פרשת תרומה תשכ"ט - המשכן

And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.

...Another opinion: And they shall make an ark of gopher wood. And immediately after: and they shall make an ark of wood. What is written above? And take for Me gifts. Just as the Torah comes before everything, so too here, in the deeds of the Tabernacle, the Ark comes before any vessel. Just as light came before all the deeds of Creation, as it is written "And E-lohim said 'let there be light' (Genesis 1) so too regarding the Tabernacle, in the Torah that is called light, as it is written 'Because a mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light' (Proverbs 6), all the deeds came after the Torah. Another opinion: 'And they shall make the ark' - why regarding all these vessels it is written 'and you [singular] shall make' but regarding the ark it is written 'and they shall make'? R. Yehudah the son of Shalom said: The Holy One said to him [Moses] - all can come and busy themselves with the ark, so that all come and merit the Torah. And R. Shimon b. Yochai said: There are three crowns -- the crown of royalty, the crown of priesthood and the crown of Torah.The crown of royalty -- this is the shulchan (Table), about which it says, "a gold crown all around."The crown of priesthood -- this is the mizbe'ach (Altar), about which it says, "a gold crown all around."And the crown of Torah -- this is the aron (Ark), about which it says, "a gold crown [all around]"...Why does it say about all of them, "You shall make for it," whereas about the Ark it says, "You shall make on it?" [This is] to teach you that the crown of Torah is superior to all of them. If a person merits Torah -- it is as if he merited them all.