Sunday, February 22, 2015

In the "Holy of Holies" were the "Keruvim" one was the face of a man and the other of a women

Let's learn a "shtickel" gemarrah together, and then let's understand what the Yeshivah guys and the Chassidishe Oilim would say today if the RBSH"O would ask them to build an Aron!

The Gemarrah in Mesachtes Yoma 74a, discusses what the Keruvim represented. But by learning this Gemarrah, we have an idea what they actually looked like.

Rav Katina said: “When Klall Yisroel would come to the Bais Hamikdash for Yom Tov, the curtain would be pulled back for them and they would see the Keruvim  intertwined with each other. [The kohanim] would say to them: “Behold, the love of you before God is like the love of man and woman.”
Rav Katina  only explains the symbolism of the  wings of the Keruvim touching each other. He states that this represents love, and should call to mind the love of G-d to G-d’s people, Israel. 
What Rav Katina does not explain is how the love of two creatures who are exactly the same should come to represent G-d and Israel. It must be that the two creatures weren't exactly the same......
This interpretation likely reflects a midrashic connection between the phrase “spreading wings (פרשי כנפים)” used in Parshas Terumah to describe the Keruvim and the identical phrase in Yechezkel. 16:8 and Rus 3:9 for a man spreading his cloak over a woman.
Rashi takes the  position of the Gemarrah that states that the Keruvim  had the face of  children.
But R. Bahya ben Asher (Rabbeinu Bechayeh) and R. Moshe Alshich (The Alshich Hakodosh), offer a modified version of Rav Katina’s statement, suggesting that one was male and one was female.
אלשיך: ” הם ילדים זכר ונקבה”, בחיי: ” זכר ונקבה היו, להודיע כמה ישראל חביבין לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא 
Now, If we were to take the position of the Alshich Hakodesh and the Rabbeinu Bechayeh, that learn pshat in the "memreh" of Rav Katina that the Keruvim had faces of a boy and a girl......
What would today's Rosh Yeshivas and Chassidishe Rebbes tell G-d?

"NO No !!!!!! No!!!! "A face of a lady in the Kodshei Hakodoshim???? No! We won't allow this!
If we don't have pictures in Ami Magazine, or any Chareidie Newspaper... of ladies, how could the RBSH"O command us to put a face of a girl on top of the Aron Hakodesh that was situated in the Kodesh Hakadoshim!?????
We are frumer then the RBSH"O  that's it! Yes! We are frumer then Hashem!
Nope.... we won't allow it...We won't build the Aron!!
Will just throw the Torah in a box ...in the Kodshi Hakodoshim.."
Or perhaps, Artscroll will tear out the Gemarrah in Yoma and throw both the Alshich and Rabbeinu Bachyeh in the trash.... then nobody will know what the RBSH"O really wanted.....

And what He really wanted according to the Alshich HaKodesh and Rabbeinu Bachyeh was for Moshei Rabbeinu  to put two , three dimensional statues in the Kodshi Hakodoshim, one with the face of a boy, and the other with a face of a girl.......... embracing! ....

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