Which Ark?

Way back in the first week of February, during Parshat Yitro, we arrived at Har Sinai. We've been there ever since -- through the second half of Sefer Shmot, all of VaYikra, until today, in Perek yud. At the beginning of Chamishi, it's now just after our first Pesach after leaving Mitzrayim, two days after Lag b'Omer, and we're finally ready to be on the move.

That perek concludes with the familiar verses: Va-hi binsoa ha-Aron, va-yomer Moshe. You may have heard me singing different words when opening the Aron. Today, I'll tell you why.

I) The verses between the "nun"s

Heavenly Torah as Refracted Through the Generations, Abraham Joshua Heschel (Gordon Tucker, ed. & trans.). "Now, two verses in Numbers (10:35-36) are written as a separate unit, bracketed by inverted nuns....A source from the eleventh century comments: "Some midrashim explained the reason for the inverted nuns as follows: The whole Torah is devoted to the prophecy of Moses, except for these two verses, which are the prophecy of Eldad and Medad." And Midrash Proverbs repeats the "separate book" view with a twist: "Rabbi says, 'It was a separate book that was suppressed.'" This hints that the two verses are the remnant of a larger work of prophecy of Eldad and Medad, that was suppressed. This view, that the prophecy of Eldad and Medad was written in a separate book, will explain the mysterious phrase in the Torah: "The spirit rested upon them [Eldad and Medad], and they were among those that were written" (Numbers 11:26)....In my humble opinion, there are grounds for surmising that another fragment of the "book of Eldad and Medad" is preserved in the Babylonian Talmud and Genesis Rabbah. According to one of the great masters of Aggadah, Rabbi Isaac Nappaha, a second-generation Amora of the Land of Israel, at the time of breaking camp, when Moses would say, "Arise O Adonai" (Numbers 10:35), the Israelites would respond as follows:

Raise yourself up, O acacia wood,

carry your splendor like a banner,

You who are decorated with gold,

And are enshrined in the royal palace,

(Shrouded between the cherubim,)

and adorned with the most precious of ornaments.

(BT Avodah Zarah 24b; Genesis Rabbah 54:4)

This poem is a pearl without price. It bears the stamp of antiquity. "Without a doubt,Rabbi Isaac Nappaha did not say this out of his own head, but on the basis of tradition." But from what source did he get it? Perhaps the editor of Genesis Rabbah had the "Book of Eldad and Medad" before him.

The Zohar, Daniel Matt (trans.), Vol VIIII, at 535-7: "Rabbi El'azar said, "Here one should examine: נ (Nun) that is inverted, facing backward--why in two places here?¹ If you say, 'A bent נ (Nun)---well, it is known that a bent nun is female; and a straight one, totality of male and female. They have already established, regarding this place: 'As the ark journeyed.' But why is it turned backward like this?'"²...."But what is written previously? The ark of [Adonai]'s covenant journeyed before them a three days' distance to scout out a resting place for them (Numbers 10:33). As soon as the ark journeyed, nun journeyed above it---surely, Shekinah rests upon the ark. "Come and see: The love of the blessed Holy One is toward Israel; for even though they stray from the straight path, the blessed Holy One does not wish to abandon them, and He constantly turns His face toward them. Otherwise, they could not endure in the world. "Go and see: The ark journeyed before them a distance of three days, and nun remained inseparable from it, accompanying it. Due to the love of Israel, it turned its face toward them, turning away from the ark--like a gazelle who, when going, turns its face back to the place it has left. So, as the ark journeyed, nun turned its face toward Israel and its shoulders toward the ark."

1. According to Masoretic tradition, an irregularly shaped נ (Nun) is placed both before and after Numbers 10:35-36. Various traditions exist about the exact form of this nun, but here the Zohar intends a rightside-up nun, facing backward (as depicted in numerous Zohar manuscripts): These bracketing signs are based on a Hellenistic scribal device, and their original purpose here was either to designate this poetic couplet as a separate unit or to indicate that it is out of place. If the latter, then the couplet's proper place may have been immediately following the description of the journeying of the Tent of Meeting in Numbers 2:17.

2. One might also wonder why this sign consists of a bent נ (nun) rather than a straight (or final) ן (nun). Rabbi El'azar explains that the former symbolizes Shekhinah, whereas the latter symbolizes the union of Tif'eret and Shekhinah. The journeying of the ark represents the exile of Shekinah when she is separated from Tif'eret, so the bent nun appears here appropriately.

II) The context: verses leading up to the "nun"s

Ze'enah u Re'enah, Parshat Bamidbar, p. 692

(Translation by R. Moshe Faierstein)

This shows, as the Talmud writes, when a person is appointed a ruler on the earth, then they are placed as an evildoer, above in heaven. That is to say, when one is made a ruler in the community or the land, many people are envious of them. There are many opposed to them, and argue against them. The ruler wants to show their rulership against them, and through this, comes to sins and great arguments. They become an evildoer through this.

IV) That shattering sound

The final piece we need, is the dispute between Moshe and Yehoshua about the Egel ha-Zahav, just before shvirat ha-luchot: Was the sound from the camp, the sound of war, or the sound of Avodah Zarah?