TORAH SPARKS

 

Parashat Vayakhel

February 26, 2022, 25 Adar I 5782

Torah: Exodus 35:1-38:20; Triennial 36:20-38:20

Haftarah: II Kings 12:1-17

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ilana Kurshan

 

In the 1981 American adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark, archaeologist Indiana Jones vies with the Nazis to recover the Ark of the Covenant, featured in this week s parashah. The Ark, like all the Mishkan furnishings, was built to be portable, and ultimately it seems to have gone astray. No one knows the whereabouts of the Ark to this day, which is the premise for the Indiana Jones film as well as for an entire page of Talmudic speculation about sanctity, secrecy, and the service of God.

The Mishnah (Yoma 5:2) teaches that the Ark was already missing by the Second Temple period. The rabbis explain that in place of an Ark, the Holy of Holies in the Second Temple contained a rock that dated back to the time of David and Samuel. Since there was no ark on which the High Priest could place the pan with the incense on Yom Kippur, he would place it on this rock instead. It was only the First Temple that contained the Ark of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments inside though what happened to it subsequently is a subject of debate.

The rabbis discuss the whereabouts of the Ark in the sixth chapter of Shekalim, a Talmudic tractate named for the same half-shekel coin donation we read about in the special maftir reading for this week. They offer three opinions on the matter. First, Resh Lakish argues that the Ark was hidden in a tunnel under the Holy of Holies. He bases his argument on a verse from the first book of Kings (8:8) in which the poles of the Ark are described as being in the same place to this day, understand by the rabbis as a reference to all time suggesting that the Ark is sequestered in its place. The rabbis explain that the reason the Ark was not moved was on account of King Josiah the king of Judea in the seventh century BCE who was dismayed to discover the prophecy at the end of Deuteronomy that God will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your fathers, where you shall serve other gods of wood and stone (28:36). King Josiah feared that if the Ark were to go into exile with the people, the people would engage in idolatry and forsake the Ark. He thus hid it in its place. According to this understanding, the sanctity of the Ark is inherently tied to the place where it is located. Holiness is rooted in a particular location, and Torah the Ten Commandments contained in the Ark is meant to come forth from Zion.

In contrast to Resh Lakish, Rabbi Eliezer argues that the Ark was in fact exiled to Babylonia along with the Jewish people, who brought it with them. He bases his argument on a verse from the second book of Kings (20:17) in which Isaiah prophesied about the exile to King Hezekiah, stating, Behold the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylonia; no item shall be left, said the Lord. The term for item, davar, is understood as a reference to the Ten Commandments, the Aseret HaDibrot. And indeed, by the time of the Talmudic sages, Babylonia had become a major center of Torah learning, with yeshivot rivaling those in the land of Israel. According to Rabbi Eliezer s view, sanctity is not rooted in any centralized location; the Jewish people carry the holy Torah with them wherever they study it.

A third view about the whereabouts of the Ark is contained in Mishnah Shekalim (6:1), where we find a story about a priest who was once chopping wood for the altar in a side chamber of the Temple when he noticed that one of the paving stones was slightly higher than the rest. He went out to report on his discovery to a fellow priest, but he had not yet finished speaking when suddenly his soul departed from him, and they knew for sure that this was where the Ark was hidden. This priest, relegated to the back-breaking manual labor of chopping wood, was someone whose physical blemishes prevented him from engaging in the more glorified aspects of Temple service, like sacrificial worship. He worked in a chamber of the Temple known as the wood repository, where all the extra wood was prepared and stored. Perhaps this story is meant to teach us that holiness is not to be found in the Holy of Holies alone, but wherever we engage in divine service even if that service involves chopping wood in a peripheral, nondescript Temple chamber. This, too, is Torah, since the wood for the altar was necessary to bring sacrifices and thus to draw people closer to God.

What happened to the lost Ark? Is it still sequestered in place since the time of King Josiah? Did it follow the sages to Babylonia? Or does it make its presence known whenever we serve God? We may never solve the mystery of the Ark s whereabouts, but that mystery offers us a lesson about Torah s richness and multivalence. While we might associate Torah with fixed places, we may study it wherever we go; and any time we engage in divine service, we experience a revelation of sorts. We may all aspire to become raiders of the lost ark, bringing the Torah to light.

