Idolising the Sefer Torah?

(3) When the [Israelite] troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Eternal put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal from Shiloh; thus God will be present among us and will deliver us from the hands of our enemies.” (4) So the troops sent men to Shiloh; there Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were in charge of the Ark of the Covenant of God, and they brought down from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal of Hosts Enthroned on the Cherubim. (5) When the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal entered the camp, all Israel burst into a great shout, so that the earth resounded. (6) The Philistines heard the noise of the shouting and they wondered, “Why is there such a loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” And when they learned that the Ark of the Eternal had come to the camp, (7) the Philistines were frightened; for they said, “God has come to the camp.” And they cried, “Woe to us! Nothing like this has ever happened before.

(2) Has it not already been stated: Do I not fill heaven and the earth (Jer. 23:24)? R. Joshua of Sikhnin said in the name of R. Levi: This may be compared to a cave situated at the edge of the sea. Though the sea rushes forth and fills the cave, the sea lacks nothing. Similarly with the Holy One, blessed be the Eternal and God's name be blessed, for though it is written: And the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle (Exod. 40:34), nevertheless His glory is above the heaven and the earth (Ps. 148:13). You should not say that the Holy One, blessed be He, compressed His Shekhinah only into the Tabernacle. He likewise compressed His Shekhinah into the ark that Bezalel had made, as it is written: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Eternal of all the earth (Josh. 3:11). This indicates that the Holy One, blessed be the Eternal, was within it. Who other than Bezalel could have made it, since it says: And Bezalel made the ark?

(19) The Eternal said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens: (20) With Me, therefore, you shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods of gold. (21) Make for Me an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you.

(15) For your own sake, therefore, be most careful—since you saw no shape when the Eternal your God spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire— (16) not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman, (17) the form of any beast on earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, (18) the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the waters below the earth.

(23) Take care, then, not to forget the covenant that the Eternal your God concluded with you, and not to make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, against which the Eternal your God has enjoined you. (24) For the Eternal your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God. (25) When you have begotten children and children’s children and are long established in the land, should you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, causing the Eternal your God displeasure and vexation,

(8) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. (9) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Eternal your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me,

(2) You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree. (3) Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site. (4) Do not worship the Eternal your God in like manner, (5) but look only to the site that the Eternal your God will choose amidst all your tribes as God's habitation, to establish Gods name there. There you are to go,

(18) Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, (19) and teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; (20) and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates—

(21) You shall not set up a sacred post—any kind of pole beside the altar of the Eternal your God that you may make— (22) or erect a stone pillar; for such the Eternal your God detests.

(26) Take this book of Teaching and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal your God, and let it remain there as a witness against you.

(35) When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O Eternal! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You! (36) And when it halted, he would say: Return, O Eternal, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!

(7) Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that the Eternal has spoken we will faithfully do!” (8) Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Eternal now makes with you concerning all these commands.”

(30) At that time Joshua built an altar to the Eternal, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, (31) as Moses, the servant of the Eternal, had commanded the Israelites—as is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moses—an altar of unhewn stone upon which no iron had been wielded. They offered on it burnt offerings to the Eternal, and brought sacrifices of well-being. (32) And there, on the stones, he inscribed a copy of the Teaching that Moses had written for the Israelites. (33) All Israel—stranger and citizen alike—with their elders, officials, and magistrates, stood on either side of the Ark, facing the levitical priests who carried the Ark of the Eternal’s Covenant. Half of them faced Mount Gerizim and half of them faced Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Eternal had commanded them of old, in order to bless the people of Israel. (34) After that, he read all the words of the Teaching, the blessing and the curse, just as is written in the Book of the Teaching. (35) There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the strangers who accompanied them.

(1) At the king’s summons, all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him. (2) The king went up to the House of the Eternal, together with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and prophets—all the people, young and old. And he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll which had been found in the House of the Eternal. (3) The king stood by the pillar and solemnized the covenant before the Eternal: that they would follow the Eternal and observe His commandments, His injunctions, and His laws with all their heart and soul; that they would fulfill all the terms of this covenant as inscribed upon the scroll. And all the people entered into the covenant.

(1) the entire people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the scroll of the Teaching of Moses with which the Eternal had charged Israel. (2) On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Teaching before the congregation, men and women and all who could listen with understanding. (3) He read from it, facing the square before the Water Gate, from the first light until midday, to the men and the women and those who could understand; the ears of all the people were given to the scroll of the Teaching. (4) Ezra the scribe stood upon a wooden tower made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah at his right, and at his left Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, Meshullam. (5) Ezra opened the scroll in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people; as he opened it, all the people stood up. (6) Ezra blessed the Eternal, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” with hands upraised. Then they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Eternal with their faces to the ground. (7) Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites explained the Teaching to the people, while the people stood in their places. (8) They read from the scroll of the Teaching of God, translating it and giving the sense; so they understood the reading.

(8) There is none like You among the gods people worship, O Eternal, and there are no deeds like Yours.

(13) Your sovereignty is everlasting; Your reign endures from age to age.

(4) Exalt the Eternal with me; let us extol God's name together.

(11) Yours, Eternal, are greatness, might, splendour, triumph, and majesty—yes, all that is in heaven and on earth; to You, Eternal, belong sovereignty and preeminence above all.

(35) When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O Eternal! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You! (36) And when it halted, he would say: Return, O Eternal, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!

(32) You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Eternal.

(9) Every one who sees a person carrying a scroll of the law and proceeding with it must stand up before it; and all persons continue standing till the bearer of the scroll stops, having carried it to its appointed place, or passes out of sight. They are then permitted to resume their seats.