פירוש על שמות 25:10

ועשו ארון AND THEY SHALL MAKE AN ARK (ארון) — It is so called because it had the appearance of boxes (ארונות) which people make without feet — in the shape of a chest which is called escrin in old French which rests on its bottom.

AND THEY SHALL MAKE AN ARK. The plural [and ‘they’ shall make] refers back to the children of Israel mentioned above.⁹⁶Above, Verse 2. But afterwards Scripture states: And thou shalt overlay it,⁹⁷Verse 11. And thou shalt cast for it⁹⁸Verse 12. — all in the singular, as Moses is the leader of all Israel. It is possible that [in using the plural — and they shall make] He is indicating His wish that all Israel should share in the making of the ark because it is the holiest dwelling-place of the Most High,⁹⁹Psalms 46:5. and that they should all merit thereby [a knowledge of] the Torah. Thus the Rabbis have said in Midrash Rabbah:¹⁰⁰Shemoth Rabbah 33:3. “Why is it that with reference to all the vessels it says, and thou shalt make, and in the case of the ark it says, and they shall make? Said Rabbi Yehudah the son of Rabbi Shalom: The Holy One, blessed be He, said, Let all the people come and engage themselves in the making of the ark, so that they should all merit [a knowledge of] the Torah.” The “engaging themselves” of which the Rabbi speaks means that they should each offer one golden vessel [for the making of the ark, in addition to their general offering for the building of the Tabernacle], or that they should help Bezalel in some small way, or that they should have intent [of heart in the making thereof].¹⁰¹Thus even the desire to help Bezalel in the making of the ark was already accounted as an act of helping in the making thereof (Kli Chemdah). It may also hint that a mere genuine craving for Torah is praiseworthy before the Creator.

ועשו ארזן, "They shall construct an ark." It is strange that G'd phrased the directive to build the ark in indirect speech whereas the directives to construct the Tabernacle, the Altar, the Table, and the Lampstand are all phrased in direct speech, i.e. ועשית. Not only does the Torah employ indirect speech in this verse, but when elaborating on the details of the construction the Torah reverts to use of direct speech, i.e. "you shall cover it with pure gold, etc." Perhaps we can find in this anomaly a hint that the bulk of Torah cannot be fulfilled by any individual but requires participation of the entire nation. No single individual can fulfil all the commandments of the Torah, however much he may desire to do so. If an individual happens to be a priest he cannot fulfil the commandment of allocating the 24 gifts which the Torah directs the Israelite to give to the priest. He cannot fulfil the commandment of redeeming his firstborn son. A Levite also is prevented from fulfilling certain commandments by the mere fact that he is a Levite. The phrasing of ועשו ארון in the indirect plural may be intended to remind us of this fact.

ועשו ארון עצי שטים, seeing that the words belong together, i.e. “an ark of acacia wood,” the vowel under the letter א in the word ארון is a chataph patach instead of a kametz. [This had to be so as the tone sign tipcha under the word ארון suggests that the word belongs to the word ועשו preceding it. Ed.] Even so, when it came to the carrying out of these instructions we find that Betzalel, contrary to Moses’ instructions, first constructed the Tabernacle itself before fashioning the furnishings thereof, seeing he would not have a place wherein to place all these furnishings. Nevertheless, at the time of the instructions, the Ark, Table, etc., had to be mentioned first. The reason was that the construction of the Tabernacle was, after all, secondary to the furnishings inside it. It became necessary to build the Tabernacle only in order to house the Ark and other sacred furnishings.

ועשו ארון, “they shall construct an ark.” This refers to the Israelites referred to in verse 2. When the Torah switches to direct speech in the following verses, making it sound as if these commandments were all addressed to Moses personally, this must be understood in terms of Moses representing the entire Jewish people. The reason that the Torah first employed a plural mode was to encourage all the Israelites to take an active part in the making of the Tabernacle by contributing of their wealth, so that their participation in a sacred undertaking would guarantee each one of them a share in the Torah. However, only skilled people could take part in fashioning the parts and the furnishings. Actually 3 separate arks were made. The outer and inner one were made of gold, whereas the middle ark was of acacia wood. The reason that the Torah does not use the expression וצפית אותו זהב, “you are to overlay it with gold,” is that the ark was enclosed only from 5 out of 6 sides, the top remaining open, until the lid was placed on it, as a separate part.

