What was the Ark of the Covenant and what was inside it?

How it was made

“They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high” (Exodus 25:10) – roughly 125 by 75 by 75 cm. It was overlaid with gold inside and out, carried by poles that were never removed, and covered by a solid gold lid (the kaporet) with two cherubim facing each other. God said: “There I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the cover, between the two cherubim” (Exodus 25:22).

What it contained

Moses placed the second tablets in it (Deuteronomy 10:5). The Talmud teaches that “the tablets and the fragments of the tablets were placed in the ark” – the broken first tablets were kept with the whole ones, a lesson that an old scholar who has forgotten his learning is still to be honoured. A Torah scroll written by Moses was placed beside it (Deuteronomy 31:26), and the sages add a jar of manna and Aaron’s staff, which were set “before the testimony”.

Its role

The Ark went before the people in the desert, crossed the Jordan with Joshua and was captured by the Philistines and returned (1 Samuel 4–6). David brought it to Jerusalem with dancing, and Solomon placed it in the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest entered, on Yom Kippur.

In the synagogue

The cabinet for the Torah scrolls in every synagogue is called the Aron Kodesh, the holy ark, in memory of the Ark of the Covenant.