Commentaire sur Les Nombres 4:10

אל מכסה עור תחש [AND THEY SHALL PUT IT, AND ALL THE VESSELS] WITHIN A COVERING OF TACHASH SKINS — This was a kind of packing bag.

ונתנו על המוט; after that the Levites were permitted to carry all these parts.

ונתנו על המוט. Rabbi Joseph Kara (1060-1130, Troyes) erred in understanding this verse, thinking that since the Torah did not mention two staves, as in Numbers 13,23) for instance, that it follows that this stave was underneath the vessels, seeing that the Torah wrote the word על, “above.” I would counter that the staves (poles) were always on the sides of the vessels being transported and that they had been inserted through rings fastened to the respective objects being transported by them. We find that the Torah spells this out in Exodus 25,14, 25,27, 27,7, and 30,4.
The singular במוט is indeed found in connection with carrying something by means of poles in Exodus 25,28 and in Isaiah 46,7 as well as in Chronicles II 35,3. We must not be misled by the word being in the singular. It simply means to describe the “method” of transportation, this method being poles. [when we speak of כסף meaning “money,” we also do not necessarily refer to a single coin. Ed.]

Sack. A large sack in which one places merchandise; because it is written “into the covering,” it is clear that it has an inside.