ועשו ארון, the ark is a symbol of the righteous and intelligent man who is described as such only if his character qualities reflect the external image he portrays, projects. This is the reason why the ark was encased in gold both from the inside and the outside.
Just as the dimensions of the floor of the ark were two and a half cubits in length and one and a half cubits in width, resulting in a square area of four cubits minus one quarter cubit square, so the righteous person should remain constantly aware that the four elements which make up his physicality should not become the sum total of his existence, but should be augmented liberally by the physical performance of good deeds such as caring for others.
Just as the walls of the ark, when combined, total 12 cubits (when measuring the combined total of the exterior dimensions, 1,5+2,5;+1,5+2,5;+1,5+2,5). [the lid is not part of the measurements. Ed.] The combined lengths of the walls totaled 7.5 cubits, whereas the combined length of the short walls totaled 4.5 cubits. The righteous person is expected to fulfill all the 12 conditions set out in Psalm 15,1 as the necessary qualifications before one is deserving to sojourn in G’d’s holy tent, or on G’d’s holy mountain.
If one wishes to attain a loftier level of relative perfection than that of a “mere” righteous individual, the next step up is becoming a נביא, prophet, or at least acquiring the spiritual level expected of a prophet. This is symbolised by the kapporet above the Ark.
The fact that the entire kapporet was made of pure gold. that it was not merely overlaid with gold, indicates that it symbolised something even purer than the Ark itself. We know that a prophet is considered as כלו צדק, “totally righteous,” from Proverbs 8,8 “all the words of my mouth are with righteousness.” The cherubs above the kapporet are an allusion to the angels, beings on an even higher spiritual level than the prophets. They were spreading their wings heavenward as an allusion of their striving to be near the Shechinah, which is on a higher level spiritually than the angels, seeing that the angels are the throne, (foundation of) ever ready to welcome the attribute כבוד, i.e. the attribute which occupies the throne. This is the meaning of the words in verse 20: אל הכפורת יהיו הכרובים, “the faces of the cherubs will be turned toward the kapporet.” They had to look downwards, towards the lid and were forbidden to gaze at the Shechinah. Above everything is G’d Himself as is written in Samuel II 6,2 אשר נקרא שם שם ה' צב-אות יושב הכרובים עליו, “to which the Name was attached, the name of the Lord of Hosts Enthroned on the cherubs.” Solomon also constructed the cherubs in the Temple out of wood, as is written (Kings I 6,23) “he made in the sanctuary two cherubs out of olive wood.” [these wooden cherubs, ten cubits high, are not to be confused with the cherubs which are an integral part of the lid of the Holy Ark, made of solid gold, and which were in the Holy of Holies. Ed.]

V. 10. Die Anordnung beginnt mit den Geräten; denn diese sind das Wesentliche. Die Wohnung ist um der Geräte willen da, nicht die Geräte um der Wohnung willen. Die Geräte, die מזבח ,מנורה ,שלחן ,ארון :כלים, sind das מקדש, bringen die Heiligung und Hingebung, die Erhebung aller irdischen Verhältnisse zu Gott zur Anschauung; die Wohnung, das משכן, vergegenwärtigt die Folge dieser Hingebung, die Erfüllung der Verheißung ושכנתי בתוכם als Folge des ועשו לי מקדש.

ועשו ארון, “they are to construct an Ark;” it is noteworthy that the Torah, in these instructions about construction of the furnishings of the Tabernacle, addresses the artisans as individuals, i.e. ועשית, you, the individual, shall construct, whereas when speaking of the Holy Ark, it uses the impersonal plural of ועשו, “they shall construct.” The reason is that seeing that the Holy Ark, repository of the Tablets and the original Torah scroll, is to be something that every Israelite must feel that he had a part in making its construction possible. (Sh’mot Rabbah 34,2). If inert objects deserve such treatment with respect, how much more so do the Torah scholars, each in their own town, living bearers of the Torah’s wisdom, deserve to be treated with respect and be given honour by each Jew.

ועשו ארון, “they shall construct an ark;” the introductory letter ו in the word ועשו tells us that, of course, the building housing this ark had by that time already been constructed. As long as the building had not been constructed there was no place where to put the ark. We find a similar problem in Deuteronomy 10,1, when Moses recalls that G-d had told him to carve out the tablets on which the Ten Commandments would be inscribed a second time, and he constructed the ark first as he said himself in verse 3 in that chapter where he said: “I made an ark and then I carved out the Tablets.” This was not in accordance in which G-d had instructed him to proceed in verse 9 of our chapter. He had even reminded him that He had shown him an illustration of how to proceed, in that verse. If the Torah nonetheless reports matters in the reverse order, it is because we must remember to put first things first, i.e. that the structure would have been meaningless if not for the furnishings which it was to provide a home for.[Our author does not apparently accept the view of the commentators who claim that Moses had forgotten the right order and that Betzalel had to remind him when he received instructions he did not consider logical. Ed.]

Possibly, the use of the indirect plural here is an introduction to the construction of all the parts of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. By using the indirect plural at this point the Torah may wish to remind us that even where it uses the direct singular when giving directives, these directives are addressed to individuals only inasmuch as those addressed represent all the חכמי לב, (compare 36,1).

