Cherubim: The Love Logo

They made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen, working into it a design of cherubim.

שנים כרובים, “two cherubs.” Compare Ezekiel28,14, את כרוב ממשח הסוכך, “like a cherub with outstretched wings;” they are a certain type of bird. Seeing that birds are both clean animals and move in a clean atmosphere most of the time; even though the Torahin the second of the Ten Commandments had expressly forbidden us to make anything that is like creatures on earth or in the sky, the reason why the making of the cherubs is exempt from this was that it was not made to be worshipped, but to remain hidden inside the most inaccessible part of the Temple. We have a parallel of this in Isaiah 6,12 where the prophet described having had a vision of the Lord seated on His throne surrounded by such creatures each having six wings...

ועשית שנים כרובים, “you are to construct two cherubs, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text the reason that such figures of angels were placed both in the Tabernacle and in the permanent Temple is to keep alive the idea that there are such beings whom G’d designated from time to time to perform miracles on earth. Just as we have been commanded to have a firm belief in the existence of G’d Himself and the fact that He is the original Existence, and this is one of the fundamental concepts of the Torah as proven by the first words of the Decalogue: “I am the Lord your G’d, etc.,” so we are required to believe in the existence of angels as the second fundamental concept in the list of our religious beliefs. Had there not been such angels, i.e. instruments by means of whom G’d makes His will known from time to time to His prophets, there would be no prophecy, no Torah, in short no “hot line” to the Creator. This is why G’d commanded that these figures be made and installed inside the Tabernacle (where nobody could see them). The reason that two such angel-like figures had to be made was to ensure that none of us would think that the solitary angel-like figure represented the Creator Himself, the One whom we worship and serve. If you were to reply that by making two such figures people might conclude that there are in fact two domains, i.e. that G’d shares power with another, this is not a valid objection seeing both of these cherubs’ wings were pointed upwards towards heaven indicating that they themselves were recipients of Divine input rather than original dispensers of Divine bounty. This is Maimonides’ view concerning the cherubs though I changed his wording a little (compare Moreh Nevuchim section 3 chapter 45). Seeing that I believe that the cherubs represented the existence of the angels and there are many angels, we can surely say that the word כרובים was chosen to convey the idea that there are many such beings...