The place where the בית המקדש stood is central to our lives. We face there when we daven, we have it on our mind constantly, and we pray ceaselessly for it to be rebuilt. The western side of the בית המקדש was the קדש הקדשים, the holiest place in our religion. The Aron resides there, and in the Aron are the לוחות that we received from Hashem on הר סיני. Underneath the Aron was a stone, which the גמרא calls the אבן השתיה, literally translated to mean the foundation stone. Chazal tell us that this is the place where the first physical matter came into being when Hashem began creating the world, and as Hashem renews creation every day, it is through this stone that the process occurs. This is why the מקום המקדש is called the place where heaven and earth kiss, it is the closest you can get to heaven if you are standing on the ground.
The רמב”ן explains in the creation story that time and space are inextricably linked, and scientists have proved this as well. it follows then that the place where creation starts will also have a relationship with the time when creation started and restarts every year. I would like to show you how the Aron which is the first manmade thing that the creation encounters lines up perfectly with Rosh Hashana and the rest of the month of תשרי which would be the first moment in time that mankind experienced creation and reexperiences it every year.
As we said in the Rosh Hashana dvar Torah, Rosh Hashana is a day to remember הר סיני and view ourselves as potentially doing something just as significant as that momentous event in Hashem’s eyes. To recap in a few short sentences, the Torah calls Rosh Hashana, יום תרועה and יום זכרון תרועה, the day of the shofar blast and the day to remember the shofar blast. There was a shofar blast on הר סיני which was Hashem’s voice coming to us in an expression of love which we are meant to remember on Rosh Hashana. It was then that we originally crowned Hashem as our King and we do it annually in commemoration on Rosh Hashana. There is also a piece of text in נחמיה פרק ח’ which discusses the Rosh Hashana service that Ezra held and there are at least 4 textual parallels between that story and when we stood at הר סיני. And one last connection, א’ תשרי is the anniversary of when mankind was created, when the world came to its completion, and when the Torah recounts that day, the Torah יום הששי, it was the sixth day. this extra “ה” is not used by any of the other days of creation. The גמרא explains that Hashem told the entire cosmos then that if the Jewish people accept the Torah on the sixth day in 2,448 years, i.e. the 6th of סיון, then the creation would survive, if not then it will all be obliterated. So, we see that there are many ties between the first day of the year and the receiving of the Torah at הר סיני.
I think Rosh Hashana is represented by the Aron. The purpose of the Aron is to protect the Torah and the purpose of Rosh Hashana is to perpetuate the experience of הר סיני. And Rosh Hashana is when all Jews come together to crown Hashem, and the Aron also has representations of all types of Jews. There are Jews which can be likened to the לוחות themselves, completely given over to the existence of the Torah. There are Jews who are like the wooden box, simple and plain, yet they are representative of the actual Aron, since the Torah says ועשו לך ארון עץ. There are Jews like the golden boxes, and some are the exterior golden box, very showy and proud to be able to hold the Torah and some are the interior golden box, quietly doing their job in a beautiful way. There are the Jews like the rings on the Aron, which support the poles of the Aron, and then there are those like the poles themselves making sure that the Aron and the Torah can be carried throughout space and time with the nation. All Jews have their mirror in the ארון קודש.