ועשו ארון, das erste und einzige כלי, dessen Gestaltung auch im Ausdruck der Anordnung von der ganzen Volksgesamtheit erwartet wird, ist der ארון, die Lade des Zeugnisses. Wie es zuvor hieß: ועשו לי מקדש, so hier unmittelbar darauf: ועשו ארון und so auch von den die Symbolik der Lade krönenden Cherubimgestaltungen, V. 19 מן הכפרת תעשו את הכרובים (siehe das.). Von allem anderen und weiteren heißt es: ועשית וצפית usw. Es scheint fast, als ob die ganze Aufgabe: ועשו לי מקדש in dem ועשו ארון עצי שטים konzentriert liege, und alles Fernere nur eine weitere Ausführung des ארון sei. ארון (von ארה: zum Genuss abpflücken, Hohel. 5, 2 u. Ps. 80, 13, verwandt mit הרה: einen Lebenskeim in sich aufnehmen, der Wurzel von תורה) bezeichnet einen Behälter, vermittelst dessen das darin Aufzunehmende für immer hingenommen wird. So Bereschit 50, 26: Sarg, und Kön. II. 12, 10 u. Chron. II. 24, 8: Empfangskasse für Heiligtumsspenden. Die Lade nimmt das Gesetz für Israel hin, oder vielmehr: Israel nimmt mit der Lade das Gesetz hin.

מבית ומחוץ תצפנו, “you are to overlay it both from the inside and from the outside. The famous Talmudic scholar Rava, derives from this phrasing that a Torah scholar, in order to deserve that title, must demonstrate that he is on the inside just as pure and faithful as what he projects to be on the outside to people he comes into contact with. Furthermore, the use of the impersonal plural “they” in our verse is an instruction to each Israelite to preoccupy himself with the study of Torah so that he can qualify for the reward in store for people doing so.

It is also possible that seeing that prior to receiving the second set of Tablets Moses himself constructed a wooden ark (compare Rashi on Deut. 10,1) in which he placed them as soon as he descended from Mount Sinai, the instructions given here refer to an alternate ark, the one to be constructed by Betzalel. In order to distinguish between these two arks the Torah changed its grammar. G'd had already used direct speech when He commanded Moses to construct the original ark in Deut. 10,1. At that time He added the word לך,"for yourself," to indicate that pending the construction of the permanent housing of the Tablets, Moses was to construct a temporary home for them. Whereas the directives ועשית in our portion always refer to the construction by Betzalel of something permanent, the same word in Deut 10,1 did not refer to something permanent. Moses complied personally with G'd's directive to construct a temporary ark (Deut. 10,3) as we know from: "he placed the Tablets inside" (Deut. 10,5). Phrasing the present directive in indirect plural, i.e. ועשו, was to make plain that G'd spoke of an additional ark. Had G'd merely said ועשית, I would have thought that just as the original ark was meant to be his, personally, i.e. to be paid for out of his own pocket, so the permanent ark was also meant to be paid for by himself. Alternatively, Moses could have thought that G'd spoke of the very ark Moses had already made and that now it was to be overlaid with gold inside and out, have staves attached to it, etc. In order to prevent any misuderstandings, the Torah wrote ועשו.

ארון עצי שטים: mit seiner, Israels, ewig frischen Entwicklungsfähigkeit und für diese immer fortschreitende Entwicklung hin. Das Gesetz ist abgeschlossen gegeben, es sind steinerne Tafeln. Sie bilden zusammen einen steinernen vollkommenen Würfel. Jede Tafel ist sechs טפהי׳ lang, sechs ט׳ breit und drei ט׳ dick, somit zusammen ein Würfel von sechs Kubik=טפחים: eine Kubikelle, die größte Maßeinheit im Würfel (Baba Bathra 14 a). Nicht das Gesetz, wir sind der Baum, wir können und sollen durch das Gesetz in unendlichem Fortschritte uns veredelnd entwickeln. Israel nimmt die תורה hin, auf dass es daran werde עץ שתול על פלגי מים וגו׳ (Ps. 1, 3).

אמתים וחצי וגו׳. Die Dimension ist durch dieses Größenverhältnis der Tafeln bedingt. Das hier angegebene Längen- und Breitenmaß bezieht sich auf den äußeren Umfang. Die Wände waren 1/2 טפח dick, die Elle — nach ר׳ מאיר — zu sechs טפחי׳ gerechnet, bleibt ein innerer Raum von vierzehn ט׳ Länge und acht ט׳ Breite. Die beiden nebeneinanderliegenden Tafeln nehmen einen Raum von zwölf ט׳ Länge und sechs ט׳ Breite ein. Ihnen zur Seite lag eine von Mosche verfertigte Abschrift des Gesetzes (Dewarim 31, 26). Nach ר׳ יהודה war die Maßbestimmung der Geräte nach kleinen Ellen von fünf טפחי׳, somit kein Raum für die ס׳׳ת im ארון, sie lag ihm zufolge außerhalb der Lade auf einer dafür angebrachten Leiste (siehe B. B. das.).