‘The curtain that is on the outside, in front of the ark, is like the parokhet in the Tabernacle, about which it is written “the curtain shall serve you as a partition” and so forth.’ This is how, in the early seventeenth century, Rabbi Joel ben Samuel Sirkes of Poland defined the essence of the parokhet that is hung on the ark in synagogues. Indeed, all aspects of the parokhet in the synagogue were influenced by its identification with the parokhet of the Tabernacle and the Temple, which in both cases separated sacred space from the Holy of Holies. Parokhet is the term used by all Jewish communities, and it often appears in dedicatory inscriptions. Some inscriptions use phrases that further support this identification, such as ‘to be a parokhet for the ark of the Lord of Hosts’, ‘the curtain for the screen’, ‘the curtain of the Sanctuary’, and ‘the parokhet for the ark of the Covenant’.

The identification of the parokhet on the ark in a synagogue with that of the Tabernacle or the Temple is based on the synagogue being perceived as a ‘little sanctuary’, just as the Torah scroll was identified with the Tablets of the Law, and the ark with the Ark of the Covenant. Against this background, the parokhet came to be seen as conveying to worshippers the values that the ark and the Torah itself represented. In eastern Europe, the upper section of the ark came to be identified with the kaporet, the golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant, and the term came to be associated with the valance that hung from it.

In spite of its identification with the parokhet of the Tabernacle, it is of secondary sanctity because the ark curtain has no direct contact with the Torah scroll. This secondary status was one of the reasons for permitting the universal practice of creating parokhot out of previously used fabrics.

The following discussion of parokhot will differ from the earlier discussions of other ceremonial objects, which focused on the unique characteristics that evolved in different communities.