ויעש בצלאל את הארון, “Betzalel constructed the Ark.” It is well known that the Ark was the most sacred of all the furnishings of the Tabernacle. This is the reason why the Torah mentions Betzalel’s name in connection with the construction of the Ark, seeing that he was the one who possessed most of this divine spirit with which G’d endowed all the participants in the work of constructing the Tabernacle. (Compare the adjectives the Torah lavished on his insights in 35,31). Furthermore, the construction of the Ark required that the person making it entertained specific thoughts while making it. Seeing that construction of the other furnishings did not demand that the craftsman engaged in making it entertained specific thoughts, the Torah contented itself with simply writing: “he made it,” (the table) or (the lampstand), etc. without mentioning who it was who made it.”

It is worth knowing that the sequence in which the furnishings of the Tabernacle are reported here was also the sequence in which the furnishings of Solomon’s Temple were constructed. The Ark was positioned in the Holy of Holies, on the far side of the dividing curtain, פרוכת. The table was positioned on the near side of that curtain on the north side of the heychal. The lampstand was positioned on the south side of the heychal, whereas the altar for incense, the “golden” altar, was positioned between the two former, slightly forward towards the entrance of the Tabernacle. This was in order that the priest entering the heichal should encounter it as the first item after he entered in order to perform the cleaning out of the ashes of the altar. This took place before five of the lamps on the lampstand would be replaced with new wicks each morning. The sequence of these rituals was determined by the principle אין מעבירים על המצות, that one does not ignore the performance of a commandment which is incumbent upon one if one encounters the opportunity to fulfill it immediately. We find another allusion to the four-lettered holy name of G’d in these four paragraphs. The letter י of that name is symbolized by the height (10 handbreadths) of the Holy Ark together with its lid, the כפורת. The table in the northern part of the Sanctuary which represents מלכות, which receives its divine input from the fifth emanation, גבורה, an emanation on the “left” side of the diagram of emanations, represents the attribute of Justice. It is symbolized in the holy name of G’d by the first letter ה. This is the reason that the Torah mentioned the position of the table prior to the position of the lampstand. The lampstand with its six shafts (arms) in addition to the central stem represents the letter ו in the holy name of G’d. Finally, the altar for incense which was covered with solid gold, represents the final letter ה in the holy name of G’d. The function of the incense is to counter the attribute of Justice when it is active. We know this from Deut. 33,10 ישימו קטורה באפיך, “they will place incense to counter Your anger, etc.”

Having learned all this you need not be surprised at the statement of our sages in Berachot 55 that Betzalel knew how to manipulate or combine the letters in the alphabet employed by G’d when he created the universe. The letter י alludes to חכמה, wisdom, whereas the letter ה alludes to the celestial region it derives from, עולם האצילות. The letter ו alludes to the emanation בינה, (the one next to חכמה), whereas the final letter ה in that name refers to the concept of דעת, [according to some Kabbalists a combination of the former two emanations, eliminating the emanation מלכות from the diagram we are more familiar with. Ed.] This is what the Torah had in mind (31,3) when G’d said of Betzalel ואמלא אותו רוח אלוהים בחכמה, ובתבונה, ובדעת, “I will fill him with divine spirit, with wisdom, insight, and knowledge.” The three words refer to the three emanations we have mentioned.

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.]