Make one cherub at the end of one side, and one cherub at the end of the other.[2]
Rambam’s observation[3] about human nature is well known: personality traits and characteristics vary wildly between people, and you will find some who take those characteristics to the limit. The humility of some people can be so extreme, that no barb directed at them, no pain or inconvenience leads them to react with emotion. Some people are so full of themselves, that they never show compassion or deference to anyone at all.
Rambam’s prescription for this finding has become known as the Golden Mean. The Torah Jew should avoid extremes, and locate himself at in the middle ground between the extremes of personality.
Yet, he argues, it is important not to abandon these extremes. There is a time and place to make use of them. The extremes, which we properly dismiss as beneath us, are important in serving Hashem. In dealing with dangerous sinners, it is improper to react with one’s humility and compassion. To the contrary, a person must gird himself with a spirit of devotion to Divine honor. He should display anger, and even vengeance, against them.
It is in this way that the Rambam[4] explains R. Yehuda ben Teima’s instruction: “Be bold as a leopard, light as a griffon-vulture, fast as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the will of your father in Heaven.” The animals all signify the more debased character traits. But these, too, must be employed in the service of Hashem.
This, I believe, is the symbolic message of the two cheruvim atop the aron. Each sat at “the end” of a side, i.e. represented midos taken to an extreme. In the next pasuk we learn that the cheruvim’s wings were “spread upwards.” All midos should be used to raise up, to elevate a person towards perfection. Therefore, they need to be focused on the aron and luchos. In doing so, they find the middle ground between the extremes. Each midah can look at its opposite, and together create a balance. “With this shall Aharon come into the Kodesh/Sanctuary.”[5] Once this balanced is achieved, one can enter into the holiness of Torah and mitzvos.
When the extremes of midos cannot coordinate with each other, the cheruvim do not look at each other, but past each other. They are not restrained; they don’t find the middle ground; extremes flourish. This is the meaning of the gemara’s[6] declaration that when Klal Yisrael acts in consonance with Hashem’s Will, the cheruvim face each other, and appear like a male and female intertwined in embrace. They coordinate with each other, each making their separate contributions of character. Despite their differences, they can create and raise a child between them.
Howerver, when Klal Yisrael acts in opposition to His Will, the cheruvim remain apart, with different leanings and reactions, not noticing each other.
That same gemara reports that when the conquerors entered the Kodesh Kodashim, the found the cheruvim locked in embrace. How could this be? We had acted so terribly, that Hashem’s anger was kindled against us, to the point that He reduced His house to rubble. We were certainly not acting in consonance with His Will!
The answer, I believe, is that He wanted to make it known that even when we were disappointing Him so thoroughly, we still showed greater perfected character than was found the nations who had been allowed to conquer them.
A consolation – even if small – at the time of great tragedy.
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul by R. Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Shoel U-Meishiv ↑
- Shemos 25:19 ↑
- Deos 1:1 ↑
- Perush HaMishniyos, Avos 5:20 ↑
- Vayikra 16:3 ↑
- Yoma 54a ↑