R. David Kasher on Parashat Terumah: Holy Containers

Ta Shma

This week, we are introduced to what will become the holiest object in the Hebrew Bible, although it is not really so much an object as it is a container. The Ark will occupy the innermost sanctum of the mishkan, the “Holy of Holies,” and it is from above the Ark that God communicates with Moshe (see Exodus 25:22). The camp of Israel was centered around it at rest, and carried it with them as they marched through the wilderness. A midrash, however, notices that this Ark, the Aron ha-Edut, was not the only aron the Children of Israel carried with them through the wilderness.