HOLY MOSES!
It's not in the Guinness Book of Records, but it should be: the largest ark on earth. Not Noah's ark in the Bible - the ark where Torah scrolls are housed in the synagogue.
This ark is in the Belz Hassidic dynasty's 5,000-seat Jerusalem synagogue. According to master carpenter Abraham Fried from Kiryat Gat, it's the largest commission he has ever received as an artisan of synagogue furnishings.
Fried considers it "the height of his career" in all respects, and says that putting it together was equal to "constructing the Eiffel Tower." Putting up the mind-boggling monumental 18-metric-ton structure that can hold 60 Torah scrolls was accompanied by the presence of a Talmudic student in prayer, in the hope that the edifice wouldn't come tumbling down onto his head before it was safely secured in place.
Just how high is high?
The carving-covered Holy Arch is almost Gothic in magnitude... at least by Jewish standards: it stands 12 meters high - equivalent to the height of a four-storey building.
Text by Chelm on the Med
Link received from Religion and State
The Aron HaKodesh in BELZ (Jerusalem)
Beautiful. That Aron in Premishlan is another beauty.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that they now have to extend the big Belzer shul? Certainly doesn't look like 6,000 seats inside as they say, so I asked someone inside. He said, "welllll...with the ezras nashim!"
B"H
ReplyDeleteIn Jerusalem, Belz has a little competition with Gur.
Gur is building a Synagogue for 10,000 people and wants to be the biggest.:-) So, Belz wants to catch up.:-))))))
Whew! that is huge, and imagine it is made of many many many tiny blocks individually carved and put together like a puzzle, that would be a huge job!!
ReplyDelete