וְצִפִּיתָ֤ אֹתוֹ֙ זָהָ֣ב טָה֔וֹר מִבַּ֥יִת וּמִח֖וּץ תְּצַפֶּ֑נּוּ וְעָשִׂ֧יתָ עָלָ֛יו זֵ֥ר זָהָ֖ב סָבִֽיב׃
"E a revestirás com ouro puro, por dentro e por fora a revestirás, e farás sobre ela uma moldura de ouro ao redor.
Rabbeinu Bahya
A Midrashic (Tanchuma Vayakhel 7) approach concerning the words: “Betzalel constructed the Ark,” Rabbi Chanina of Tzippori said that he actually made three arks, two of gold and one of acacia wood. He inserted the wooden one into the golden outer one; then he inserted the inner golden one into the wooden one. He covered the edges with gold to fulfill the instruction in Exodus 25,11: “you shall overlay it with gold from the inside and from the outside.” He understood the wording of the Torah to mean that although the wood of the Ark was totally enclosed, invisible, it was to be accorded honor seeing that the Torah is contained within it. The people even treated the broken first Tablets with honor placing the broken pieces within the Holy Ark, together with the Torah scroll and the second set of Tablets. The reason that the wood used for the Holy Ark was shittim wood was to remind the people of the sin the Israelites were to commit at a place called Shittim and to help atone for that sin. The wording of Deut. 10,2 “and place them in the Ark,” refers to the words immediately previous, i.e. אשר שברת “the ones you have broken.” The moral message was that even if one encounters a Torah scholar who is impoverished and whose exterior reflects this, one is to treat him with respect and honor as his body houses the Torah.
When G’d gave the instructions to build the Tabernacle, He had used the expression ועשית “you are to make, etc.” with every single item except in the case of the Ark where he said: ועשו, “they are to make the Ark” (25,10). The reason was so as not to allow any Israelite to say to another Israelite that he did not also have a share in the Torah. This was also one of the reasons that the Torah was given to the Jewish people in the desert, a region which is ownerless, has not been claimed by anyone as their own. The moral message is that the words of Torah are “ownerless,” no one has an exclusive on them, there is no law of copyright protecting the Torah. A person could not claim that seeing he was a natural born Jew that he had a claim to Torah not shared by converts who joined Judaism after the Torah had been given to the Jewish people. This is part of the meaning of Deut. 33,4 תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב, “Moses commanded us the Torah, it is to be handed down as an heritage to the Community of Yaakov.” The Torah chose the word קהלת יעקב to teach that anyone who joins the community of Yaakov has an equal claim to that heritage. Any convert has an equal claim to Torah provided he makes it the focus of his study and observance. When the Torah defined the purpose of the Torah, it wrote “in order that האדם, should perform its laws and live thereby.” The Torah did not write: “in order that a priest, a Levite, or an Israelite should perform its laws and live by it,” but it chose the all-embracing term האדם, (Leviticus 18,5).
It is worthwhile to compare what is written in Chronicles I 2,55 i.e. “the families of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez: the Tirathites, etc., etc., these are the Kenites who came from Hammath, father of the house of Rechav.” According to Tanchuma these people sat in the office of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, (on the Temple Mount), were members of it, studied, taught, and occupied positions of distinction. This proves how accessible Torah is and was to converts at all times. The words describing this are very similar to the ones used in the Torah (Deut. 27,9) where Moses exhorts the people to study Torah and to listen carefully to instruction in Torah. Some commentators even understand the word “the Tirathites” as a play on words, referring to people who had heard the sound of the Teruah at Mount Sinai (according to the view that Yitro arrived in the Jewish camp prior to the giving of the Torah). The “Kenites descended from Rechav” are definitely identified as descendants of Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law.
In Yuma 72 we are told that Betzalel constructed three Arks, the inner one of gold being eight handbreadths in height, the middle one, the wooden one, being nine handbreadths in height, whereas the golden outer one was slightly over ten handbreadths in height. To the question how much higher than ten handbreadths the outer Ark was, the Talmud answers זיר, a measurement of approx. the height to accommodate the kapporet to fit on the inside and yet leave a crest to form a sort of crown or border. [According to this view the kapporet must have been considerably thinner than a handbreadth. Ed.]
