Astounding Testimony

This week’s double portion of Vayakel-Pekuday concludes the book of Shemot. This Torah portion describes in detail the construction of the portable temple, משכן, “ the Mishkan,” and its furniture as well as the manufacturing of the clothes worn by the High Priest and the regular priests. One of the pieces of furniture brought into the Mishkan by Moshe was the ארון העדת, “the Ark of Testimony.” (Shemot 40:21) Why was it so named? What “testimony” or “evidence” did Moshe place inside this ark or chest before he brought it into the Mishkan? (Shemot 40:20) Forget about everything you saw or think about the Ark after seeing the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The film is entertaining. Its vivid images awaken our imagination; but they have nothing to do with the Ark of Testimony described in our Torah.

There is, however, something spectacular and astonishing about the contents of this Ark. It contained the broken pieces of the first set of “Stone Tablets” and the whole, second set of “Stone Tablets.” Both were given by God to Moshe on Mount Sinai. (Shemot 31:18 and 34:1) Later, before his death, Moshe instructs the priests to put a completed scroll of the Torah inside the Ark as well. (Devarim 31:24-26) In his “Guide for the Perplexed,” Maimonides gives us a big hint, an insight, into the nature of these “Stone Tablets” and how they would serve as testimony. Testimony for what? My good friend, Rabbi Marshall Giser, in his book, “Secrets of the Bible,” pen name, Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim, (pp. 181-196) expounds on these issues. I will briefly summarize his insights below.

 In the “Guide,” Book I, Chapter 66, Maimonides explains the verse, “… and the tablets were the work of God,” (Shemot 32:15) to mean they were the product of nature, not of art. Maimonides goes on to show from various figures of speech used in Psalms that descriptive terms such as “the work of Your fingers,” or “written by the finger of God,” are identical to “written by the word of God.” All these expressions mean, “created by God’s will.” These terms  are employed to convey an act of nature, natural causes, or processes. Maimonides concludes by reminding us that Pirkey Avot, Chapter 5, Mishnah 8 states, “Ten things were created late Friday afternoon: …the writing and Tablets, are two of those ten things.”

The experience of Mt Sinai was a once in a universe event. It will never happen again. How would the truth be proven to all mankind, forever, that God, creator of the universe, gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Har Sinai? What possible testimony or evidence could there be, could exist, to substantiate this fact?

Here is where the phenomena of the Stone Tablets become so crucial. As we know from today’s science, the universe is some 13 billion years old. The great Torah scholars from the time of Moshe knew the creation of the universe did not take place in the span of 6, 24-hour days. A very simple proof is that the sun, moon, and stars by which we calculate days, and the passage of time weren’t in place until “day 4.” So how long were days 1-3? These Torah scholars did not know our physics, but they understood from the science they had that the universe works by laws and nature involves intricate processes spanning exceedingly lengthy periods of time. “The universe is full of God’s glory/wisdom.”

These Stone Tablets were made of pure, translucent sapphire. Forming inside the sapphire stones were the crystalized words of the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Statements. (“Ten Commandments” is the non-Jewish term. In fact, there are more than ten commandments in these Ten Statements) Like Maimonides says, “These Stone Tablets were the work of nature.” Millions of years elapsed for them to be produced. What greater evidence, for all time, could there be that God of the universe, indeed, met with the people of Israel at Mt Sinai?

Moshe was presented by God with naturally produced sapphire stones, visibly inscribed on the inside, with the very Ten Statements the Jewish people heard at Mt Sinai.  How remarkable! These Tablets are unequivocal evidence establishing the enduring relationship between God of the universe, mankind in general and the people of Israel in particular.  

Moshe was told to build a chest into which he would place these remarkable, testimonial stones. Both the broken set of Tablets as well as the second set were hewn from the same sapphire quarry. Both sets were inscribed from the inside with the words of the Ten Statements. They are the astounding, incontrovertible evidence/testimony that God instructs Moshe to place in the Ark. It is at that point this chest becomes the Ark of Testimony and is brought into the Mishkan.

The Mishkan was where Moshe continued his communication with God throughout the nation’s 40 years of living in the desert. The Ark remained in the Mishkan with the nation of Israel until the building of the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Then, King Solomon had the Ark of Testimony placed inside the Temple’s chamber, the Holy of Holies.

This Shabbat we invoke God’s blessings for the coming month of Nissan, the month of Pesach, when we celebrate our liberation from Egypt. Let us be mindful that it is the Creator of the universe who redeemed us from Egypt. 50 days later, at Mt Sinai, the Creator spoke Ten Statements to all the assembled Jews. The evidence or proof of this fact resides, to this day, in the Ark of Testimony resting within the Temple Mount.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Robert Kaplan