Two Sets of Tablets (and 2 Arks)

Parshat Ki Tisa

By Rabbi Avi Billet

After Moshe breaks the Luchot (first set of Tablets), he is graced with a unique aura that raises his status in the eyes of the people. First he is forced to take his tent some distance outside of the camp (2000 cubits – see Targum Yonatan) because God’s presence leaves from amongst the people. (33:7-11)

At the end of the parsha, when he descends with the second set of Luchot (34:29-35) his face is shining to the point that no one can look at him. He must wear a mask in order for people to be in his presence because they cannot perceive his face, a face which has seen the Divine.

Beyond an effort to seek and provide a neutral ground for the devout who honestly seek the presence of God (Targum Yonatan and others), what is the significance of Moshe’s tent, which is now called an “Ohel Moed” (Tent of Meeting)? Did the original storage of the Luchot (broken and replacement) contribute to the formulation of this “Ohel Moed”? Did this episode redefine, in any way, the purpose of the Mishkan?

The episode indicates that Moshe’s tent was literally a spiritual center, a place of inspiration, where a cloud descended to demonstrate the presence of the Divine which was no longer entering the camp (Ramban). That Moshe conversed with the Divine “face to face” and that Yehoshua never left the tent, indicates that these leaders are uniquely endowed spiritually, and that their “hangout” is a preview of the Mishkan that will soon be built. More than a preview, perhaps it is actually the Mishkan 1.0 (see Ibn Ezra HaArokh), while the model which will be made by Betzalel will be Mishkan 2.0.

We can infer from Moshe's depiction of what happened to the Luchot after he brought them down from the mountain that Moshe’s tent became the first Mishkan (Devarim 10:1-5). He explains that he had been instructed to make an ark out of wood and to place the Luchot in them. Where was this ark stored? Most likely it was stored in Moshe’s tent. So if the cloud descended on the tent, Moshe communicated with God, and the Ark with its Luchot was there, Moshe’s tent now seems to be a functioning Mishkan. (See Shmot 25:22, Bamidbar 7:89, Shmot 24:15-18 and Shmot 40:31).

Most of the commentaries agree that the ark in this discussion was a different ark from the one which would eventually adorn the mishkan. This is especially true, as Rashi in Devarim 10:1 points out, because work on Betzalel’s Mishkan only began after Yom Kippur (when Moshe came down with Luchot II), and the Mishkan parts themselves, the actual physical structure of the building, were constructed before the golden Ark was made. In other words, a longer-term storage solution for the Luchot (as in, for several months) was necessary until the Mishkan could be finalized.

Enter the ark mentioned in Devarim 10 which was unique because it was made only of wood, without gold. And while Ramban in Devarim 10:1 indicates it had a cover, he also posits that this ark was made only for the second Luchot. The first Luchot never had a box made directly for them because they were not meant to last – God “knew all along” that they would be broken. Furthermore, assuming for a moment that the first Luchot were not supposed to break, they would still not need a box to store them, as they can be credited with storing themselves. (Or haChaim)

The fate of Moshe’s special Ark seemed to be that it was buried some time after the Mishkan’s ark was created to replace it, to hold the Luchot and the broken Luchot. There is a debate as to whether it was taken out to war, or if it was captured during the time of Eli the High Priest. But it was not meant to be a long-lasting solution. It was never meant to be more than a temporary solution, a short-term storage box (in the grander scheme of history) for God’s gift to the Israelites, the gift of the Luchot.

We can make the argument that the post-Golden Calf era was so tainted by the Golden Calf episode, to the point that the original Mishkan commandments became obsolete. Maybe Moshe’s moving his tent, which became the interim Mishkan, outside the camp, symbolically indicated God’s disappointment and the need for the people to see that spirituality in a vacuum, when defined by the feelings of the people and not by what God intended, can only lead to a spiritual center in which everything but the rawest basics needs to be stripped away and removed lest people think that the gold and the vestments and the animals are what service of God is all about.

Service of God can be achieved through the most simple of methods, without show and fanfare, when we understand that “All who sought God could go out to the Tent of Meeting that was outside of the camp.” (33:7)

Service of God, in its basic form, is never about bells and whistles and all the trimmings of religious political activism. It is about me having a relationship with The Creator, or about you having a relationship with The Creator. It is about creating a home where the broken Luchot and the replacement Luchot share a space, even if it is a simple wooden box unadorned by any precious metals, because both covenants – as represented by each set of Luchot – speak to God’s changing patience and to the frailties of humans who may mistakenly think they know what God wants and what is the best way to serve Him.

Our task is to look to His book as a guide and to do our best, with the utmost unbridled sincerity, untainted by agenda driven practices, to get close to Him. Because if it doesn’t pass the simple smell-test of historical genuineness, it might be an aberration as damaging as the Golden Calf, which set the people back to the basics of Mishkan building - with an edifice as simple as Moshe's tent converted to become a Mishkan. Through this the people could now understand that all the gold, silver and copper was meaningless in the service of God if the people using it were misguided in how to properly use the precious materials to achieve such an end.

Betzalel’s Mishkan, as it were, was then constructed with one phrase repeated over and over: with everything being made and done (and therefore utilized) “Exactly as God had commanded Moshe.” Not changing anything because the times demanded it. But doing it exactly right because that is what God intended.