When G’d gave the instructions to build the Tabernacle, He had used the expression ועשית “you are to make, etc.” with every single item except in the case of the Ark where he said: ועשו, “they are to make the Ark” (25,10). The reason was so as not to allow any Israelite to say to another Israelite that he did not also have a share in the Torah. This was also one of the reasons that the Torah was given to the Jewish people in the desert, a region which is ownerless, has not been claimed by anyone as their own. The moral message is that the words of Torah are “ownerless,” no one has an exclusive on them, there is no law of copyright protecting the Torah. A person could not claim that seeing he was a natural born Jew that he had a claim to Torah not shared by converts who joined Judaism after the Torah had been given to the Jewish people. This is part of the meaning of Deut. 33,4 תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב, “Moses commanded us the Torah, it is to be handed down as an heritage to the Community of Yaakov.” The Torah chose the word קהלת יעקב to teach that anyone who joins the community of Yaakov has an equal claim to that heritage. Any convert has an equal claim to Torah provided he makes it the focus of his study and observance. When the Torah defined the purpose of the Torah, it wrote “in order that האדם, should perform its laws and live thereby.” The Torah did not write: “in order that a priest, a Levite, or an Israelite should perform its laws and live by it,” but it chose the all-embracing term האדם, (Leviticus 18,5).
It is worthwhile to compare what is written in Chronicles I 2,55 i.e. “the families of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez: the Tirathites, etc., etc., these are the Kenites who came from Hammath, father of the house of Rechav.” According to Tanchuma these people sat in the office of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, (on the Temple Mount), were members of it, studied, taught, and occupied positions of distinction. This proves how accessible Torah is and was to converts at all times. The words describing this are very similar to the ones used in the Torah (Deut. 27,9) where Moses exhorts the people to study Torah and to listen carefully to instruction in Torah. Some commentators even understand the word “the Tirathites” as a play on words, referring to people who had heard the sound of the Teruah at Mount Sinai (according to the view that Yitro arrived in the Jewish camp prior to the giving of the Torah). The “Kenites descended from Rechav” are definitely identified as descendants of Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law.
In Yuma 72 we are told that Betzalel constructed three Arks, the inner one of gold being eight handbreadths in height, the middle one, the wooden one, being nine handbreadths in height, whereas the golden outer one was slightly over ten handbreadths in height. To the question how much higher than ten handbreadths the outer Ark was, the Talmud answers זיר, a measurement of approx. the height to accommodate the kapporet to fit on the inside and yet leave a crest to form a sort of crown or border. [According to this view the kapporet must have been considerably thinner than a handbreadth. Ed.]
Rashi
My going about and my lying down You encompassed My way, my lying down, and my dwelling You have encompassed with a wall, for I can do nothing without Your knowledge. You encompassed heb. זרית, an expression of (Exod. 25:24): “a gold crown (זר).” Menachem associated it in this manner (p. 82). Our Sages, however, interpreted it (Nid. 31a, Mid. Ps. 139:3) as referring to the droplet of [semen, transmitted in] sexual intercourse, from whose choicest part the fetus is formed, and the meaning of זֵרִיתָ (זורה) is an expression of winnowing the grain to purify it of the refuse it contains.
Rashi
The lips of the wise crown knowledge יזרו, they crown knowledge, as in (Ex. 25: “a gold crown (זר).”
Rav Hirsch
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Disponível apenas para membros PremiumRashi
אמתים וחצי ארכה TWO CUBITS AND A HALF SHALL BE THE LENGTH THEREOF, as was the length of the ark, and its (the cover’s) breadth was as the breadth of the ark (i. e. of the inner wooden ark, cf. Rashi on v. 11); thus it rested on the thickness of its four walls. Although it does not assign any size for its (the cover’s) thickness our Rabbis have explained (applying to it a ג"ש) that the thickness thereof was one handbreadth (Sukkah 5a).