Let my people go, that they may serve Me
(Shemot 7:16, 7:26, 9:1, 9:13)

This mantra is repeated throughout the early portions of Sefer Shemot. The first part of the sentence is accomplished by parshat Beshalach: B’nai Yisrael are free from Egyptian bondage. But freedom was not the end goal. They must serve God, first in the desert, and ultimately in the land chosen by God, Eretz Yisrael.

The second segment of Sefer Shemot takes place primarily at Har Sinai. In fact, B’nai Yisrael remain there for 10 months. Har Sinai has already been important in the story, since Moshe’s initial meeting with God at the burning bush was said to have taken place there, and Moshe’s first meeting with Aharon before they approached Pharaoh took place there too. Of course the revelation of the Torah takes place there, and Moshe ascends the mountain both times that he receives the Tablets. Now, the foot of Har Sinai is the location where B’nai Yisrael will build the mishkan, the Tabernacle, and the mishkan will be the portable extension of Har Sinai, as the meeting place with God, and the place where the service of God will take place.

The laws describing the building of the mishkan and its contents begin in our parsha. It is the first act of creation of the new People of Israel. Until now, God has been the Creator. But now, God will command an act of creation, and B’nai Yisrael will execute it.

Before B’nai Yisrael have a chance to actually build the mishkan, a human will take over another act of creation from God. After the revelation on Har Sinai, Moshe ascended the mountain and received the Tablets, carved by the finger of God. These tablets were the ot brit, the physical symbol and reminder of the covenant forged between God and B’nai Yisrael upon the revelation of the Torah. But, as we will read in parshat Ki Tisa, this covenant was not sustainable. It contained no room for human fallibility. And when the people failed, as humans will, by building the Golden Calf, this covenant, and its symbol, the God-made Tablets, were broken. Moshe must ascend Har Sinai again and negotiate a new covenant. This covenant contained the essential element of teshuva, allowing recovery from sin through repentance. The new Tablets, the ot brit of the new covenant, were a joint project, commanded by God, but created by Moshe.

The first article that God commands to be built is the aron, the Ark. The Torah describes the design and materials for the Aron, and then states:

Place into the Ark the Testimony that I will give you. (Shemot 25:16)

Later, when Moshe retells this story before entering Canaan, he says:

Then I left and went down from the mountain, and I deposited the tablets in the ark that I had made, where they still are, as Adonai had commanded me. (Shemot 10:5)

The Edut, the testimony, seems to be the Tablets, the symbol of the covenant. But which tablets? The consensus of the commentaries seems to be that both sets of tablets were carried in the aron–the original set, carved by God, and broken by Moshe, and the second set, commanded by God, and carved by Moshe.

Earlier in Shemot, we read about another symbolic reminder of a covenant. After God begins the process of providing manna for B’nai Yisrael during their travels in the wilderness we read:

And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before Adonai, to be kept throughout the ages.”

As Adonai had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Edut, to be kept. (Shemot 16:33-34)

Although the aron had not yet been built, the Torah’s mention that Aaron placed the jar of manna “before the Edut” leads us to believe that the jar of manna was also placed in the aron. The manna itself was a bit of a paradox. As my Maharat colleague, Hannah Ruimy, mentioned in her presentation on parshat Beshalach, the manna represented a reversal, because food was generally grown by humans, but was here produced by God. And the manna also represented the first time that God demanded obedience from the new People of Israel, as they were commanded to observe Shabbat in the context of the manna.

Throughout the rest of their travels, B’nai Yisrael carried the mishkan, a place in which humans emulated God’s own act of creation of the world by creating a meeting place between humans and God. In it, they built the aron, which carried the Tablets, now broken, that were created by God, the Tablets commanded by God but created by Moshe, and the flask of manna, the food created by God.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in Covenant and Conversation, has a fascinating interpretation of the two sets of tablets. He explains that the first Tablets, produced entirely by God, represent the Torah Shebichtav, the written Torah, produced entirely by God, and revealed to Moshe and B’nai Yisrael during the revelation on Har Sinai. The second Tablets, a partnership between God and Moshe, represent Torah Sheb’al Peh, the Oral Torah, which is produced throughout the rest of time through human interpretation of the written Torah. Rabbi Sacks says:

The difference between the Written and Oral Torah is profound. The first is the word of God, with no human contribution. The second is a partnership – the word of God as interpreted by the mind of man. (Covenant and Conversation, Ki Tissa, 5767, 5773)

Torah is incomplete without both segments – the entirely divine segment, and the segment in which humans interpret and apply its laws and guidance. This human involvement and development is what ensures Torah’s applicability in every day and age. B’nai Yisrael carried the aron with them throughout their journeys, ultimately installing it in the Beit HaMikdash. Within it, they carried the reminders of God’s covenants, and God’s partnership with humans in creating and sustaining B’nai Yisrael. Our relationship with God is a partnership, and the Torah is a partnership; it is incomplete without our active involvement and application of its laws to our own lives.