A Torah ark (also known as the ''hekhal'', , or ''aron qodesh'', ) is an ornamental chamber in the
synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
that houses the
Torah scrolls
A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema
An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue
file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Interior, Tora Cases.jpg">Torah cases at Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India ...
.
History

The ark is also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' () or ''aron ha-Kodesh'' ('holy ark') in
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
communities and as the ''
Hekhal'' ('sanctuary') among
Sefardi
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
communities. The name ''Aron Kodesh'' is a reference to the
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by the Israelites.
Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorat ...
, which was stored in the
Holy of Holies
The Holy of Holies ( or ''Kodesh HaKodashim''; also ''hadDəḇīr'', 'the Sanctuary') is a term in the Hebrew Bible that refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle, where the Shekhinah (God in Judaism, God's presence) appeared. According ...
in the inner sanctuaries of both the ancient
Tabernacle
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...
and the
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...
. Similarly, ''Hekhál'' ( 'palace'; also written ''hechal'', ''echal'', ''heichal'' or ''Echal Kodesh''—mainly among Balkan Sephardim) was used in the same time period to refer to the inner sanctuary. The ''hekhal'' contained the
Menorah,
Altar of Incense
Altars (, ''mīzbēaḥ'', "a place of slaughter or sacrifice") in the Hebrew Bible were typically made of earth () or unwrought stone (). Altars were generally erected in conspicuous places (; ; ; ; ). The first time the word altar is mentioned a ...
and
Table of the Showbread.
Customs and location
In some ancient synagogues, such as the fifth-century synagogue in
Susya, the Torah scroll was not placed inside the synagogue at all, but in a room adjacent to it, signifying that the sacredness of the synagogue does not come from the ark but from its being a house of prayer. The Torah was brought into the synagogue for reading purposes.
In synagogues outside of Jerusalem, the ark is placed in a chamber that is in a recess in the wall, facing
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, and worshipers face this direction when reciting prayers of the service such as the
Amidah
The ''Amidah'' (, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' during each of the three services prayed on week ...
.
The ark is often closed with a
''parochet'' ("curtain") placed either outside the doors of the Holy Ark (
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
and
Mizrachi custom) or inside the doors of the ark (
Spanish and Portuguese and
Moroccan or Sephardic custom). The parochet is an ornate cloth that resembles the same cloth that was once on the golden Ark. Both the aron kodesh and parochet are usually inscribed with verses from
Judaic holy scripture. These inscriptions generally display the purity of the synagogue or the celebrated uniqueness of the scrolls placed within.
Jewish law states the ark is the second holiest part of a synagogue after the Torah scrolls themselves. Customs call for the congregation when reciting key prayers (such as
Avinu Malkeinu
Avinu Malkeinu (; "Our Father, Our King") is a Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They als ...
– "Our Father Our King", in many communities), to stand and face the ark, on fasting days, the Ten Days of Repentance between
Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashanah (, , ) is the New Year in Judaism. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (, , 'Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summer/early autu ...
and
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October.
For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...
(also called the High Holidays), and for many
piyyut
A piyyuṭ (plural piyyuṭim, ; from ) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Most piyyuṭim are in Mishnaic Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, and most follow some p ...
im (poems, songs, etc.) recited during High Holy Day services. Many who partake in these customs consider it respectful to stand as long as the ark is open and the Torah is being moved to the reading table (or podium). However, there is no actual obligation (law) to remain standing when the ark is open, but it is a universally accepted custom. In addition to this custom is the custom to never turn ones back towards the ark even when leaving the sanctuary. Instead one must back out until they have left the vicinity of the ark, and only then can they turn their back (by the
Kotel which is considered as a synagogue itself, this custom also exists).
Evolution
Originally, the scrolls were placed in moveable containers that were risen up. The more permanent placement of the ark was designed as the tribes settled and built temples. As early as 245 C.E. in the synagogue of
Dura-Europos
Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian Empire, Parthian, and Ancient Rome, Roman border city built on an escarpment above the southwestern bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the village of Al-Salihiyah, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, S ...
a slit within the holy wall (or wall facing
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
) was created for the ark.
In ancient times, the cloth wrapped scrolls are believed to have been placed flat within a low wooden box. Historical records or discoveries point to a variety of exterior designs becoming popular within the Jewish culture of the time. Archeologists found early Torah arks within the
Jewish catacombs in Rome decorated with Pompeian frescoes, paintings, and graffiti.
Throughout Europe, in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, designs favored taller arks. In the 14th and 15th centuries,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Jewish Hebrew texts depict a new design. These texts placed the scrolls inside the ark standing upright, decorated, and wrapped with the appropriate cloth and covers. A
Sephardic
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
synagogue based in Amsterdam (c.1675) contains a
baroque style
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...
ark, which takes up the entire width of the central hub of the building. The Sephardic synagogue based as far north as London (c. 1701) adopted the design as mainstream. In this period, most synagogues in Europe were designed with the reading table (or podium) in the center of the building. The ark was placed on the Eastern wall, so the congregation would be facing Jerusalem when praying.
