Temples and pyramids, as we already know, are the collecting lenses of the primary matters of the earth and space or the life potential of the parishioners, which allows the leader to control the flock. The system of such temples creates a common superorganism that interacts with each believer, collecting potential from it, giving, in case of need, strength to capture or defend against enemies. The First Ark of the Covenant is such a collecting lens that gathered the potential of the Jews and led these biorobots through foreign countries in order to seize gold and silver, killing dissenting and opposing. In addition, the Jews were given the Torah (the beaten path) on how to properly seize foreign territories and enslave nations. The most interesting thing is that in the Cathedral of the Savior (supposedly Orthodox), the same ritual is used on all church Judeo-Christian holidays. A. Sklyarov even removed the doc.film "The Ark of the Covenant: Ethiopian Trail. Forbidden Themes of History". I invite everyone to think carefully about the essence of this ritual and put another puzzle in the real picture of the world. - Elena Bittner.
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT (in the Bible it is usually אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית, aron ha-brit, also אֲרוֹן הַעֵדֻת, aron ha-'edut - 'the ark of the testimony'), a chest in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and the First Temple, in which the Tablets of the Covenant were kept; the most sacred object of these sanctuaries. In the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant is also named descriptively: “The Ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth” (Ib. 3:13), “The Ark of the God of Israel” (I Sam. 5: 8), “The Ark of the Covenant of God” (Judges 20:27), "The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh host (Sabaoth), seated on *** uvimah" (I Sam. 4: 4), "The Ark of the Power of God" (Ps. 132: 8), etc. Only once is the Ark of the Covenant named aron ha -kodesh (אֲרוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ, 'Sacred ark', see II Chr. 35: 3) and often just aron (literally 'chest').
According to the book of Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant (like the tabernacle, its utensils and priestly garments) was made according to the exact instructions of God given to Moses (25: 9-28: 43). The Ark of the Covenant was two and a half cubits (about 1.25 m) in length, one and a half cubits (about 75 cm) in width and height, was made of shittim wood (acacia?), "Lined inside and out with pure gold", and its upper edge was a "golden crown". The same wood was used to make the gold-studded carrying poles of the Ark, threaded through the gold rings at its corners. On the lid (kapporet) of the Ark of the Covenant, made of gold, on the edges were placed *** wimim made of gold, with their faces turned to each other and with "outstretched wings covering the kapporet", as if guarding the Ark and the Tablets in it.
The clearest expression of the holiness of the Ark of the Covenant was God's promise to Moses to appear “in a cloud above the kapporet” (Lev. 16: 2) and “to open up there and speak over the kapporet between the two *** uvim who are above the ark of testimony” (Ex. 25:22)). Looking at or touching the Ark of the Covenant was considered life-threatening (Num. 4:15; II Sam. 6: 6,7 and others).
According to the biblical story, during the wanderings of the Israelites on the way to Canaan, the carefully covered Ark of the Covenant was carried by the Kohanim (see Cohen) or the Levites from the Khat family (Num. 4:15; Deut. 31: 9). Before carrying the Ark, Moses proclaimed: "Arise, Lord, and Thy enemies will be scattered, and Thy haters will flee from Thy face," and at the stops he said: "Return, Lord, to tens of thousands of thousands of Israelites" (Num. 10: 35: 36; cf. Ps. 132: 8).
With the beginning of the conquest of Canaan, the Ark of the Covenant was in the camp of the Israelites at Mount Eval (Ibn. 8:33: see also Gerizim), then in Beth-El (Judg. 20:27) and in Shilo (I Sam. 3: 3). In the battle of Even ha-'Ezer near the city of Mitzpe (see Mitzpah) in the allotment of Benjamin, the Philistines captured the Ark (ibid. 4:11). However, the calamities that befell the population of the cities of Ashdod, Gat and Ekron, where the Philistines tried to place the Ark, forced them to send it under Bet Shemesh to the Israelites (ibid., 5: 1-6: 12). When the inhabitants of this city paid with their lives for looking into the Ark left in the field, it was transported to Kiryat Ye'arim, where it remained for 20 years (ibid., 6: 19-7: 2).
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When, after the conquest of Jebus (see Jerusalem), David began to transport the Ark of the Covenant to the new capital, he was forced to place it for three months in the house of the Levite Obed Edom from Ghat, near whom God struck with death a certain Uzza for touching the Ark. so as not to let him fall off the cart when “the oxen [pulling it] stumbled” (II Sam. 6: 6-11). Then the Ark of the Covenant was solemnly transported to the City of David and placed “inside the tent that David had pitched for him” (ibid. 6: 2-5, 12-17).
From the City of David, the Ark of the Covenant was transferred to the Temple built by Solomon, who ordered to cut out of the olive tree and cover with gold *** uvim ten cubits high (about 5 m). Their five-meter wings “extended over the place of the Ark” (I Ts. 6: 23-28; 8: 6,7). According to II Chr. 35: 3, The Ark was still in the Temple at the time of Yoshiyahu. But he is not mentioned either among the “treasures taken out of the house of the Lord” during the reign of King Jehoyakhin, nor in the detailed list of sacred utensils captured by the Babylonians during the fall of Jerusalem (II Ts. 24:13, 25: 13-17). The legend about his taking to Babylonia was preserved only in Haggad (Ioma 53b).
The Ark of the Covenant is not mentioned in the list of utensils returned to Jerusalem by Cyrus (Ez. 1: 9-11). Legends about the fate of the Ark apparently began to take shape already in the 2nd century. BC e. According to one of them, the Ark was hidden in a cave on Mount Nebo (II Mac. 2: 5); Haggadic sources claim that it is hidden "in place" under the Evenstia (the so-called cornerstone of the universe) in the Holy of Holies or under the floor of the Wood-burning chamber of the Temple (Ioma 53b-54a; Shk. 6: 1,2). In the Second Temple there was no Ark of the Covenant (Yoma 21b), although the associated ritual of burning incense in the Holy of Holies in Yom Kippur continued to be observed (see Labor).
