Cherubs: Male and Female

Make two (shnayim) golden cherubs, hammering them out from the two ends of the cover.                            Exodus 25:18 The verse necessarily employs the form “shnayim” rather than “shnei” because the latter implies equality of the two, while the two cherubs were different, one being male, the other, female.     Rabbeinu Beḥayye (1255 – c. 1340)

            Rabbi Menaḥem Kasher suggests that Rabbeinu Beḥayye’s source is the Talmudic statement:

Rabbi Katina said: When the Israelites ascended for 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. And it is written: “According to the space of each with loyot.” What is the meaning of “According to the space of each with loyot?” Rabba bar Rav Sheila said: like a man who clings to his wife. (literally: to the one who accompanies him [‘livaya’, a play on words on ‘loyot’])                                Yoma 54a-b

            [Rabbi Kasher notes that the Talmudic statement can be understood to mean that the cherubs merely symbolize male and female, but do not necessarily have the form of the two genders.]

            Rabbi Kasher thus explains the symbolism of the cherubs having the form of both genders:

the essential aspect of the sanctity of man is dependent upon the sanctity of coupling, therefore we were commanded to make a representation of a male and a female child within the Holy of Holies, to show the pilgrims and demonstrate to them that human sexuality can and must be on the level of holy of holies, as the babies, who are pure from sin. This is our Sages’ teaching [Babylonian Talmud Sota 17] “When a man and woman are worthy the Shechinah rests between them.”

            Rabbi Kasher adds a comment of Midrashei haTorah [Rabbi En-Shelomo Ashtruk (14^th century Spain)]: the cherubs were in the form of a male and female to demonstrate that the human material is of man and woman, while the form is given by God, as our Sages taught [Babylonian Talmud, Niddah 32b] “there are three partners in man’s creation: his parents and the Holy One, blessed be He.” Thus, the cherubs indicate the need for the combination of matter and form in order to achieve the Divine purpose.