As a general rule, Judaism rejects physical manifestations of
spirituality, preferring instead to focus on actions and beliefs. Indeed, the
story of Judaism begins with Abraham who, according to ancient sources,
shattered the idols that were the conventional method of religious observance
at the time. Worship of graven images is harshly condemned throughout the Torah,
and perhaps the greatest sin the Israelites collectively committed was the
construction of the Golden Calf (in Ex. 32),
intended to serve as a physical intermediary between them and God.
Today, Jews do not venerate any holy relics or man-made symbols.
But in the history of the Jewish people,
there was one exception to this rule. One man-made object was considered
intrinsically holy - the Ark of the Covenant.
Constructed during the Israelites'
wanderings in the desert and used until the destruction of the First
Temple, the Ark was the most important symbol of the Jewish faith, and
served as the only physical manifestation of God on earth. The legends associated with
this object - and the harsh penalties ascribed for anyone who misuses it -
confirm the Ark's centrality to the Jewish faith of that period; the fact that
Jews and non-Jews alike continue to study and imitate it confirms its
centrality even today.
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.
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 kapporetwere 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 Batra14b). 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 Role of the Ark
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).
History of the Ark
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.
From Beit
Shemesh, the Ark was transported to Kiryat Yearim, where it remained for twenty
years. From there, King Davidtransported
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 Ark's Whereabouts
The Ark
remained in the Temple until its destruction at the hand of the Babylonian empire, led by Nebuchadnezzar. What happened to it
afterward is unknown, and has been debated and pondered for centuries. It is
unlikely that the Babylonians took it, as they did the other vessels of the Temple, because
the detailed lists of what they took make no mention of the Ark. According to
some sources, Josiah, one of the final kings to reign in the First Temple period, learned of the impending invasion of the
Babylonians and hid the Ark. Where he hid it is also questionable – according
to one midrash, he dug a hole under the wood storehouse on the Temple Mount and buried it there (Yoma 53b). Another account says that Solomon foresaw the eventual destruction of the Temple, and set
aside a cave near the Dead Sea, in
which Josiah eventually hid the Ark (Maimonides, Laws of the
Temple, 4:1).
One of
the most fascinating possibilities is advanced by Ethiopian Christians who
claim that they have the Ark today. In Axum, Ethiopia, it is widely believed
that the Ark is currently being held in the Church of Saint Mary of Zion,
guarded by a monk known as the "Keeper of the Ark," who claims to
have it in his possesion. According to the Axum Christian community, they
acquired the Ark during the reign of Solomon, when
his son Menelik, whose mother was the Queen of Sheba, stole the Ark after a
visit to Jerusalem. While
in the not-so-distant past the "Ark" has been brought out for
Christian holidays, its keeper has not done so for several years due to the
tumultuous political situation in the country. The claim has thus been
impossible to verify, for no one but the monk is allowed into the tent.
A more
plausible claim is that of archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer, who has conducted
research on the Temple Mount and inside the Dome of the Rock. He
claims to have found the spot on the Mount where the Holy of Holies was located
during the First Temple period. In the precise center of that spot is a section of
bedrock cut out in dimensions that may match those of the Ark as reported in Exodus. This
section of the mount, incidentally, is the one from which the creation of the
world began, according to midrash (T. Kedoshim, 10). Based on his
findings, Ritmeyer has postulated that the Ark may be buried deep inside the Temple Mount.
However, it is unlikely that any excavation will ever be allowed on the Mount
by the Muslim or Israeli authorities.
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