Adam’s “Cherubs”

This representation of the Cherubs is very different from the ominous description of them in Genesis. After Adam and his Eve had sinned by eating from the fruit of good and evil, G-d expels them away from Eden. We are told in Chapter 3, verse 24 of Genesis:

He caused the Cherubs to dwell in the east of Eden, with their flaming turning swords, to guard the tree of life.

Cherubs with fiery swords are very different from the cherubs of our tabernacle.How does the Abarbanel reconcile the verses in Genesis with those in this week’s Torah portion?

The Abarbanel provides an incredibly novel and different way of understanding this verse in Genesis. He doesn’t believe that G-d caused angels with flaming swords to guard the tree of life. Rather he states:

When G-d chased Adam from Eden, he placed in the east of Eden where Adam was now living the “cherubs”. This means that he was troubled by his children that had been born to him - namely Kayin and Hevel, and the suffering that he saw in his own lifetime from his children, the death and the wandering of Hevel and Kayin respectively. The flaming sword here refers to the revolving troubles that separated his children from each other, and whose blade found both of his sons - first with Hevel and then later on with Kayin’s murder. Adam was so troubled and traumatised by all of these events in his life that it kept him away from the land of life (the tranquility of Eden) and brought his ultimate death.

The Abarbanel points out that the cherubs mentioned here are not angels, or spiritual beings at all. Rather, they are Adam’s children Kayin and Hevel. The trauma of Hevel’s death at the hand of his brother Kayin, Kayin’s curse of being a wanderer, and his ultimate demise was more than enough of a crisis and strain to remove Adam’s focus from a return to the tree of life, which the Abarbanel understands to be the tranquility of intellectual stimulation and spiritual focus.

The Abarbanel therefore is uniform in his understanding of what the cherubs were.They were images of children, just like the cherubs of Adam were his children Kayin and Hevel.

I believe that there is no coincidence here that the first time the word Cherubs are mentioned concern Kayin and Hevel, and now in relation to the Cherubs built in the Tabernacle. It begs the reader to compare and contrast these two sets of cherubs.

The first set of cherubs was characterised by hatred and divisiveness. The Abarbanel understands that the dispute between Kayin and Hevel was to ascertain which of the two professions that they had chosen for themselves was more honourable to G-d. Kayin believed it was to be a farmer, while Hevel believed it to be the business of shepherding. The reason that they brought a sacrifice was to ascertain which produce Hashem, the ultimate judge found more favourable. If fire came down from heaven and accepted Kayin’s sacrifice of produce, Kayin would know his profession was more acceptable. On the other hand, if fire came down from heaven and consumed Hevel’s sheep, Hevel’s profession would be vindicated.

Adam’s ‘cherubs’ were focused on argument and divisiveness, The cherubic brothers Kain and Abel’s focus on their overweening egotistical need to know who was better. Finally, the only result of the first set of Keruvim was death which traumatised and hurt Adam. Hevel’s death, Kayin’s wanderings and his ultimate demise at the hand of his grandchild Tuval Kayin were the fruit of these Cherubs.

The Cherubs in the Mishkan act as inverted forms of those belonging to Adam. The cherubs of the Mishkan had “their faces were upon each other”, displaying their love and brotherhood to each other. Furthermore, the purpose of the cherubs was that they both faced the Aron in which stood the tablets of stone- a representation of Torah, while both cherub’s wings were facing towards heaven, showing that their intentions should only be towards heaven. Their actions and thoughts were both focused in the same direction, for a pure spiritual purpose. The cherubs of the tabernacle were the connection to the ultimate light which is expressed in the word of Hashem whose voice was heard from between the two Cherubs.

If Kayin and Hevel had been the Cherubs of the tabernacle, they would not have faced each other. This fits in beautifully with the Talmud which tells us the following:

How were the cherubs standing? Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Elazar disagree about this. One says: Their faces were turned one toward the other. And one says: Their faces were turned toward the Sanctuary. The Gemara asks: But according to the one who says that their faces were turned one toward the other, isn’t it written: “And their faces were toward the House” (II Chronicles 3:13)? How does he explain the meaning of this verse? The Gemara answers: This is not difficult, as their faces miraculously changed directions in reflection of the Jewish people’s relationship to God. Here, when it states that the cherubs faced each other, it was when the Jewish people do the will of God. There, the verse that describes that the cherubs faced the Sanctuary and not toward each other, was when the Jewish people do not do the will of G-d (Bava Basra 99b).

Reading all of this, one can see an object lesson for the Jewish people. If they want perfection, they need to focus on G-d, each other and the Torah.Competition as to priorities, a lack of brotherhood for each other will lead to the ultimate tragedy of death, pain and trauma.