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R’ Chaim Kanievsky zt”l in his sefer Derech Chochmah (s.k. 49) writes: Shlomah HaMelech built the Beis HaMikdosh with extremely large stones, they were as big as eighteen amos! These stones were used for the foundations of the Beis HaMikdosh, however, the other stones that were used to build the walls of the Beis HaMikdosh – were much larger than your average stone. Until today, we can still see some of these stones in the remains of the Beis HaMikdosh – the Kosel HaMaravi. The large stones were on average 2-12 metres! There weight was as heavy as 100 ton!
In regard to how they were able to carry such heavy stones, the Pesikta Rabsi (Parsha 6, ois 7) writes, the stones travelled themselves and went into the wall by themselves (see the lashon of Pesikta Rabsi below).In this week’s parsha we have the pasuk: ואל הארן תתן את העדת אשר אתן אליך – “In the Aron [Ark] you shall put the Testimony which I give you” (25:21).
The Rishonim ask (see Rashi and Ramban) why we are told to put the Testimony in the Aron twice, as surely we just learnt a few pasukim earlier (pasuk 15):ונתת אל הארן את העדת אשר אתן אליך – “You shall place in the Aron the Testimony that I will give you”?
The Ohr HaChaim answers based on the Gemara in Berachos (8b) which teaches that “The Luchos and the broken Luchos were placed in the Aron”. The pasukim tell us to place the Testimony in the Aron twice, once referring the broken Luchos, and once referring to the complete Luchos.
The Imrei Emes (cited in Likutei Yehudah) asks: Why are we hinting to the broken Luchos even before it happened, “why don’t we wait for the tragedy to happen, before we start worrying about it”?
והבית כשהיה נבנה אין כתיב כאן אלא והבית בהבנותו (מלכים א 'ו 'ז )'אבן שלמה [מסע ]נבנה (שם ) מהו מסע נבנה אמר רבי ברכיה האבן נוסעה עצמה ועולה ונבנית מעצמה הוא ששלמה אמר בשירתו בנה בניתי בית זבול לך (שם ח 'י "ג )אינו אומר כן אלא בנה בניתי בניין הייתי בונה והאבנים היו פורחות ועולות מעצמם ואם תמיה אתה לצדיק אחד עשה הקב "ה כן והיתית אבן חדא ושמת על פם גבא (דניאל ו 'י "ח )ומאיכן היה להם בבבל אבן ורבותינו אמרו מארץ ישראל נתגלגלה ובאה לשעה קלה ומה אם בשביל בשר ודם עשה המקום כך על בניין ביתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אתה תמיה שהיה נעשה כן.
The Imrei Emes answers: The halachah is, “we don’t lower something from a high level of kedusha to a lower level of kedusha”, consequently, if the Aron was made at the beginning just for the complete Luchos, it would be forbidden to subsequently place inside it broken Luchos which have a lower level of kedusha. So, the pasuk hints already at the beginning that they needed to make a stipulation when making the Aron, that broken Luchos could one day be placed inside.
The halachah is (Orach Chaim 154): An Aron HaKodesh which one stores a Sefer Torah inside is considered kodosh [sanctified], and one can’t store inside it items of a lower level of kedusha such as Chumashim and Siddurim.
The question is, if a Sefer Torah becomes pasul, is one is allowed to leave it inside an Aron HaKodesh, or do we say that since a pasul Sefer Torah is on a lower level of kedusha than a kosher one, it can’t be kept inside the Aron HaKodesh?
The Shu”t Noda B’Yehudah (Mahadura Kamma, Orach Chaim 9) writes that a talmid chocham by the name of R’ Yaakov argued that one is allowed to keep disqualified Sifrei Torah in the Aron HaKodesh, just like the broken Luchos were kept in the Aron, even though the Aron was really made for complete Luchos.
However, the talmid chocham then refuted the rayah as the Luchos are Maaseh Elokim [a creation made by G-d], and due to the extreme kedusha they can be kept next to the complete Luchos, and we can’t bring any proof to a regular disqualified Sefer Torah.
However, the Noda B’Yehudah refutes this, as we find that he Gemara in Menachos (99b) learns from the fact that the broken Luchos were kept in the Aron, that one is obligated to respect a talmid chocham even if he forgets his learning. If we say the Luchos are different as they are Maaseh Elokim etc. then what is the rayah? We see there is no difference between the Luchos and a regular Sefer Torah.
However, the Noda B’Yehudah refutes the rayah for a different reason: The Aron was made at the beginning with intention to store the broken Luchos inside, however, an Aron HaKodesh is not made with intention to store disqualified Sifrei Torah inside.
The Noda B’Yehudah concludes: Even if strictly speaking there is nothing wrong with leaving a disqualified sefer Torah in the Aron HaKodesh in terms of the kedusha of the Aron HaKodesh, one should refrain from doing so as people will accidently come to use such a Sefer Torah.
The Shu”t Binyan Tzion (siman 97) writes: It is very difficult that the Noda B’Yehudah seems to miss a clear Sefer Chasidim. The Sefer Chasidim (934) writes: “The Luchos and ...