In parashat Terumah, we read the details of the building of the Tabernacle and its implements. Among the instructions for the Ark we read:

And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it (Exodus 25:14-15).

From these verses we learn how the Ark was transported, as Maimonides explains:

When transporting the Ark from place to place, it is not transported on an animal, or on wagons, but it is commanded that it be borne on shoulders, and because David forgot and carried it on a wagon, there was the incident at Peretz-uzzah [II Samuel 6:3-8]…(Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Klei HaMikdash 2:12).

We also learn a puzzling prohibition:

And care must be taken that the poles not fall from the rings, for anyone who removes one of the poles from the rings is subject to lashes, for it says: “The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it” (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Klei HaMikdash 2:13).

Why is removing the poles forbidden? Many commentators have offered practical explanations, like this one in Sefer HaHinukh:

It is a principle of the commandment that because the Ark is the abode of the Torah, which is all we are and our honor…therefore we are commanded not to remove the poles of the Ark, lest we have to go somewhere quickly with the Ark, and due to worry and haste we will not check carefully that the poles are secure, and God forbid it will fall, which would be a disgrace (Sefer HaHinukh, Mitzva 96).

R. Samson Raphael Hirsch (Germany, 1808-1888) offered an explanation that begins similarly, but then adds a new dimension:

The poles represent the purpose and the duty to carry the ark and its contents outside of its precincts if necessary. The commandment “they shall not be taken from it” is to bear the truth for the generations that this Torah and its purpose are not dependant upon the land on which the Temple stands. The prohibition “they shall not be taken” as a symbol that the Divine Torah is not dependant upon circumstance of place is further emphasized by the contrast with the other holy implements, particularly the Table and the Menorah, regarding which it does not say “they shall not be taken from it”.

1. Did David “forget”, as Maimonides suggest? Can there be some other explanation?

2. In the Book of Kings we read: “And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; and they are there to this day” (II Kings 8:8). Did King Solomon remove the original poles? Is it possible that Solomon erred in measuring the new poles?

3. In the Talmud tractate Yoma (54a) there is a description of how the poles appeared in the Temple: “They pressed and protruded out from the curtain, and looked like a woman’s breasts, as it says (Song of Songs 1:13): “My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts.” Why would the Sages choose this metaphor to describe the place of the Divine Presence? Is it only because of the association of Song of Songs with Solomon?

4. Heinrich Heine once referred to the Torah as “the portable homeland of the Jew”. Is that also what Hirsch meant?