Comentários de Citação sobre Josué 4:11

Because of his mistake. Because of his mistake, he should have expounded a fortiori [as follows:] the Ark carried its own porters in the Yardein,⁷When Bnei Yisroel crossed the Yardein into the land of Yisroel as stated in Yehoshua 4:11 and explained in Sotah, ibid. isn't it all the more so [that it is able to carry] itself.

One of the peculiarities of the Holy Ark which we must try and understand has been described in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer (chapter 4?) in connection with the Ark’s uncanny ability to carry its carriers as we know from Joshua 4,11. According to Rabbi Eliezer, just as the chayot appeared to be carrying (supporting) the throne of G’d whereas in fact the throne carried them (supported them), so something similar occurred with the people assigned to transport the Holy Ark. Our sages in Sotah 35 explained Joshua 4,11: “when all the people finished crossing, the Ark of the Lord carried its carriers and crossed with the priests ahead of the people.” There is another verse (Joshua 4,18) “the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Ark of the covenant were torn away onto dry ground, and the waters of the Jordan resumed their flow.” According to this the feet of the priests were torn away backwards, raising the question how the Ark crossed the Jordan river afterwards. The only explanation is that the Ark carried its carriers across subsequent to what was reported in verse 18. The operative letter enabling us to understand all this is the letter כ which is read instead of the letter ב which is written in the verse, i.e. בעלות. This is what was meant by the words in verse 11 “the Ark of the Lord crossed and the priests were in front of the people.” Had the author of the Book of Joshua meant that the priests crossed the river on foot, he would have had to write ויעברו, “they crossed.” Just as the throne of G’d carried the four chayot described in the vision of Ezekiel, so the Ark carried the four men who were assigned to carry it upon their shoulders. You find this spelled out in Menachot 98. We find that the Holy Ark is also referred to as אדון כל הארץ, “master of the whole earth,” in Joshua 3,11. This is so because the Shechinah cleaves to the Torah. You also find a verse in Chronicles II 6,41 in which the Ark and G’d are almost equated when Solomon said אתה וארון עוזך, “You and the Ark representing Your power.” The word עזיך, “Your might, or Your power,” is spelled with the letter י as if the word were in the plural. When we find the Ark described as ארון העדות, as “the Ark of testimony” in verse 22 the meaning is that the presence of the Ark is proof that the Shechinah is present in Israel (compare Shabbat 22). The sages in Baba Batra 99 stated that the Ark did not take up measurable space in the Temple. What they meant by this was that one of the miracles in connection with the Ark was that its presence did not diminish the space in the Tabernacle or Temple. [In other words it did not occupy the three-dimensional space which forms the basis of our measuring things. Ed.] This was another aspect in which the Ark paralleled the throne of G’d whose location or measurements we also do not know. This is why the angels are reported as formulating their blessing by saying ברוך ה' ממקומו “blessed be the Lord wherever His location” (compare Pessikta Zutrata).