The Foundation Stone and the High Priest's Yom Kippur Prayer

Rabbi Yudan of Gallia opened: "Does the eagle mount up at your command?" (Job 39:27). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Aaron: Upon the word of your mouth I would cause My Presence to rest upon the Ark, or upon the word of your mouth I would remove My Presence from upon the Ark. "The first Temple, a rock it dwells and lodges" (Job 39:28) -- one lodging [the First Temple stood through one period]. The Second Temple, "upon the crag of the rock and the stronghold" (Job 39:28) -- many lodgings. And we learned there: From the time the Ark was removed, a stone was there, and it was called the Foundation Stone (Shetiyah) from the days of the early prophets. And why was it called Shetiyah? Rabbi Yosi bar Chalafta said: because from it the world was founded (hushtat). How was the prayer of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement? May it be Your will, O LORD our God and God of our fathers, that this year be rainy, warm, and dewy; a year of cheap prices, a year of plenty, a year of goodwill, a year of blessing, a year of commerce; a year in which Your people the house of Israel will not need to depend on one another; a year in which Your people the house of Israel will not lord authority over one another. And the rabbis of Caesarea said: concerning our brethren in Caesarea, that they not lord authority over one another. And the rabbis of the South said: concerning our brethren in the Sharon, that their houses not become their graves. "From there he spies out food" (Job 39:29) -- from there he would discern food for all the days of the year. "His eyes behold from afar" (Job 39:29) -- from the New Year he would know what would be at its end. How so? When he gazed and saw the smoke of the altar-pile rising to the south, he knew the south would have plenty; rising to the west, he knew the west would have plenty; rising to the north, he knew the north would have plenty; to the east, he knew the east would have plenty; if it rose straight up toward the firmament, he knew the whole world would have plenty. And after all this praise: "And his young ones suck up blood" (Job 39:30) -- see his young ones writhing in the dust, and he is silent. But "where the slain are, there is he" (Job 39:30) -- the Divine Presence. Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, and Rabbi Berachiah in the name of Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said: "Draw near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary" (Leviticus 10:4) -- it is not written "the Ark," but "the sanctuary," like a man who says to his fellow: Remove this corpse from before the mourner; how long shall this mourner suffer? Therefore it is said, "after the death of the two sons of Aaron" (Leviticus 16:1).