A thought on Parshas Vayakhel and Pekudei

"...va'yas Betzalel...shnei kruvim..." "...and Betzalel constructed two cherubs..." (37:1) Many Torah scholars have commented about the two golden sculptures known as the kruvim. These winged forms ensconced the Holy Ark. What they symbolized and the spiritual function which they served has been explored by our greatest sages. Rabbeinu Avigdor offers a concept: HaShem's universe is a place of duality. There is the lower material world in which we live and there is the higher spiritual world. We know these realms as shomayim and aretz. We sometimes think of them as "Heaven" and "earth." However, "heaven" is a term which we employ to contrast with the mundane, familiar plane of human existence. It is not heaven, per se. Rather, it is one of the two realms or dimensions which comprise, together, HaShem's universe. The heavens serve HaShem, for they are His creations. The earth and its inhabitants and substance are also created to serve HaShem. But they are both equally subordinate to Him. Neither is in reality closer to or more aligned with Him, in His vastness and infiniteness. Hence, both heaven and earth are HaShem's worlds, or world. In their ideal state, both are His servants. If not, the heavens continue to serve Him and the earth or its human inhabitants may veer from that avoda. The two keruvim represent those two dimensions. One represents the heavenly plane. The other represents the mundane plane. Both of them are in the ideal, and in the actual, filled with the Divine Presence. He is beyond them, for He is Above heaven and earth. Yet, He has allowed His Divine Presence to be sensed and known in heaven and on earth. That presence of the Presence is known as His tzimtzum, which is a kabbalistic term for how the Infinite and Eternal can still be associated with space and time. The two keruvim which ensconce the Holy Ark represent the concept of heaven and earth being able to "contain" the sense of Divine Presence despite their being matter and space. That sense of the Sacred was potent and strong in sensed presence within the space which spanned the winged keruvim. Rabbeinu Avigdor continues: "Today we Jews say, "now that we have neither mishkan nor mikdash to contribute our nedavos (offerings) to, let the offerings of our mouths be like nedavos to the mishkan." This is what Dovid HaMelech means in Tehillim (119:108) "nidvos pi retzea na HaShem" - please find favor HaShem with the offerings of my mouth". And this is what our sages say (Nedarim 7a) - if one says I will learn a chapter of Torah or a Torah law, he has made a great vow to his Father Above. This means he is like one who has donated an offering to HaShem's Mishkan abode. When our mouths speak words of praise to HaShem and we say words of Torah, we bring the Divine Presence closer into our mortal and our spiritual senses. Please include the name of my father Gershon ben Mereida in the offerings of your mouths. Good Shabbos. D Fox