Secret of the Cherubin - Chapter One

Secret of The Cherubin

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

In the Holy Temple and the Tabernacle of Sinai there were various rooms and courtyards, some holier than others. The highest sanctity was in the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies was the Holy Ark. Inside the Holy Ark were the Tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai and a Torah scroll. On top of the Holy Ark were decorative images of winged angels in the guise of a boy and girl, called the Cherubin.

The Ark contained a Torah scroll and the Tablets of Moses. Why did the Cherubin stand atop the Ark and its holy treasures?

The holy work Tano Divei Eliyohu or The Yeshiva of Eliyohu HaNovi begins with the idea that the Cherubin preceded all of the Creation of Genesis. It continues to say that Derech Erets, meaning proper character traits, precedes the Tree of Life and the Torah. This is essentially the famous saying, “Derech Erets precedes the Torah.” Derech Erets is how we relate to others and to ourselves, and how our personality and human processes operate. Thus, the Cherubin represented the purity of humanity ready to learn and obey the Torah. A Jew devoted to Torah but whose personality is flawed cannot achieve a proper level of Torah.

But there is another aspect of the Cherubin mentioned there. The book Tano Divei Eliyohu begins with “And He drove the man out” of the Garden of Eden after the sin of Adam and Eve. “And He established the Cherubin in front of the Garden of Eden” to prevent people from entering the Garden. With the Cherubin was “a sharply bladed sword that twisted.” Thus, the Cherubin are avenging angels.

The Cherubin are avenging angels who appear in the guise of children, a boy and a girl. This is amazing. Do children become avenging angels? But a purity of heart that merits a purity of Torah cannot tolerate evil. It struggles to maintain the purity of the Holy of Holies and whatever Torah level is has achieved. This battle is a constant and mighty battle, requiring great efforts and wisdom. Those who seek the Garden of Eden and higher holiness battle with an angelic evil force, the Satan, and inner biological and ego issues that require much planning and patience. The great rabbis warn us that if we seek to go too high we can fall. The weapon we use is a “blade of a twisting sword.” We must know when to go higher and when to accept our present level. To err is to be in danger. And we must constantly pray for divine assistance, because how can a mortal filled with evil forces succeed?

The highest level of Derech Erets is in proper and loving marital intimacy. Thus the Cherubin, representing Derech Erets, are boy and girl. This symbolizes marital relations, the highest level of Derech Erets, as a pure and innocent love.

The Torah and the Cherubin represent Torah and Derech Erets, or how to observe the Torah in human relations. But the Cherubin are more than simply the idea of relating to other people. The Cherubin represent the incredible concept of G‑d, alone in His Self, who sought to relate to others. We cannot approach the depth of this properly without the wisdom of G‑d which we lack. But we must appreciate it.

We must emulate G‑d. We must seek to relate to others. We must connect to others, and respect them, even if by so doing we may denigrate our own honor and glory. The world is filled with denial of the Truth and Torah. Yet it is G‑d's wish to make such a world in order that people can accept challenge and merit reward. Relating to others is more important than we can imagine. We, each of us, are more important than we can imagine. So we must remind ourselves of our importance, and yet, we must work on modesty. The sword is sharp but it turns and twists, up and down. Truly, life is a “ladder standing on the ground, and its top is in the heavens.” But if we don’t do things properly we can fall off of the ladder. And when we fall, the higher we were, the greater is the damage from the fall.

Thus, the Cherubin, boy and girl together, represent several important teachings. Through them we understand somewhat why HaShem created people. First of all, the Cherubin were innocent and pure, and therefore Cherubin in Aramaic, means “children.” Thus, we must strive for purity. Purity means many things, but it surely means we must relate to others without envy and hate. It is possible that relating to others without envy or hate is the hardest command in the Torah. The Second Temple was destroyed because of vain hatred.

Another lesson in the idea of Cherubin being “children” male and female is that Adam was created alone until he discovered, “it is not good for a man to be alone.” Then HaShem created Eve. Adam and Eve then had children and the world is their progeny. But marriage is a “twisting sword.” On the one hand marriage may be the highest level of humanity. It requires a supreme Derech Erets for two different people to marry. And the biological passions associated with childbirth threaten us constantly with evil thoughts that easily lead to sin. We are always struggling with these opposite poles of humanity. But the Cherubin, boy and girl, represent the idea that humans can struggle towards the ideal and the goal of purity in a world of the opposite. For this was a person created. And when a person tries to be pure, heavenly forces embrace and encourage him. If he fails and sin, evil forces embrace and destroy him.

The Holy of Holies teaches us that despite the evil in the world and in all of us, we must recall the possibility of the highest purity as indicated with the Cherubin astride the Ark.

Reb Yisroel Salanter founded the Musar Movement to emphasize Derech Erets and proper social and personal behavior. He said that it is easier to master the Talmud than to purify one bad character trait. Great is our burden. But the Torah and the heavenly realm are there to empower us to succeed.

King Saul, the tallest of the Jews in his time, was a mighty warrior and the king of Israel, the first king. And yet, we are told, “Saul was as a one year old child” in his purity. How could this be? Because the Cherubin teach us that life is to have temptations of ego and illicit desire and to fight them. Saul merited being as pure as a child without the hate and illicit desires that deprive people of holiness.

The great challenges of life are not in the Torah and its commands, because one twisted with hate will twist the Torah. One who has a pure heart and a pure mind and only such a person can learn Torah properly. Thus, Torah without Cherubin is a mortal danger. But when we seek Torah and Derech Erets, the Torah that we learn is pure.

The Zohar accepts that marriage and having children are done using the Evil Inclination within us. But it must be a servant and not the manager. As a servant, it creates lovely children with lofty souls. As a manager it destroys.

Thus, the Cherubin, boy and girl, represent human relations at its purest level. This includes marital relations that elevate a person as perhaps nothing else.

All of us outside of the Garden of Eden struggle to find goodness. But our world is saturated with biological and spiritual forces that threaten Torah values. When we struggle with darkness a light comes from the highest heavens to help us. The supreme achievement is to achieve purity similar to that of young children. This is the teaching of the Cherubin.

***