 

 

 

 

Between Enthusiasm and Law
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb

Text: Shemot 35:1-10

1And Moshe gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said to them, These are the words which the Lord has commanded you to do: 2Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. 3You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day. 4And Moshe spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying: 5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze  10 All who are gifted artisans among you shall come and make all that the Lord has commanded

●      Why do you think that Moshe gathers the entire congregation for what follows?

●      In last week s parashah, at the end of the instructions for building the Mishkan, there were instructions regarding keeping Shabbat. Now that we are returning to the actual building of the Mishkan (after the golden calf) we are again instructed about Shabbat. Why?

●      Why do you think that specifically the issue of fire on Shabbat is mentioned now?

 

Commentary: Ibn Ezra Second Commentary Shemot 35:1

And Moshe gathered – Moshe assembled the people so that all of them would hear, from him, the report about the tabernacle and would donate to its construction.

●      Why was it important in this case that all the people hear Moshe? How different would the experience have been would they have received a message through their local leaders? When do national leaders today follow similar patterns?

●      According to Ibn Ezra, is vs.1 an opening for the parashah or just for the topic of Shabbat? Why might we have thought otherwise? What do you think?

Commentary: R. Joseph Bechor Shor Shemot 35:2

Work shall be done for six days that which God commanded. But the seventh day shall be a holy day for you and even holy work shall not be done on it. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death– even though it is work for Heaven. 

●      According to this reading, why is a warning regarding Shabbat placed at this specific point?

●      Why might people have thought that work for the Mishkan would be permissible on Shabbat?

●      The last warning raises a question: Is there place for leniency when a transgression takes place out of positive, even holy, motives? Why is the negative side to taking such an approach? When might we be tempted to take such a course?

 

The King s New Clothes
Bex Stern Rosenblat

Seven years old was Jehoash when he became king. So reads the first verse of our haftarah in 2 Kings 12. We start with the king’s age. At only seven years old, he is the youngest king in the Tanakh. He s had a rough childhood. His father, the former king, was killed while fleeing from a fight. His grandmother killed all his relatives and tried to kill him in order to cement her rule after his father had died. He spends the first six years of his life in hiding from her. Just before our story starts, his uncle, the priest, puts him in king s clothing and stages a coup against his grandmother, who is killed in the process. And now, at the ripe old age of seven, Jehoash becomes king.

He s got help – Jehoiada, his uncle, the priest is behind him. We read, And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of God all his days, as Jehoiada the priest taught him. Jehoash goes on to reign for forty years. In the version of the story told in our haftarah, he does well because he is taught well. Despite his traumatic childhood and the murder of most of his family, Jehoash is still able to learn right from wrong and to use that knowledge to rule justly.

However, there is another version of this story that is told a little differently. Much of the Book of Kings is reproduced in Chronicles. Often the stories are retold exactly, word-for-word. However, sometimes there are small discrepancies, slightly altered versions of the stories to be found. That is the case for the story of Jehoash. In II Chronicles 24 we read, And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of God, all the days of Jehoiada. It s a small change, but rather than doing good for all of his days, Jehoash does good for all of Jehoiada s days. Here, Jehoash does not learn right from wrong, he does not grow from a seven-year-old into a responsible king. Rather, while someone responsible is dictating his actions, he is good, and once that person dies and he can make his own decisions, he makes the wrong ones.

These two versions of the story bring into relief the challenges of passing down traditions or values through forms. Jehoiada dresses Jehoash in the king s clothes. It is the fact that this clothing is worn that declares Jehoash as king. But the wearing of the clothing is not enough. It is only through the individualized teaching that comes in the first version of the story that tradition is successfully transmitted. Likewise, we read of the building of forms in this week s parashah, as the mishkan is constructed. As the story of the Mishkan continues to unfold in the next weeks, we will continue to see the danger of trusting forms to hold meaning, to be capable of passing down tradition, without adding teaching to the form.