Mysteries of Judaism: Was the Ark of the Covenant Found?

Year: 1981. Location: Western Wall Tunnels. Possibility: Discovery of the Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Tablets of the Covenant, was crafted by Bezalel ben Uri and placed in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in the Sinai Desert. The Ark accompanied the Israelites during their wanderings, was kept in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, and was captured by the Philistines during a war. After a plague, it was returned to the Israelites, stayed at Kiryat Ye'arim, and later King David brought it to Jerusalem until it found its place in Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah. The Ark was the holiest artifact, but towards the end of the First Temple period, it disappeared, and there was no Ark in the Holy of Holies throughout the Second Temple period.

According to Rabbi Eliezer, the Ark was exiled to Babylon with the destruction of the Temple. Other sages believed King Josiah hid it in the tunnels beneath the Temple Mount to prevent it from being taken with the Israelites. In fact, King Solomon had already anticipated the Temple's destruction and prepared a place to hide the Ark in deep and winding chambers, and King Josiah later ordered it hidden there.

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The sages tell of a priest during the Second Temple period who noticed an unusual floorboard in the Wood Chamber. When he commented to a colleague, he died shortly before finishing his statement, leading people to conclude the Ark was hidden there.

Consequently, some believe the Ark remains beneath the Foundation Stone, its previous resting place. Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz, Rabbi of the Western Wall, was one such believer. When excavations in the Western Wall tunnels began, he calculated a spot beneath the Temple Mount to breach. This revealed a large rock-hewn tunnel extending eastward, beneath the Temple Mount, 28 meters long and six meters wide, with water and mud at its base.

In his diary, Rabbi Getz wrote: "I immediately went to the location, overwhelmed with emotion. I sat there for a long time, paralyzed and with tears streaming down my face." According to his calculations, the tunnel led to the spot where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. However, Muslims soon discovered the breach, and Rabbi Getz, along with yeshiva students summoned to the site, tried to block the Wakf personnel.

After a turbulent day that put the Temple Mount at the center of global attention, then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the tunnel sealed. Rabbi Getz reportedly told those close to him that he indeed saw the Ark at the location but concealed the area and remained silent due to fear of Muslim retribution.

It seems that when the sages said the Ark was "hidden," it truly remains hidden from us until the rebuilding of the Third Temple reveals its location.