But, if we stop here then then the Aron is open on top and the לוחות are not protected. The Aron did not come with a covering, that was a separate vessel with a separate command to make it. And I think Rosh Hashana by itself would also leave us vulnerable, we need Yom Kippur on the other end of the עשרת ימי תשובה to protect us. You see, on Rosh Hashana we come forward to Hashem using the case of Din to grant us life for the coming year. We explain and prove to Hashem that we are a worthy investment and are an integral part of the Jewish people. But if that was our only case we would be in trouble, since as you get closer to Hashem (as we do on Rosh Hashana) the level of scrutiny increases and then our logical Din case may not be enough, actions that otherwise could have been overlooked we are now held accountable for in our new proximity to God. And for that we have Yom Kippur where we poor out our hearts in confession and pleading to Hashem to let us live by his Mercy and not due to our own worthiness. Think of Rosh Hashana as a meeting with venture capitalists and Yom Kippur as a meeting with a גמ”ח director. However, as much as the two holidays are closely connected, they come for two separate functions and are two different holidays. Similarly, the Aron and it’s covering need to be viewed and used together but they are two different vessels. And do you know what the name of the covering was? It is called the כפרת, literally meaning covering. But there are other words for coverings, the Torah could have called it a מכסה coming from the word כיסוי. The word choice כפרת seems very specific, and guess which holiday name shares the exact same word? Yom Kippur! In Hebrew, יום כיפור, which we translate as the Day of Atonement but really means the Day of Covering. It is on that day that Hashem “covers” us in Mercy to take away our sins. The כפרת was only 1 טפח thick, the smallest measure that a vessel in the בית המקדש could be, it took up the least amount of physical space possible, and so too Yom Kippur is the day that we diminish our physical side to do the absolute minimum. We breath and sleep, that’s it. we don’t even eat or drink which are essential to survival. For one day we are not surviving in the physical realm. It is interesting that the outer golden box of the Aron was higher than that inner 2 boxes so that the כפרת would not be physically noticeable at all, it barely exists in the physical world to the human eye. And just as the כפרת is there to cover and complete the Aron’s function of protecting the לוחות, so too Yom Kippur is there to complete Rosh Hashana’s mission and cover and protect each and every Jew.
But we aren’t done yet. Anyone who has seen a picture of the Aron knows that it was not just a box that was flat on top. There were also the כרובים, two figurines with childlike features and wings that represent the Jewish nation and Hashem as it were. These two figures embodied our relationship with Hashem. This brings us to the third and final holiday in the month of תשרי, the 7 days of סוכות when we move out of our house and into a shaky hut. We make some walls and throw up some סכך on top. Now listen to the words that the Torah uses to describe the כרובים. והיו הכרובים פרשי כנפים למעלה סוככים בכנפיהם על הכפורת, the wings of the כרובים are meant to be סכך for the Aron, just as we have סכך on our huts. After all is said and done, when the intensity of the Days of Awe have passed we will always have our relationship with Hashem shading us from any harm. And finally, here is the absolutely fascinating part! The Torah commands that the כפרת and כרובים be fashioned from one solid piece of gold. The כרובים were not made separately and then fastened to the כפרת, rather a huge hunk of gold was taken and then hammered down in the middle to flatten for the כפרת and from that hammering down the sides of the piece of gold were pushed up since the mass needed to go somewhere, and from those lumps the כרובים were formed. Watch this, it is only as a result of our physically limiting and diminishing ourselves on Yom Kippur that we have the material with which to create the סכך and the protection that our relationship with Hashem provides for us. The intensity and seriousness (not sadness!) of Yom Kippur is what gives rise (no pun intended) to the joy of סוכות. It is with that joy and confidence that we can endure the long winter which follows. Parenthetically, this helps give a much deeper look at a seemingly strange גמרא in סוכה דף ה’. The גמרא is trying to prove that the minimum height for a sukkah is 10 טפחים and the proof comes from the fact that the distance from the top of the כפרת to the wings of the כרובים was 10 טפחים. On a simple level this is an arbitrary proof that 10 טפחים constitutes a shelter. But now, we see that this is not random, it is the perfect proof! The גמרא is showing us that the prototype for all סוכות to come was the shelter that the wings of the כרובים provided, and if that needed to be 10 טפחים, then that is the minimum height that a kosher sukkah can be.
I think we can find the whole of this action-packed month inside the קדש הקדשים, and we see how each holiday organically leads to the next. Just as space comes into existence from that place, so too time and the holidays at the beginning of each year are paralleled by the vessels which touched that place. I think it is worthy to note that we should all view ourselves as part of the ארון קודש, the holiest of vessels, and see that we are covered and protected by Hashem and that we have an eternal relationship with Him. Once we internalize that, we are worthy of being represented by כלים that occupy the holiest space in the universe.