torah: rabbi david etengoff

Tefillah: Soon in Beit Hamikdash!

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Our parasha contains the mitzvah to build the Aron Kodesh: They [the Jewish people] shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. (Shemot 25:10)

The Hebrew original of the words in this commandment, “v’asu aron atzai shittim” (“they shall make an ark of acacia wood”), is stated in the plural. Subsequently, however, each of the pasukim pertaining to the Holy Ark’s construction are written in the singular (25:11-17). Why? The Ramban quoted the mechilta, the halachic midrash to sefer Shemot, in his answer to our question: “[The details of the Holy Ark’s construction are written in the singular,] since Moshe [as an individual] had the status of the entire Jewish people.”

The Ramban continued his response with a fascinating insight based upon Midrash Shemot Rabbah 34:2: And it is possible that the text deployed the singular grammatical construct in order to suggest that the entire people were joined together, as if one, in the building of the Aron Kodesh, since it was “the holy place of the dwellings of the Most High” (Tehillim 46:5), and everyone strongly desired to have [a portion in] the Torah [which was represented by their involvement in the Aron Kodesh’s construction].

The statement, “the entire people were joined together, as if one,” is reminiscent of the famous pasuk that preceded kabbalat ha-Torah (receiving of the Torah):

“They journeyed from Rephidim, and they arrived in the desert of Sinai, and they encamped in the desert, and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain [Mt. Sinai].”

Rashi noted that the expression, “and Israel encamped,” is found in the singular construct rather than the plural, which we would have expected. He offered a midrash mechilta-based explanation that the singular form, denoting that they encamped there -—  “as one man with one heart — [for the purpose of receiving the Torah.]”

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