Commento su Esodo 25:15

לא יסרו ממנו THEY SHALL NOT DEPART THEREFROM for ever (cf. Yoma 72a).

לא יסורו ממנו, "they shall not be removed from it." The reason that the Torah had to add the word "from it," and could not simply write: "they must not be removed," may be that without the words "from it" we would have understood that as long as the staves were not taken out of the rings completely it did not matter. However, we are taught in Yuma 72 that Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina queried an apparent contradiction between verse 15: "the staves shall remain in the rings of the ark," and 27,7, where the Torah writes: והובא את בדיו בטבעות, "and its staves shall be placed through the rings." This appears to indicate that the staves were inserted in the rings again and again. If so, how could one comply with the need for the staves to remain within the rings? The respective ends of the staves must have been thicker so that they could not slip out of the rings as demanded by the words: "they shall not be removed from it," i.e. they had to be attached so that they could not move. Thus far the Talmud. It is clear from the words of the Talmud that the words לא יסורו are enough to teach us that movement of these staves is forbidden. Perhaps the word ממנו has a different meaning, i.e. that even motion of the staves backwards and forwards within the rings was prohibited. In order to prevent us from thinking that this was also not allowed, the Torah wrote והבאת in verse 14.

לא יסורו ממנו, ‘they are not to be removed from it.” Our sages in Yuma 72 explain that the staves were never totally removed from the rings through which they had been placed. Anyone who did remove the staves from the Ark contravened this commandment. Another comment found on that folio on the words והבאת את הבדים בטבעות is that the staves moved to and fro within the rings. You might assume that this means that sometimes they would slip out of the rings altogether? The Torah reassures you by saying לא יסורו הבדים, the staves will not be totally removed, i.e. “fall out of the rings.” Had the Torah only written these last words I would have thought that the staves never moved at all. This is why the Torah added והבאת את הבדים בטבעות, “place the staves through the rings.” How was this to be accomplished?” Answer: they were thicker at the extremities and thinner in the middle so that they could be introduced with ease but could be extracted only with great difficulty. [If you are interested in the tricky question of how both parts of the instructions in the Torah could be observed, see Or Hachayim on our verse. Ed.]