Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Keluaran 25:16

ועשית לך ארון עץ, “and make a wooden ark for yourself!”. Moses reports that he first made the ark (compare verse 3) and only after that did he carve out the Tablets. He followed this sequence in order to have a “home” ready for the Tablets when he would return with them from the mountain. If he had not first made the ark where would he put the Tablets when he arrived among the people with them? Our sages have a tradition that the “ark” mentioned by Moses in verse 5 was the one that he had made immediately after receiving the instructions to carve out the second set of Tablets. In other words, this was not the same Ark which Betzalel was instructed to make for the Tabernacle in Exodus 25,10 (based on Tanchuma Eikev 10).
The ark which Moses made was strictly temporary in order to have a place for the Tablets to be put pending the instructions to build the Tabernacle and to make a permanent home for the Tablets. The wooden ark made by Moses was the ones the people would take with them when they went to war. The Ark made by Betzalel was removed from the Tabernacle (except during the journeys when the Tabernacle itself was dismantled) only at the express command of G’d when the people marched around Jericho with the priests carrying the Holy Ark in front of them (Joshua 6,12). When, several hundreds of years later, the sons of the High Priest Eli took it upon themselves to take the Holy Ark to war with them against the Philistines, the Ark was captured and the sons of Eli died as a punishment for their high handed action. (Samuel I 4,8 describes that although, initially the Philistines were frightened of the Ark, they fought the Israelites and were victorious, capturing the Ark).
The ark (box) made by Moses contained (initially) both the Tablets and the broken pieces of the original Tablets which Moses had smashed. After Betzalel made the Holy Ark for the Tabernacle the contents of Moses’ ark were transferred to it. This is the meaning of Exodus 25,16: “you will place inside the Ark the testimony which I shall give you.” Even though the Talmud in Baba Batra 14 states: “there was nothing inside the Holy Ark except the two Tablets,” this is not to exclude the broken pieces of the first Tablets, as whenever two restrictive clauses are employed consecutively, the meaning is that something additional is meant, in this case the remnants of the first Tablets. This was after the Temple of Solomon had been built. As long as the Tabernacle of Betzalel functioned as the Temple, the Holy Ark contained the second set of Tablets whereas Moses’ ark contained the broken pieces of the first set of Tablets. (Compare Tosafot Eyruvin 63. Tosafot base themselves on the verse quoted by the Talmud in Baba Batra which appears in Kings I 8,9.)

ושמתם בארון, “and place the Tablets in the ark.” The broken Tablets had been lying in that ark all the time, as we know from Sifrey on Behaalotcha, paragraph 82. This was the ark that the Israelites took with them when they went out to war as we know from Numbers 10,33. and which travelled three days march in front of them during the journeys in the desert. It was the ark made by Moses before he ascended Mount Sinai, not the Ark that Bezalel made for a furnishing of the Tabernacle. Originally, he had placed the broken Tablets in that ark as well as the second set of Tablets, as the commandment to construct a Tabernacle, etc. had not yet been given. We have read this in verse five of our chapter. Construction of the Tabernacle had begun only after Moses had descended from the Mountain for the third time and it was not completed or consecrated until the beginning of Nissan of the second year in the desert. At that time the Tablets were transferred to the golden ark covered by the golden lid with the cherubs that we read about in Exodus 25,16. This Ark was not taken out of the Tabernacle even during wars as we know from Samuel I 4,7 and 8: during the war around Shiloh, against the Philistines, when the two sons of Eli the High Priest took the golden ark with them to help them in the war and the Philistines captured it, [though it brought only harm to them wherever the placed it so that they sent it back after six months. Ed.] Our sages are on record as ruling that at any time when this ark and G–d’s Presence which it symbolised was not in the place assigned to it, the Israelites were not allowed to indulge in marital relations with their wives. During the incident between David and Uriah hachitti, in Samuel II 11,11, when David sent him home on furlough to his wife to engage in marital intercourse, the latter’s refusal to do so was considered an unjustifiable hardship he imposed upon himself, while ordinary soldiers when on leave did have marital relations. [The soldiers in David’s army had given their wives pro forma divorce decrees before going into battle so that their wives would be able to remarry if they died and their remains had not been identified. Ed.] When the Ark accompanied Joshua during the war of conquest of the Holy Land, this was at the direct command of the Lord. In both instances the reference was to the ark Moses had constructed and which contained the broken Tablets. When the Talmud in Baba Batra folio 14 speaks of the broken Tablets and the second set of Tablets that were kept in the Ark, the reference is clearly to the Ark made by Betzalel. But this refers to the Ark in Solomon’s Temple, after it had found a permanent resting place. In the Jerusalem Talmud we do find that there is a disagreement about whether during that period there were still two arks.

I made an ark That is, he commanded that an ark be made. Consequently, “Moshe gathered” [Exodus 35: 1] must mean, “Moshe had gathered” (I have already shown you many similar instances). All this was necessitated by the passage they remained there as God had commanded me, assuming that the reference is to “put the Testimony into the Ark” [Exodus 25: 16]. Nevertheless, it is also possible that the reference is to “make for you a wooden ark” [: 1]. In any case, the Tradition must prevail.

[Placed] the crown on him and [gave him] the Testimony. The Torah Scroll, as it is written, “And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life.”¹⁷Devorim 17:19. Adonoy king must always have a Torah Scroll with him at all times. Therefore, the Torah Scroll acts as a testimony of royalty. Alternatively, the Torah Scroll is referred to as “testimony.” See Shemos 25:16 and Rashi there.—Metzudas Dovid¹⁸Alternatively, עֵדוּת refers to the royal robes.—Radak And our Rabbis stated that the crown itself was the “testimony,” for it would fit anyone who is fit for the throne, but it would not fit anyone unfit for the throne.¹⁹See Maseches Avodah Zarah 44a, and Rashi there.