Wood, stone, or gold, every aron kodesh has its story
News from the yeshivah world usually echoes quietly within our own community, rarely picked up by the outside press. The installation of the new aron kodesh in the Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo campus in Rishon LeZion, Israel, right before Shavous last year, was an exception — and for good reason.
The massive aron kodesh, built of pure silver and plated in places with pure gold, measures 20 meters long (about 65 feet) and 6.5 meters (21 feet) high, spans 120 square meters (1,292 square feet), and holds the title of the largest silver artifact in the world. The gilded aron kodesh gleams under the lights, its columns, arches, and panels clad entirely in precious metal, crowned with gold and copper, and anchored on polished Italian onyx.
Inside, where the sifrei Torah are housed, the aron kodesh is even more striking; The interior is made entirely of gold. On the doorpost of the inner room housing the sifrei Torah, the world’s smallest mezuzah — just 2.7 by 2.7 centimeters — is displayed, unrolled behind glass. Even the security cameras and sensors gleam with gold coating. Arutz Sheva, the go-to Israeli news platform for religious-Zionist and right-leaning readers, was duly impressed. “This monumental project, entirely handcrafted, stands as an unprecedented achievement in Jewish sacred art,” it informed its viewership.
Sitting together with Rav Sholom Ber Sorotzkin shlita, the rosh yeshivah of Ateres Shlomo and the man who spearheaded the project, it was clear that he viewed the project on an entirely different plane than the news channel. The setting wasn’t exactly ideal for a Telzer derashah — we were in the back of a retrofitted Genesis (courtesy of a supporter) — in the parking lot of a Lakewood office building, but the cramped quarters didn’t stop Rav Sorotzkin from speaking with his trademark enthusiasm. He described the Ateres Shlomo network of over 12,000 talmidim, ranging from elementary-school students to kollel avreichim, and quoted the midrash in parshas Naso, which explains why Bircas Kohanim (Bamidbar 6:23-26) was placed immediately prior to the Torah’s account of the public completion of the Mishkan (7:1).
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