Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller

You shall make two cheruvim of gold, beaten shall you make them, from both ends

of the lid. [Shemot 25:18]

Several verses tell us about the level of importance of the cheruvim. But what are they?

What is their purpose? What do they look like?

To start with the meaning of the word, Ibn Ezra tells us it means 'forms', and that it is a

generic word referring to any type of form. Nobody seems to agree with him. Rav Hirsch

understands the word as deriving from caforet, meaning cover, or specifically the cover

of the Ark from which the cheruvim are to be made, thus it means "derived from the

cover". He also finds examples of the word meaning either a protector or a bearer, Why

two? He says to teach that all Israel must look out for one another. Abarbanel also asks

why there are two and says that they are one male and one female, to teach us to love

the Torah and mitzvot the way a man and woman love each other. Rashbam says the

word means 'birds', citing a verse in Yechezkel 28:14.

But most commentators define it as a representation of an angel. Saadyah Gaon refers

back to Bereishit 3:24 as the first instance of the word. Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim part

3 chapter 45 writes, "cheruvim represent angels who place truth on the lips of prophets."

Regardless of which definition one uses, we want to ask, what do they look like, and

what purpose do they serve?

The Torah tells us, two verses after ours, that they "shall be with wings spread upward,

sheltering the lid with their wings with their faces toward one another" which is a start

to answering both of those questions. Now we know they have wings and faces, with

the wings up as if to bear a load.

Rashi cites Succah 5b that the faces were in the images of children. Sforno notes that

this is how the prophets described the angels in their visions. In that Gemora, Rabbi

Abahu says the word cheruv is derived from the Aramaic word ravya, meaning a child,

but many dispute this claim.

So overall, cheruvim look like angels with wings and the faces of children, whose purpose

is to bear the appearance of God, and to teach about love. But there remain problems

with this.

Abarbanel cites Shemot 20:4, "Do not make for yourself any carved idol or any likeness of

anything that is in heaven above or earth below." How could the Torah here command us to

make a carved likeness of angels? His answer is in the following verse, 20:5, "do not bow

down to them and do not worship them." Since we are not worshiping the cheruvim, rather

making and using them for the sake of heaven, they are not included in the prohibition. That

opens up a big hole for further debate, but it is an answer.

Cheruvim appear in a couple other places, including later in our parsha. In verse 26:1 we see

that the fabric panels of the Tabernacle needed "cheruvim the work of an artist shall you make

them" and in 26:31, the parochet, the interior dividing curtain, the same thing. Rashi and

others go to great extent describing these works of art, that they are woven in (rather than

embroidered), that per verse 31 they are creatures, and that the picture on opposites sides

is of different creatures, rather than the mirror image of the one on the first side. Ramban

and others liken this to the Holy Chariot with its four faces to describe what the pictures

Rashi discusses look like. Although one is an adult human, the other three are animals.

This certainly does not fit in with the description of the cheruvim on the cover of the Ark.

Yechezkel in his chapter 10 makes some observations of interest to us. When looking at the

Chariot, he realized that the faces were what he had seen in the Tabernacle, and that at

least the one matched up with what he had seen on top of the Ark. This justifies the Torah

using the same word throughout.

It would seem from this that the appearance of the cheruvim can vary depending on the

situation. The purpose in common seems to be that of bearing God in some form, acting

as the place where He speaks to Moshe, bearing His Chariot, bearing the sanctity of the

Tabernacle, etc. The cheruvim watch over and guard holiness.