The synagogue ark (אֲרוֹן הַקֹּדֶש, aron ha-kodesh; הֵיכָל, hehal). In the interior of synagogues, the appearance of which researchers attribute to the last decades before the destruction of the First Temple (586 BC) or the first decades after that, the most important element symbolizing the Ark of the Covenant is the container for the Torah scrolls. In ancient times, this receptacle had either the shape of a niche (for example, the image on coins minted during the Bar Kokhba uprising, the niche of the original synagogue in Dura Europos, the earliest known to this day: late 2nd century - early 3rd century), or a remote chest, which was placed in such a niche or placed in the interior. In the early images of such a chest (wall paintings, graffiti, gilded glass dishes of the 3-4th century from the Jewish catacombs of Torlonia and Monteverde in Rome), the inner cells are clearly visible,in each of which a scroll is kept in a horizontal position.
In the Talmud, the chest for the Torah scrolls is usually called teva, and the niche in which such a chest or the scrolls itself is placed is hehal (literally 'palace' Toseph., Meg. 3: 5). In the 12th century, apparently, there already existed synagogue arks, which had the shape of a cabinet, in which Torah scrolls were placed, possibly vertically. On miniatures of manuscripts of the 14-15th centuries. of Spanish, Italian and German origin, images of such a tall bunk cabinet appear, sometimes not adjacent to the wall; scrolls were kept in the upper tier, and ritual utensils in the lower tier.
The decoration of synagogues and arks usually corresponded to the style of the era and surroundings and included purely Jewish elements: tetragrammaton, biblical verses, sayings of the Talmudic teachers, images of the facade of the Jerusalem Temple, Tablets of the Covenant, menorah, crown (Keter Torah), symbolic animals and birds raised in a gesture blessings of the hands of the kohanim, etc. A fragment of the attic with a Roman pediment and a part of the conch of a stone niche (obviously for the Torah scrolls) with bas-reliefs of lions in the attic was discovered in 1980 during excavations of a synagogue in the early 4th century. to Khirbat al-Nabbartain in the Upper Galilee (in the Talmud - Kfar-Nibboraya, Kt. 65a; TI. Br. 9: 1, 12d and others).
In the Middle Ages, synagogue arks ended with Gothic spiers, and the surface of the sides and doors were divided with carved panels. The arks of synagogues in Prague (Altneischul, 14th century), in Modena (1505) and Isfahan (three niches cut next to each other in a wall faced with patterned tiles, 1550?), As well as wooden synagogues of Poland, Lithuania and Germany 16-18 cc. An example of decoration in the style of the Renaissance is the two-tier painted Ark from Urbino (1550).
The Baroque ark of the Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam (1675) occupies almost the entire width of the nave. Arks of the same style were built in synagogues in Germany in the early 18th century. From there, this style soon spread to Eastern Europe. An example of an ark in the classicist style of the late 18th century. can serve as a wall-mounted ark at the Turo Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. Arks in the Moorish style (domes, arched vaults, multi-colored geometric patterns) were built from the middle of the 19th century; a typical example is the synagogue ark on Via Farini in Florence (1882). In the second half of the 20th century. both new and imitating the old forms of synagogues and the ark appear. Materials such as concrete, glass, metal, enamel and others are often used.
The synagogue ark is usually placed at the wall facing Eretz Yisrael, in Israel - towards Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem - towards the Temple Mount. In most modern synagogues, the ark is located on a dais, from the platform of which the kohanim bless the worshipers (see Birkat kohanim), and the rabbi or maggid delivers a sermon. Of all those who serve in the synagogue, only they (and also the one who carries the Torah scroll to the bim for reading) are allowed to stand with their backs to the ark while performing their duties.
In most synagogues, the ark was behind a veil (parochet), in memory of the one that separated the Holy of Holies from other parts of the Tabernacle and Temple. Embroidered with gold, silver and silk threads on velvet or silk, such curtains (already depicted on the wall paintings in Dura Europos, and also mentioned in the Talmud, for example, Meg. 26b) became one of the most decorated parts of the synagogue ark.
In many synagogues it is customary to light an eternal lamp (ner-tamid) in front of the sacred ark, symbolizing both the biblical menorah and the spiritual radiance emanating from the Jerusalem temple, and the light emitted by the Torah (cf. Ex. R. 36: 1).
Almost in all Jewish communities it is customary to keep the doors of the synagogue ark open when reciting the prayers of Kol Nidre and Ne'ila on Yom Kippur, Tal on Passover, Geshem on Sukkot, Avina Malkena on fasting days and on the Ten Days of Repentance (see Liturgy), a number of piuts - on the days of great holidays, as well as during the rite of hakkafot - in Simchat Torah. When the doors of the ark are open, worshipers usually stand. The Mishnah reports that during a prolonged drought, the synagogue ark was taken out to the city square, sprinkled with ashes and the prayers prescribed for such an occasion were recited (Ta'an 2: 1).
On the Ninth Av, the veil is removed from the ark, and in synagogues where it is not, the ark is covered with a black cloth. It is also common to open the doors of the ark and put your head between the Torah scrolls to offer up a personal prayer (for the healing of a seriously ill person, deliverance from threatening danger, resolution of doubts that overcome the soul, etc.).
In the everyday and rabbinic vocabulary of the Sephardic and Eastern Jews, the synagogue ark is denoted by the word hehal, and among the Ashkenazi - aron ha-kodesh, which is also found in the Talmud besides the Bible (Shab 32a).