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Showing posts from February, 2011

Parashat Terumah 5771 - English Version

(Translated from the German -- original version here .) It was our great teacher, Rav Indiana Jones, that first taught me and many other members of Beis Hollywood about the Ark of the Covenant. As a matter of fact, the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” seems to offer a variety of insights into the nature of the Holy Ark. For example—we are taught that it is powerful, that it can destroy entire armies, that it is so mysterious and awesome that it gets a special moment of John Williams soundtrack when the Ark is discussed – and – that the Ark is today hidden away in some secret CIA warehouse. OK – perhaps all of these points aren’t really to be found in Torah. But there nonetheless seems to be a spark of truth behind the Beis Hollywood drama. We read in Parashat Terumah about the construction of the Ark of the Covenant—its material, its size and so forth, and then we come upon: (Exodus) 25:18 You are to make two cherubim of gold; you are to make them of hammered metal on the two ends o