It was a poignant move, for the aron kodesh’s story is the story of the yeshivah’s talmidim

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hortly before Succos, Torah Links opened the Torah Links Center, its new headquarters in Lakewood, New Jersey. As Lakewood’s first kiruv-oriented yeshivah, the center will also host various Torah Links programs. The state-of-the-art building is tastefully designed with striking contemporary colors and oversized glass windows and walls, but in a fascinating contrast, standing in the side beis medrash is an antique 15th-century golden aron kodesh originally from Italy. It’s designed in rich, Renaissance-style architecture, with intricate pillars and decorative moldings, topped by an elaborate small model of the Luchos engraved with the Aseres Hadibros. The contrast between the exquisite aron kodesh against the backdrop of a clean, modern room is both breathtaking and jarring at once — and the Torah Links staff are only too happy to answer curious visitors’ questions.

The aron kodesh once stood in the shul of the Maharam of Padua who served as rav in Padua, Italy, in 1550. But for hundreds of years, the beautiful aron kodesh that had once been witness to a thriving Italian Jewish life lay forgotten and forlorn. In the late 20th century, when an Israeli historian visited the old synagogue — which had since been retrofitted to be a museum — he found the freestanding aron kodesh in the former synagogue’s attic. Years of neglect had left it full of dust, but remarkably, it was wholly intact.

The historian had it disassembled and brought to Israel, where he set it up in his villa. After he moved, an American businessman with ties to the historian’s family arranged for the aron kodesh to be brought to Lakewood and installed in the Torah Links Center’s beis medrash.

It was a poignant move, for the aron kodesh’s story is the story of the yeshivah’s talmidim. A community once fiercely committed to Hashem’s Torah and mitzvos all but abandoned their way of life, dazzled by the lure of the outside world and Italian culture. Their aron kodesh was reduced to nothing more than a relic of the past, empty of the life-giving treasures it once contained. Now, generations later, a renaissance of a different sort is taking place in the yeshivah. Students who grew up in the lap of secular culture are now returning to their rightful heritage, and, like that beautiful aron kodesh, are ready to lovingly embrace the Torah once more.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 931)