Citazione Commento su II Cronache 35:3

ששם הארון נגנז – for King Josiah commanded that it be hidden below in the curved secret and tortuous path that Solomon built at the time when he built the Temple and knew that it would eventually be destroyed. And this is what is written in II Chronicles, chapter 35, verse 3: “He said to the Levites, consecrated to the LORD, who taught all Israel, ‘Put the Holy Ark in the House that Solomon [the son of David, king of Israel] built” (also compare Talmud Yoma 53b) and with it was hidden the staff of Aaron and the bottle of Manna (which was preserved) and the flask of anointing oil.

THE END OF THE FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD: KING JOSIAH CREATES A FRAMEWORK THAT FACILITATES THE GREATER USE OF PILPUL
DURING THE FIRST TEMPLE period, after Solomon’s reign, the Kohanim and Levites [did not apply his analytical methods, but] dealt with specific cases as the need arose. In order to adjudicate in accordance with the Torah’s true meaning, they relied on the Divine light of the Ark that resided within the Temple and on the holiness of the High Priest. [This continued until] the period of King Josiah, who foresaw that the Divine light of the Ark would be extinguished from the Holy of Holies, that Israel would be exiled from its soil and “Her king and officers would be exiled among the nations, there without Torah.”¹Lam. 2:9. This meant that the shining Divine light that powered the process of adjudication through Divine assistance [would be lost]. Should that occur, it was then possible, Heaven forbid, that the methodology of adjudication would be totally lost. As noted in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sotah 7:4), it is because of this concern that Josiah rent his clothing and said, “The responsibility of strengthening (the Torah) rests upon me.”²The Jerusalem Talmud there states: “‘Cursed be the one who will not uphold the words of this Torah’ (Deut. 27:26). Does [this imply] that the Torah may fall?… Pertaining to this matter, Josiah rent his garment and stated: ‘The responsibility of strengthening the Torah rests upon me.’” Josiah foresaw that they were to be exiled and it was possible that the Torah would be forgotten (i.e., fall), and the power to strengthen the Torah for the future exiles rested in his hands. The manner in which Josiah fortified the Torah is recorded in II Chronicles 35:3: “He [Josiah] said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy unto God: ‘Put the Holy Ark in the House which Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel, built; there shall no longer be a burden upon your shoulders; now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel.”

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.]

To place. [It has the same meaning] as לתת.³¹Knowing that the Beis Hamikdosh will eventually be destroyed Shlomo “prepared ]=[הכין” for the moment by excavating under the Sanctuary a chamber that was hidden in deep and winding tunnels. The chamber was large enough to accommodate the Ark which would be hidden there right before the destruction. See II Divrei Hayomim 35:3 and Maseches Yoma 52b.