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Week 27 - Tuesday - 30 May 2000

SHEKALIM: CHAPTER 6 : MISHNA 1

There were thirteen chests, thirteen tables, thirteen prostrations in the Temple, The House of Rabban Gamliel and the House of R. Hanina the segan of the kohanim would prostrate themselves fourteen. And where was the extra one? Opposite the wood store, for they had a tradition in their hands from their ancestors that that was where the Ark was hidden.

There were thirteen chests -Chests with narrowed carved shofar-like openings which were broad at the bottom but narrow at the top, so that one would not be able to remove anything from them; and (Mishnah 3) enumerates what these chests served; thirteen tables -Which are detailed in Mishnah 4 below, thirteen prostrations -There were thirteen places where people prostrated themselves, as detailed in Mishnah 3, in the Temple -incidental to the chests mentioned here because two were used for shekels (as detailed below), the Tanna goes on to mention other items of which there were thirteen in the Temple.

The House of Rabban Gamliel and of the House of R. Hanina the segan of the kohanim -The members of Rabban Gamliel the Elder's family and the family of R. Hanina the Deputy of the kohanim, would prostrate themselves fourteen -times in the Temple.

And where was the extra one -the fourteenth prostration? Opposite the wood store -the chamber where the wood was kept for the altar (the wood for the pyres), For they had a tradition in their hands from their ancestors that that was where the Ark was hidden -during the destruction of the First Temple. The Jerusalem Talmud (and the Babylonian Talmud Yoma 52b) states: "And who hid it? Yoshiyahu the king hid it; for he saw that there was written in it (Deut. 28:36), "The Lord shall bring you, and your king which you shall set over you, unto a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known." He hid it, as it states (II Chr. 35:3): "And he said unto the levi'im that taught all Israel, who were holy unto the Lord, 'Put the holy Ark into the house which Shlomo the son of David king of Israel built; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders.'" He said to them: "If it goes into exile with you in Babylon, it will never return to its place," therefore (ibid.), "serve now the Lord your God, and His people Israel." So, too, are we told there: "When the Ark was hidden, the flask of manna and the cruse of anointing oil and the staff of Aaron were all hidden...as well as the coffer which the Philistines returned as a gift offering to the God of Israel." And there is another view (there) that the Ark was taken into exile in Babylon, as it states (II Chr. 36:10), "And when the year had expired, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord" (with Yehoyakhin), and they expounded: "What are 'the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord'? That was the Ark."

SHEKALIM: CHAPTER 6 : MISHNA 2

It once happened that a certain kohen was occupied, and he saw that the floor was different from the others. He went and told his friend, but he had no time to end the matter until his soul departed, and thus they knew with certainty that the Ark was hidden there.

It once happened that a certain kohen was occupied -with his work, and the Jerusalem Talmud explains that this kohen had a blemish, and the duty of such kohanim was to prepare the wood for the altar and to check that it was not wormy, for wormy wood is unfit for the altar; and this kohen was engaged in his work in the wood store, and he saw that the floor -Where he sat, was different from the others -That the stone there was not level with the other stones, and he realized that that was the stone which had been removed when they hid the Ark.

He went and told his friend -He told his friend about the stone that he found in the wood chamber that was different from the others, and he wanted to reveal to him that that was the place where the Ark had been hidden, but he had no time to end the matter until his soul departed -And the place where that stone was not revealed and they knew with certainty that the Ark was hidden there -underneath the floor of the wood store.

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