Parshat Terumah: Wherefore 'Ark' Thou?

 I don't remember the precise date, but it must have been in the late summer of 1981, perhaps even into the early weeks of the new school year. My parents took me to see a new film at the cinema. I recall that it was unusual for the three of us to go to the 'pictures' together as my mother had a preference for the theatre. However, the three of us saw the film at either the Golders Green ABC or the Hendon Classic, both of which are sadly long gone.

I remember the thrill I felt watching the film. It was simply fabulous! The hero, the heroine, the action and the dénouement were unforgettable. If you've ever seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on a giant cinema screen, you'll know exactly what I mean! Memories are made from occasions like these.

In hindsight, I expect that part of my fascination with the Mishkan, The Tabernacle and the Batei Mikdash, The Temples along with their artefacts could find its origins in this week's Parsha. I could talk about the subject until the red heifers come home (they're more biblical than cows!) but I'll focus instead on just one object - the Aron Habrit or Ark of the Covenant as many of us refer to it.

I'm going to try to answer three questions about the Ark.

Firstly, what was it?

 Secondly, what was placed inside it?

And finally, where is it now?

The first two are relatively easy to answer as they can be located in the texts. The third however, as Indiana Jones and other non-fictional individuals have discovered, is a much more difficult riddle to solve.

In tackling the first question, we read about the instructions on how to construct the Ark at the start of this week's Parsha after Gd instructs Moshe to create the Mishkan, the Tabernacle.

 

Exodus 25:8-9

They shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst. Form the Tabernacle and form all of its furnishings, following the patterns that I show you.

The next verses describe in intricate details the form and measurements of the Ark. The following is taken from the Artscroll book: "The Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Its Structure and Its Sacred Vessels" by Rabbi Avraham Biderman.

The Ark consisted of three separate rectangular boxes according to Rashi. The outer box was shaped out of pure gold. A middle box, made of acacia wood, would then fit snugly inside and into this middle box, another smaller golden box was nested so that the outer and inner boxes were gold. The exposed edge of the middle wooden box was then covered with a gold plate. Surrounding the outer rim of the largest box was a small golden diadem or crown-like gold filigree which formed the perimeter of the unit. Two large golden rings were placed on either side of the outer box to allow the insertion of two golden staves. This made the ark portable. As we know, the golden cover held the Keruvim or Cherubs whose wings rose over their  respective heads and met each other in a mirror image. It was quite a sight to see.

So far, so good. 

Question two is relatively easy to answer, although there is some disagreement amongst Chazal as to the exact contents.

What did the Ark hold?

1. 1.     The first set of luchot, namely the broken tablets. Baba Batra 14a suggests that these were stored in a second ark which travelled in front of the Israelites and was used when they went into battle in the desert.
2. 2.     The second set of luchot/tablets that Moshe brought down from Mount Sinai on the day that would henceforth be commemorated as Yom Kippur.
3. 3.     A Torah Scroll that Moshe wrote (again, there is disagreement as the same source in Bava Batra states that it was not placed inside the Ark but on a shelf alongside it.
4. 4. Finally, a jar of Manna.

Additionally, Aaron's staff and a jar of anointing oil were placed in front of the Ark. This leads us to the third question - where is the Ark now and I can tell you where it is not! 

It certainly is not stored in a wooden crate somewhere in a warehouse in the United States. Despite Steven Spielberg's imaginative rendering of its fate and its cameo appearance in the last sequel, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull in 2008. One needs to wait until next year to view Indy's latest non-Spielberg outing. It might even make a reappearance!

I also don't think it's sitting in Ethiopia either.

I remember spending the month of Tishri in Israel in 1993 reading Graham Hancock's wildly speculative account "The Sign and the Seal". It posits the theory that Menelik, the result of the union between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, took the Ark from the First Temple down to his kingdom in Ethiopia and it has been guarded by a succession of zealous monks in the highland town of Axum where it is housed in the chapel of Axum Tsion St. Mary of Zion. 

We do know that it was hidden because the Tanach tells us as much (according to some):

Chronicles II 35:3

Yoshiyahu (Josiah) instructed the Levites who taught all Israel and were holy to the Lord, “Place the Holy Ark in the House that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; as you no longer carry it on your shoulders, see now to the service of the Lord  your Gd and His people Israel

To which the Tosefta commentator in Messechet Sota  adds:

‘…when the Ark was hidden, also buried with it was the jar of manna, the anointing oil, Aaron’s staff…they were all in the Temple…and who hid them? King Josiah (who hid) everything that he saw in the Kodesh Hakodashim…he instructed the Levites [thus] and they hid it (as per the verse above)…so that it wouldn’t go up to Babylon like the other holy vessels’

For the record, Josiah's rule started nearly 300 years after Solomon, so unless Menelik had particularly hardy genes, he would have had quite a job walking off with the Ark!

There is a story related in the Talmud that its location might have been discovered by a Cohen during his duties in the Chamber of the Wood (where they prepared the wood to be used on the Altar) but when he went to notify another priest, he died. I guess it was meant to stay hidden.

In conclusion, I can only speculate that it is still somewhere on the Temple Mount waiting for the appropriate time to be discovered. I might even have been a few meters away from it relatively recently.

In the Summer of 2016, when I was studying for my Semicha, the Montefiore Endowment very generously provided us with a wonderful all-expenses paid trip to Israel. On one of our tiyulim (outings), we visited Ir David- The City of David archaeological complex just south of the Kotel. It contains the remains of the original City of David and descends into the village of Silwan at the foot of the mountain. As trainee Rabbis, we were treated to a fascinating in-depth tour of the site, which would not usually be accessible to other visitors. 

As we made our way up the hill underground, we walked parallel to Hezekiah's tunnel and passed Warren's Shaft, a vertical shaft that descends from the upper part of the hill down to a location near the Gihon spring. It is believed that this may have been the aperture through which King David was able to enter Jerusalem and defeat the Jebusites. We soon came across an opening in the tunnel floor from which was protruding a vertical ladder. We climbed down into a large, cavernous enclosure which might have been a reservoir. We looked around and our guide pointed us towards a wall on the north-eastern side. He told us that he believed that behind this wall lay a tunnel which held the Ark of the Covenant waiting to be discovered.

I don't know if he was correct and to this day, I wonder how close I may have been to the holiest object in our history. When Moshiach arrives, Please Gd very soon, we will surely find out!

Shavuah Tov.