Building the Ark
The construction of the Ark is
commanded by God to Moses while the
Jews were still camped at Sinai (Ex. 25:10-22; 37:1-9). The Ark was a box with the dimensions
of two-and-a-half cubits in length, by one-and-a-half cubits in heights, by
one-and-a-half cubits in width (a cubit is about 18 inches). It was constructed
of acacia wood, and was plated with pure gold, inside and out. On the bottom of
the box, four gold rings were attached, through which two poles, also made of
acacia and coated in gold, were put. The family of Kehath, of the tribe of
Levi, would carry the ark on their shoulders using these poles.
 Artistic rendering of the Ark of the Covenant |
Covering the box was the kapporet,
a pure gold covering that was two-and-a-half by one-and-a-half cubits. Attached
to the kapporet were two sculpted Cherubs, also made of pure gold. The
two Cherubs faced one another, and their wings, which wrapped around their
bodies, touched between them.
The contents of the Ark has been
debated through the centuries. The general consensus is that the first tablets
containing the Ten Commandments,
which were broken by Moses, and the
second tablets, which remained intact, were contained in the Ark (Bava Batra
14b). According to one opinion in the Talmud, both
Tablets were together in the Ark; according to another, there were two Arks,
and each contained one set of Tablets (Berakhot 8b).
The Ark was built by Bezalel, son of
Uri, son of Hur, who constructed the entire Tabernacle – the portable Temple
used in the desert and during the conquest of the land of Israel. The
Tabernacle was the resting place for the Ark, and also contained other vessels
that were used in the physical worship of God. The Biblical commentators argue
over why God commanded
Moses to build
a Tabernacle in the first place: According to Rashi (Ex. 31:18), God
realized after the sin of the Golden Calf that the Israelites needed an outlet
for physical worship, and commanded that they build the Tabernacle as a way of
expressing their own need for physical representation of God. According to Nachmanides
(Ex. 25:1),
however, the Jews were commanded to build the Tabernacle even before the sin of
the Golden Calf; rather than filling a human need, the Tabernacle was God's
method of achieving continuous revelation in the Israelites' camp. These two
opinions as to whether the Tabernacles, and the Temples that followed them,
were an a priori necessity or a necessary evil demonstrate the
controversial role of physical worship in Judaism as a
whole.
The Ark was used in the desert and
in Israel proper for a number of spiritual and pragmatic purposes. Practically,
God used the Ark as an indicator of when he wanted the nation to travel, and
when to stop. In the traveling formation in the desert, the Ark was carried
2000 cubits ahead of the nation (Num. R. 2:9). According to one midrash, it would
clear the path for the nation by burning snakes, scorpions, and thorns with two
jets of flame that shot from its underside (T. VaYakhel, 7); another midrash says that
rather than being carried by its bearers, the Ark in fact carried its bearers
inches above the ground (Sotah 35a). When the Israelites went to war in
the desert and during the conquering of Canaan, the Ark accompanied them;
whether its presence was symbolic, to provide motivation for the Jews, or
whether it actually aided them in fighting, is debated by commentators.
Spiritually, the Ark was the
manifestation of God's physical presence on earth (the shekhina).
When God spoke with Moses in the
Tent of Meeting in the desert, he did so from between the two Cherubs (Num. 7:89). Once
the Ark was moved into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, it was
accessible only once a year, and then, only by one person. On Yom Kippur,
the High Priest (Kohen
Gadol) could enter the Holy of Holies to
ask forgiveness for himself and for all the nation of Israel (Lev. 16:2).
The relationship between the Ark and
the shekhina
is reinforced by the recurring motif of clouds. God's presence is frequently
seen in the guise of a cloud in the Bible (Ex. 24:16), and
the Ark is constantly accompanied by clouds: When God spoke from between the
Cherubs, there was a glowing cloud visible there (Ex. 40:35); when
the Jews traveled, they were led by the Ark and a pillar of clouds (Num. 10:34); at
night, the pillar of clouds was replaced by a pillar of fire, another common
descriptor of God's appearance (Ex. 24:17); and
when the High Priest entered presence of the Ark on Yom Kippur,
he did so only under the cover of a cloud of incense, perhaps intended to mask
the sight of the shekhina
in all its glory (Lev. 16:13).
The holiness of the Ark also made it
dangerous to those who came in contact with it. When Nadav and Avihu, the sons
of Aaron, brought
a foreign flame to offer a sacrifice in the Tabernacle, they were devoured by a
fire that emanated "from the Lord" (Lev. 10:2).
During the saga of the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, numerous people,
including some who merely looked at the Ark, were killed by its power.
Similarly, the Priests who served in the Tabernacle and Temple were told that
viewing the Ark at an improper time would result in immediate death (Num. 4:20).
