The Torah ark is the cabinet in a synagogue that holds the Torah scrolls, and its placement and treatment make it the focal point of the building.
Set toward Jerusalem
The ark is set in the wall that faces Jerusalem, so that a congregation praying toward the ark is praying toward the holy city, and it is usually raised by a step or two above the floor, marking it as the highest point of the room. It is closed by doors or a curtain, the parokhet, which recalls the veil of the Tabernacle, and it is opened with ceremony at particular moments of the service, the congregation standing while it is open. Its whole treatment, elevation, curtain, the standing of the people, expresses the holiness of what it contains.
What it holds and recalls
The scrolls within are the most sacred objects the community possesses, and the ark that guards them takes its name and its significance from the Ark of the Covenant that held the tablets of the law in the Temple, so the synagogue ark is understood as its successor and remembrance. Above or near it commonly burns a perpetual lamp, the ner tamid, recalling the continual light of the sanctuary. Bringing the scroll out of the ark and returning it are among the high points of the service, so the cabinet, beyond storing the scrolls, orders the direction of prayer and the drama of the reading around itself.