Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

109
Teruma
The Poles of the Aron
Asriel Agronin
T he Torah says in this week’s parsha (Shemot 25:13-15):
ןראה תעלצ לע תועבטב םידבה תא תאבהו .בהז םתא תיפצו םיטש יצע ידב תישעו
.ונממ ורוסי אל םידבה ויהי ןוראה תועבטב .םהב ןראה תא תאשל
You shall make staves of shitim wood and cover them with gold; and
insert the staves into the rings on the sides of the aron; the staves shall
remain in the rings of the aron; they shall not be removed from it.
What is the importance of the םידב (poles) to the aron? Why is it forbidden to remove
the םידב from the aron? One might have thought that when the aron is not being
carried, the poles can be removed; but Rashi (25:15) says that you cannot remove
them forever. This is so important that the ארמג in אמוי תכסמ (72a) states “ריסמהו
הקול – ןורא ידב,“ one who removes the םידב from the rings gets lashes. Why is it so
important that the poles not be removed when the aron was not being transported?
It seems that the םידב were not just there in order to carry the aron. In fact, the kohanim
did not really even need to carry the aron at all! The ארמג in הטוס תכסמ quotes Sefer
Yehoshua (4:11-18) about this. It says that when the Jews were crossing the Jordan
River the aron and the kohanim carrying the aron ended up on the opposite side
of the river than that of the entire nation. At this point, the river had gone back to