H ow could it be that an integral item in the Mishkan’s accessories were the golden keruvim atop the Ark in seeming blatant contravention to the very commandment etched on the Tablets inside against making any sort of graven image?
The two keruvim atop the Ark of Testimony — their faces like children — presented a stark philosophical challenge for the Generation of the Wilderness. The keruvim stood atop the kapores — the covering of the Ark in which the Luchos lay — all far away from the public eye concealed in the Holy of Holies behind the paroches.
But those two keruvim were a source of confusion for the pesukim specifically instruct: “And you shall make two keruvim of gold… on the two ends of the kapores. And make one keruv from one end and the other keruv from the other end” (Shemos 37:8). But at Har Sinai directly from the Mouth of G-d the entire nation heard words that seemed to flatly contradict this commandment: “Do not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything in the heavens above or the earth below.”
Obviously a fundamental contradiction and a thinker’s challenge. One of the sternest warnings the Jewish People heard at Sinai was the admonition against any attempt to depict G-das a tangible image. Am Yisrael was forbidden to make any physical representation of Divinity in the manner of the idolatrous nations. And this warning is repeated many times in the Torah as in the following pasuk: “You shall not make along with Me gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves” (Shemos 20:20).
