Terumah 5786 - The Keruvim

of the striking um items in the Michigan, the Kruim undoubtedly are one of the most striking. It's very very very unusual that the krim you have images at all in the uh Mishkan and they are in the Kesh Kadashim on top of the trying to get a sense at least a rem some sort of sense of what it's about and what it's trying to convey. So I'd like to um bring discuss two different aspects of it. The um one is the Rambam in Morim and Mai brings the Rambam and offers an explanation of of his own which I guess in some way complements it but both of them are very very important explanations. The first one is the Rambam. The Rama writes that kuim are there to impress upon us the the concept of malim of angels. They are sort of angelike and we're supposed to believe in angels like we believe in. That's very very strange at first glance because angels made malim and yes 100% but um it it's certainly why is the malik such an important item to believe in it does not have any of his own significance just another creation. So what exactly is the importance of Malik? So the Rambam's sheet is the Rambam um holds that all prophecies except Mosha came through angels through Mal and let's explain exactly what that means why what is it um himself is beyond anything physical in any way shape or form. We are totally physical. We are um human beings. We're bodies. We have a um a body and and and a head and ears and eyes and and so on. The idea of aesh communicating through us um requires to have some sort of bridge. In other words, how do you get the totally um pure spirituality to have to to connect and form words and sounds and noises and and pictures whatever it is that to human being. So the cre the angels are creatures that bridge that each and every angel has the name kale at the end of it and there's also a type that's with a nun the same idea they all have a a hybrid name which includes a kadesh's name and some sort of physical reality. So the name of welded together with something physical is what a mal is. Meaning that Hashem created a way a platform whereby he could take the totally spiritual and convey it to the um physical. We're talking not only the idea of hearing sounds and seeing images like the like prophet saw but even the very ideas taking ideas that are very very abstract and turning them into something physical. Let's take the all of Torah. All of Torah consists of um divine ideas and concepts as expressed in something physical. So, Lulov and Esri and and the Arvis and the uh Hadassim all have a a very very spiritual meaning that is beyond the physical and it expresses it in many many ways through the physical. So just like when somebody translates for someone else. So, you're taking something in one language and putting in another language with the translator needing to be equally familiar with both. Um, when we have a um a a uh physical item and it needs to convey a spiritual message, it that act itself requires a transition. That transition is called a malik an angel. So the Rambam says the belief in that is absolutely necessary for Torah because if a person believes like the philosophers did that God is this incredible incredible incredible infinite entity but has no way of interacting with us. Then for all purposes whether he exists or doesn't exist is really immaterial. He's got nothing to say, nothing to demand, nothing to require and we are who we are and that's that. So that doesn't help us much. It's only when we understand as being beyond and has a way a pipeline so to speak that can take divine messages and put it into human words understanding that it becomes incredibly meaningful and we have obligations and and prohibitions and so on. So the the the kesh is the place where it's uh it's the it's the mo that signifies it's a place that um nobody goes in goes in once a year just but it's not there's no there's no human footsteps there it's beyond the human and over there on top of the we have the kuven So to speak the k represent the fact that transmits a message. This point in raam is doubly emphasized in rashi when he speaks about where the divine voice came from and he says that it comes it starts from the kuim and works its way through the um moit. So it originates bayou but but it speaks now that's very strange what does it mean originates there and and but the voice actually is the way the Ram explains it it it has a lot of meaning it means the concept that it can be translated the the the mechanism for taking it by hashem and actually turning it into something that could speak to us and be instru destructive happens in the um in the in between the crew. It then comes to us in the mode. The mode is where a person can stand. That's where we're allowed in and we the the the the the voice is beyond but it becomes something that's comprehensible to us through the kuim and then we hear no that's the roundita about what kruim are and uh and that's why there are two of them because we want to emphasize the fact these are creations this is not a keshu this is already a step down where you have created did a a bridge to the world around offers a very different explanation. Um and his explanation is that the kim once again they obviously cannot relate to but they relate to the interaction between and us. Um it says that they were one was a male figure, one a female figure which means that the ultimate bond is male to female and cla has that same type of bond. The um as the project says it becomes an incredible union male and female becomes incredible union. the the the the andasur has that same type of and so the kuim do not represent malim they represent and they they are a uh a bond between the two and that is what is the the that's expressed in the kuin this is borne out by the garra that says that they would show Klyis de Kuim facing each other in in other words the um it was a reflection of the bond between Kadesh Baraku and therefore when they were facing each other it was a sign that Kesharu is pleased with us and that the bond is in place and so on. So the Kim are an extraordinarily unusual um furnishing so to speak in the Mishkan we don't have images ever and here we have images we have two of them the Ram says they represent the concept of angels in the sense that there is a bridge between his self so to speak to the world and that is Malik which conveys the divine message into the language and and ideas and concepts that are that are are tangible in our physical world. The um the Makaya has a very different explanation. Hisation is that the two kuim represent the ongoing bond between their relative positions says whether we're facing each other or facing away from each other or somewhat each other represent different phases in um and and therefore in the in the at the very very heart of the of the Mishkan the the the actual center so to speak in terms of meaning is these are these kuim because what the what the Mishkan is what mdish is is a place where come