The Ark accompanied the Jews
throughout their time in the desert, traveling with them and accompanying them
to their wars with Emor and Midian. When the Jews crossed into the land of
Canaan, the waters of the Jordan River miraculously split and the Ark led them
through (Josh. 3).
Throughout their conquest of the land, the Jews were accompanied by the Ark.
The most dramatic demonstration of its power comes when the Jews breached the
walls of Jericho merely by
circling them, blowing horns and carrying the Ark (Josh. 6).
After the conquest was completed,
the Ark, and the entire Tabernacle, were set up in Shiloh (Josh. 18) . There
they remained until the battles of the Jews with the Philistines during the
Priesthood of Eli. The Jews, after suffering a defeat at the Philistines'
hands, took the Ark from Shiloh to Even-Ezer in hopes of winning the next
battle. But the Jews were routed, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines.
Back in Shiloh, Eli, the High Priest, immediately died upon hearing the news (I Sam. 4).
The Philistines took the Ark back to
Ashdod, their
capital city in the south of Canaan, where they placed it in the temple of
their god Dagon. The next day, however, they found the idol fallen on its face.
After replacing the statue, they found it the next day decapitated, with only
its trunk remaining, and soon afterward, the entire city of Ashdod was
struck with a plague. The Philistines moved the Ark to the city of Gath, and
from there to Ekron, but whatever city the Ark was in, the inhabitants were
struck with plague. After seven months, the Philistines decided to send the Ark
back to the Israelites, and accompanied it with expensive gifts. The Ark was
taken back to Beit Shemesh, and, according to midrash, the oxen pulling the Ark
burst into song as soon as it was once again in Israel's possession (A.Z.
22b). The actual text of the story, however, tells a much grimmer tale: The men
of Beit Shemesh were punished for staring disrespectfully at the Ark, and many
were killed with a plague.
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From Beit Shemesh, the Ark was
transported to Kiryat Yearim, where it remained for twenty years. From there, King David
transported it to Jerusalem.
En route, however, the oxen pulling it stumbled, and when Uzzah reached out to
steady the Ark, he died immediately. As a result of this tragedy, David decided
to leave the Ark at the home of Obed-edom the Gittite. Three months later, he
moved it to Jerusalem,
the seat of his kingdom, where it remained until the construction of the First Temple
by David's son Solomon (I Sam. 5-6).
When the Ark was finally placed in the Temple, the midrash reports
that the golden tree decorations that adorned the walls blossomed with fruit
that grew continuously until the Temple's destruction (Yoma 39b).
THE TEMPLE
The crowning achievement of King
Solomon's reign was the erection of the magnificent Temple (Hebrew- Beit
haMikdash) in the capital city of ancient Israel - Jerusalem.
His father, King
David, had wanted to build the great Temple a generation earlier, as a
permanent resting place for the Ark of the
Covenant which contained the Ten
Commandments. A divine edict, however, had forbidden him from doing so:
"You will not build a house for My name," God said to David,
"for you are a man of battles and have shed blood" (I
Chronicles 28:3).
 Artists rendering of Solomon's Temple |
According to the Tanach (II Chronicles):
3:3- "The length by cubits after the ancient measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits".
3:4- "And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold."
Solomon spared no expense for the building's creation. He ordered vast quantities of cedar wood from King Hiram of Tyre (I Kings 5:2025), had huge blocks of the choicest stone quarried, and commanded that the building's foundation be laid with hewn stone. To complete the massive project, he imposed forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts that sometimes lasted a month at a time. Some 3,300 officials were appointed to oversee the Temple's erection (5:2730). Solomon assumed such heavy debts in building the Temple that he is forced to pay off King Hiram by handing over twenty towns in the Galilee (I Kings 9:11).
When the Temple was completed, Solomon inaugurated it with prayer and sacrifice, and even invited nonJews to come and pray there. He urged God to pay particular heed to their prayers: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" (I Kings 8:43).
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As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, its most important room contained almost no furniture at all. Known as the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Kodashim), it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark of Covenant. Unfortunately, the tablets disappeared when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and, therefore, during the Second Temple era the Holy of Holies was reduced to small, entirely bare room. Only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter this room and pray to God on behalf of the Israelite nation
Jerusalem
Psalm 51
8 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psalm 122
A Song of Ascents. Of David.1 I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’
2 Our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together.
4 To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For there the thrones for judgement were set up,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
‘May they prosper who love you.
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THE EARTH
Psalm 89.11:
The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in it—you have founded them.
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
THE WAILING WALL
ANGLICAN SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF
WALSINGHAM
“A HOUSE WITHIN A HOUSE”
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