During the 18th century, German synagogues incorporated a baroque style design. Decorative features such as
pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s, columns, and vases became a standard practice. Wood and stone carvers in Eastern Europe began to employ unique local craft designs in synagogue architecture. Folk art and animals were popular design features added to arks created during this period. Early designs in the United States featured built-in arks in synagogues, such as the 1763
Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, which was inspired by a trend of grandeur in architectural design. The United States Jewish community continued to favor the grand or classical design style until around 1840. In the mid-1800s the
Moorish style
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...
synagogues influenced by the Oriental style became the latest fashion in synagogue design. The Oriental ark design included sliding doors and a curved forepart. The most notable features of this era included domes and arches that contained geometrical polychrome designs. Many synagogue styles from the 16th to the 19th century can be seen across American and throughout Europe. However, after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the ark design evolved into an art form. New experimental forms and materials were employed in the making of modern arks based on the unique interests of the community commissioning the ark.
See also
*
Dohány Street Synagogue
The Dohány Street Synagogue ( ; ; ), also known as the Great Synagogue () or Tabakgasse Synagogue (), is a Neolog Judaism, Neolog Judaism, Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Dohány utca, Dohány Street in Erzsébetváros (VIIth dis ...
*
Spanish Synagogue (Prague)
The Spanish Synagogue (, , ) is a former Reform Jewish synagogue, located in the area of the so-called Jewish Town, Prague, in the Czech Republic. The synagogue was completed in 1868 in the Moorish Revival style on the site of the presumably ...
*
Synagogue of El Tránsito
*
Jewish culture
Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not simply a faith-based religion, but an orthopraxy and Ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, ...
*
Church tabernacle
A tabernacle or a sacrament house is a fixed, locked box in which the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, Eucharist (consecrated communion hosts) is stored as part of the "reserved sacrament" rite (Christianity), rite. A container for the same p ...
Gallery
File:Western Wall 1841 (499751900).jpg, A mobile ark at the Western Wall
The Western Wall (; ; Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: ''HaKosel HaMa'arovi'') is an ancient retaining wall of the built-up hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. Its most famous section, known by the same name ...
in Jerusalem
File:Toledo - Sinagoga El Transito int 01.jpg, Ark of the 14th century Sephardic
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
Synagogue of El Tránsito in Toledo
Toledo most commonly refers to:
* Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain
* Province of Toledo, Spain
* Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States
Toledo may also refer to:
Places Belize
* Toledo District
* Toledo Settlement
Bolivia
* Toledo, Or ...
, Spain
File:Temps modernes.1.arche saintebis.jpg, Freestanding ark made in Modena
Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025.
A town, and seat of an archbis ...
, Italy in 1472
File:Saluzzo Synagogue 12 - Arche Sainte.jpg, Ark in the 17th century Saluzzo Synagogue in Saluzzo
Saluzzo (; ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy.
The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are found in the su ...
, Italy
File:Györ Synagoge Innen Innen Thoraschrein.JPG, Ark in the 1870 Synagogue of Győr in Győr
Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...
, Hungary
File:Praha Spanish Synagogue Interior 01.jpg, The ark of the 19th century Spanish Synagogue of Prague, Czech Republic
File:Buddhist ark used by Chinese Jews.jpg, Ark based on a Chinese Buddhist
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, first=t, poj=Hàn-thoân Hu̍t-kàu, j=Hon3 Cyun4 Fat6 Gaau3, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist canonJiang Wu, "The Chin ...
design used by the Kaifeng Jews
Kaifeng Jews ( zh, t=開封猶太人, p=Kāifēng Yóutàirén; ) are a small community of descendants of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng City, Henan of China. In the early centuries of their settlement, they may have numbered around 2,500 people. Des ...
of China
File:8 Vilnius- Synagogue Chorale-DSC05179.JPG, Ark in the 1903 Choral Synagogue in Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
, Lithuania
File:PonevezhAK.jpg, The ark of the early 20th century Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak
Bnei Brak ( ) or Bene Beraq, is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares (1,752 acre ...
, Israel
File:36e rencontres internationales de Taizé Strasbourg 29 décembre 2013 05.jpg, Ark of the Grande synagogue de la Paix, constructed in the 1950s
File:Aron kodesh alex cropped.jpg, Mid-century modern
Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 197 ...
ark from the 1950s in the Congregation Gemiluth Chassodim in Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat and largest city of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River of the South, Red River ...
, USA
File:View on jerusalem from the synagogue mount scoups 09.jpg, The 1981 Hecht Synagogue uses two alcoves on either side of a window as arks
File:Torah ark from Solothurn.jpg, 19th century Torah shrine from the Jewish Community of Solothurn, Jewish Museum of Switzerland
The Jewish Museum of Switzerland in Basel provides an overview of the religious and everyday history of the Jews in Basel and Switzerland using objects of ritual, art and everyday culture from Middle Ages, the Middle Ages to the present.
Hist ...
References
External links
“Aron Kodesh”in
Jewish Encyclopedia
''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...
{{Authority control
Synagogue architecture
Jewish culture
Ashkenazi Jewish culture
Medieval Jewish culture
Mizrahi Jewish culture
Sephardi Jewish culture
Torah