The Torah portion of Acharei Mot (Leviticus 16-18) describes the Temple service on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Bible mandates 15 specific sacrifices and many other rituals for Yom Kippur, or Yom HaKippurim, outlined in Leviticus...
Why Are We Commanded to Keep the Pieces of the Broken Tablets?
As part of building the Tabernacle, God instructed Moses to place the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments into the Ark of the Covenant. But, as we know, there were two sets of tablets; the first, inscribed by the finger of God, was cast...
The Parochet Curtain: Separating Between the Holy and Holy of Holies
In the Tabernacle, and later, in the Temples in Jerusalem, a curtain, called a parochet, separated the “Holy” from the “Holy of Holies.” The only person who passed through this curtain was the Kohen Gadol (high priest) on Yom Kippur, the...
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
After leaving Egypt and receiving the Torah at Sinai, the Jews were commanded to build a Tabernacle. At the epicenter of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant into which were placed the stone tablets. What is the Ark of the Covenant?...
The Ten Commandments are a microcosm of the entire Torah
After a brief introduction and a review of how the Children of Israel ended up at the banks of the Jordan River ready to inherit the Holy Land at the beginning of Deuteronomy, Moses begins to review some of the laws and commandments that...
Journey of the Aron (Ark of the Covenant)
This map traces the journey of the Ark of the Covenant from the Tabernacle in Shiloh to the City of David in Jerusalem, as described in I Samuel 4:1-7:2 and II Samuel 6:2-17.