard of the Holy Temple was not miraculously expanded, for we have many sources in the Talmud²⁵⁶The author lists BT Eruvin, 154a, Chulin 83b, and Berachot 17b as sources, though those folios do not seem to relate to this discussion. which teach us that it was not permitted to expand the area of the Azara. This is based on the verse (Divrei HaYamim 1, 28:19), “And this, said David, is written by the hand of God who instructed me, even all the works of this pattern.” With this miracle, where two contradictory opposites could join together in one place without negating each other, two opposites could truly join together in one subject. At the moment when they fell prostrate, they knew this with complete and certain knowledge. Just as we understand according to normative human knowledge that two contradictory opposites cannot exist at the same time, so did they understand at that moment that they were not opposites at all.