The centerpiece of a typical temple in the ancient world was a statue of a god. The tabernacle (משכן) is different in that it does not have such a statue. What it does have are two golden statues of cherubim (כרובים) who spread their wings over the kapporet, the lid of the ark of the testimony. Above the kapporet from between these two cherubim, [Hashem] meets with Moshe and speaks to him. What, specifically, is a cherub? In other words, what form or forms of creatures does the word כרוב designate?
- Winged child
- Winged adult
- Bird
- Human-headed bird
- Winged bovine
- Griffin
- Winged sphinx
...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 God is the Creator of the angels, who are more than one.
ופניהם איש אל אחיו, “and they are to face one another;” these details all prove that these cherubs were not intended to be deities to be worshipped, else they would have faced their onlookers so that these could prostrate themselves in front of them. How is this proof? Supposing there had been only one cherub on the lid of the Holy Ark, or if the face of one of them (if there were two) had been turned toward the people, one could have perhaps understood the symbolism as meaning that their purpose was to inspire awe of them in their onlookers. Seeing, however, that they faced each other, is clear proof that they had no interest in any onlooker. Furthermore, though their wings were pointing upwards, their faces were looking down at the lid, i.e. the space from which God’s words would emanate to Moses, and the area in which the Torah was kept. The most important proof that they were not meant to be worshipped by anyone, is the fact that they were in a place that was inaccessible to the people on pain of death. Their function therefore was merely to be servants of God rather than God's competitors....
Torah teaches that God spoke from within the empty space between the two kruvim. And Talmud teaches that the kruvim faced each other when we followed the mitzvot, and turned away from each other when we did not. What happens when we bring those two teachings together?...
Whether or not we hear the voice of God is up to us. Whether or not we receive continuing revelation is up to us. We can choose to act in ways which create the space within which that voice speaks, or we can choose to act in ways which will negate that possibility. The voice of the Infinite issued forth not from the golden statues themselves, not even from the holy text which was contained in the ark then and is contained in our scroll now, but from the dynamic space between the kruvim. God speaks to us from emptiness -- but not just any emptiness. God speaks from the spiritually charged space of relationship.