Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the dimensions of the altar:

“Rabbi Yehuda says: It is stated here that the altar built in the time of Moses was: ‘Square’ (Exodus 27:1), and it is stated there, in Ezekiel’s prophetic description of the altar, that it is: ‘Square’ (Ezekiel 43:16). Just as, there, in Ezekiel’s vision, he was measuring the distance in each direction from its center, so too here, the verse was measuring the altar that Moses built from its center. Accordingly, the altar built by Moses was ten cubits by ten cubits.”

Beis Yaakov (Vayigash 10) reads a deeper meaning in the measurements of the altar being described as five cubits in each direction from the center instead of simply stating 10 x 10. The idea of center is itself meaningful, representing a core and deep connection to God which is fundamental and incorruptible and within every Jew.

Midrash Tanchuma (Vayigash 2) relates an interesting dialogue between God and the Jewish people. God asks, “Who will be the guarantor that you will keep the Torah?” The Jewish people answer, “Our children.” That is to say, if the Jewish people sin and stray, they will suffer the punishments. God reportedly accepted the deal. Beis Yaakov asks: What kind of guarantee is this? The Jewish people are God’s children too! When Reuven offered Yaakov that the lives of his children will act as guarantees that he will return Binyamin, Yaakov responds: “This one (Reuven) who states that his son’s lives are at stake, is a foolish elder son (who should be wise). His sons are my sons. Why would hurting them serve as justice or compensation for me?” (Rashi Bereishis 42:38 quoting Midrash Rabbah.) So too, how is this an acceptable guarantee to God that the Jewish people will uphold the covenant?

The answer is that the guarantee was not their lives but rather the deep core connection to God that is vested in every Jew. The Jews will always come back to Torah. This is also why later Yaakov accepts a similar proposal from Yehuda (ibid. 43:9) that his sons will be the guarantor. Yehuda means the deeper idea. Realizing that their Jewish soul was strongly invested in his children, he was assuring Yaakov that even if somehow their children become captive in Egypt (which was Yaakov’s true premonition), they would not be lost nor fully assimilate due to their fundamental Jewish soul.