Comentário sobre Êxodo 40:3

וסכת על הארן means AND THOU SHALT SCREEN THE ARK — וסכת denotes screening and it is the correct term to use, for it (the veil) formed a partition (cf. Rashi on Exodus 35:12).

AND THOU SHALT SCREEN ‘AL’ THE ARK. The word al (upon) is in place of the word el (to), for the word v’sakotha (and thou shalt screen) is derived from the term masach (curtain, screen).⁷⁹Thus the sense of the verse is not: “and thou shalt screen ‘upon’ the ark,” but: “thou shalt screen the ark.” By putting up the veil in front of the ark, the ark will be screened. Similarly, and he set up the veil of the screen, and screened ‘al’ the ark of the Testimony⁸⁰Further, Verse 21. [carries the same interpretation as the verse before us].

וסכות על הארון, ”screen off the Ark with a curtain!” the word וסכות is derived from מסוכה, a separating screen. We find it used in that sense in Hoseah 2,8: הנני סך את דרכך, “I will block your path with thorns.”

על הארון, “next to the Ark.” The word על is used in this sense also in Leviticus 25,31: על שדה הארץ יחשב, “they (the house not walled in) will be considered as belonging to the adjoining earth.”על הארון, a similar construction to: על הגמלים, beside the camels in Genesis 24,30, and על המערכת, “next to the row.”