Cherubs

(17) You shall make a cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. (18) Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover. (19) Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end; of one piece with the cover shall you make the cherubim at its two ends. (20) The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover.

CHERUBIM — They had the form of a child’s face.

As for the tabernacle, make it of ten strips of cloth; make these of fine twisted linen, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, with a design of cherubim worked into them.

Cherubim were figured on the curtains in the process of weaving them, not afterwards by embroidery which is needlework — but by weaving it on its two surfaces, one design on one side, a different design on the other; e. g., a lion on one side and an eagle on the other side, just as the silken girdles are woven which are called in old French faisee.

You shall make a curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen; it shall have a design of cherubim worked into it.

CHERUBIM — i. e. he shall make on it figures of different creatures.

כרובים. Birds, as written in Ezekiel 28,14 “as a cherub with protective outstretched wings.” - it must be a large bird. Our sages however understand the word to mean “having the faces of young children, toddlers.”

Their faces look at each other, like two friends debating words of Torah

The Cherubim. These are angels in the form of bulls and they are called Cherubim in reference to plowing.

Similarly, Ezekiel refers to the image of the Bull in one place and Cherub in another when describing God's chariot.

(16) “O LORD of Hosts, enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

Rav Ketina said: When the Jewish people would ascend for one of the pilgrimage Festivals, the priests would roll up the curtain for them and show them the cherubs, which were clinging to one another, and say to them: See how you are beloved before God, like the love of a male and female...

Reish Lakish said: When gentiles destroyed the Second Temple and entered the Sanctuary, they saw these drawings of cherubs clinging to one another. They peeled them from the wall, took them out to the market, and said: These Jews, whose blessing is a blessing and whose curse is a curse, due to their great fear of God, should they be occupied with such matters, making images of this kind? They immediately debased and destroyed them, as it is stated: “All who honored her debase her because they have seen her nakedness” (Lamentations 1:8).

It seems to me that the Cherubs had the form of young humans, without any blemish and having never tasted sin. One was in the form of a male, and the other female. This hints at the idea that anybody in Israel, man or woman, should dedicate their life to the study and the practice of the Torah...

They faced each other with their wings up high, to symbolise that any Jew should have their thoughts and wings raised upwards, thinking of worshipping God in matters that concern God. But one's face should be towards the others, symbolising the love and solidarity between all people.

From the preceding remarks it is clear that the belief in the existence of angels is connected with the belief in the Existence of God; and the belief in God and angels leads to the belief in Prophecy and in the truth of the Law.

In order to firmly establish this creed, God commanded [the Israelites] to make over the ark the form of two angels. The belief in the existence of angels is thus inculcated into the minds of the people, and this belief is in importance next to the belief in God's Existence; it leads us to believe in Prophecy and in the Law, and opposes idolatry.

If there had only been one figure of a cherub, the people would have been misled and would have mistaken it for God's image which was to be worshipped, in the fashion of the heathen; or they might have assumed that the angel [represented by the figure] was also a deity, and would thus have adopted a Dualism. By making two cherubim and distinctly declaring "the Lord is our God, the Lord is One," Moses clearly proclaimed the theory of the existence of a number of angels; he left no room for the error of considering those figures as deities, since [he declared that) God is one, and that He is the Creator of the angels, who are more than one.