The Few That Held the Many Between the Poles of the Ark

"And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come near here" (Joshua 3:9). Rabbi said: He stood them upright between the two poles of the Ark. Rabbi Acha bar Rabbi Chanina said: He propped them between the two poles of the Ark. The Rabbis said: He compressed them between the two poles of the Ark. Joshua said to them: From the fact that the two poles of the Ark held you, you know that the living God is in your midst -- from here that the small held the many. And like it: "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place" (Genesis 1:9). It is the way of the world that a person empties a full vessel into an empty vessel; does one empty a full vessel into a full vessel? So too the world was water within water, yet you say "unto one place" -- from here that the small held the many. And like it: "And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock" (Numbers 20:10). Rabbi Chanina said: It was the size of the mouth of a small sieve, yet all Israel stood there -- from here that the small held the many. And like it: "Take to you your hands full" (Exodus 9:8); now does Moses' double handful hold eight ordinary handfuls? A double handful is not like a single handful; the double handful is twice the single, and it is written, "and Moses sprinkled it" -- so Moses' double handful held eight handfuls -- from here that the small held the many. And like it: "the length of the court a hundred cubits" (Exodus 27:18), yet all Israel stood there -- from here that the small held the many. And Jerusalem too is so, as we have learned: they stood pressed together, yet bowed down with room to spare, four cubits for each one on every side, so that one should not hear his fellow's prayer. So too in the time to come: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it" (Jeremiah 3:17). Rabbi Yochanan was going up [to Jerusalem]; one said to him: Is it set by fixed measure for them? He said to him: The Holy One, blessed be He, says, Lengthen, widen, receive your multitudes -- "Enlarge the place of your tent... for you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left" (Isaiah 54:2-3).