Sukkah, Daf Heh, Part 5
Introduction
Yesterday we concluded by learning that the face of the cherub is like that of the face of a person. Today’s passage begins by questioning that assumption.
אמר ליה אביי: אלא מעתה דכתיב +יחזקאל י+ פני האחד פני הכרוב ופני השני פני אדם היינו כרוב היינו אדם! – אפי רברבי ואפי זוטרא.
Abaye said to him: If so, how will you explain that which is written, "The first face was the face of the cherub and the second face the face of a man," (Ezekiel 10:14) seeing that the face of a cherub is the same as that of a man?
[One has] a large face and the other a small face.
The verse from Ezekiel seems to imply that the face of the cherub looks different than that of a man. But this contradicts what was said in the previous lines.
The answer is that the cherub has a little face, albeit human, whereas the face of a man in Ezekiel’s vision implies the face of an adult.
וממאי דחללה עשרה בר מסככה? אימא בהדי סככה!
But how do we know that the height of the interior space exclusive of the skhakh, must be ten [handbreadths]. Say that it might include the skhakh!
The Talmud now goes back to questioning the very issue of learning the height of the sukkah from the height of the ark and cover. How do we know that the sukkah’s empty space must be 10 handbreadths high? Perhaps the skhakh can be inside the 10 handbreadths minimum height requirement as long as the some of the skhakh is above 10 handbreadths?
אלא מבית עולמים גמר, דכתיב +מלכים א ו+ והבית אשר בנה המלך שלמה לה’ ששים אמה ארכו ועשרים רחבו ושלשים אמה קומתו וכתיב +מלכים א ו+ קומת הכרוב האחד עשר באמה וכן הכרוב השני. ותניא: מה מצינו בבית עולמים – כרובים בשליש הבית הן עומדין, משכן נמי כרובים בשליש הבית הן עומדין.
Rather he learned this from the Temple as it is written, "And the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits," (II Kings 6:2) and it is written, "The height of the one cherub was ten cubits and so was it of the other cherub," (II Kings 6:26) and it was taught: Just as we find in the Temple that the cherubim reached to a third of its height so also in the Tabernacle they reached to a third of its height.
The Talmud will now learn, in quite an indirect fashion, that the skhakh must be above ten handbreadths. The ten handbreadth minimum measure does not include the skhakh.
The first Temple, built by Solomon, was 30 cubits high. The height of top of the cherubs was 10 cubits. So the cherub reached to a height of 1/3 of the Temple.
There is a tradition that the same proportion of height of cherub to height of Temple existed in the Tabernacle, the wandering "temple" in the desert.
משכן כמה הוי – עשר אמות, דכתיב +שמות כו+ עשר אמות ארך הקרש. כמה הוי להו – שיתין פושכי. תלתיה כמה הוי – עשרים פושכי.
Now what was the height of the Tabernacle? Ten cubits, as it is written, "Ten cubits shall be the length of a board" (Exodus 26:16).
How much is this? Sixty handbreadths.
How much is a third? Twenty handbreadths.
The height of the Tabernacle was ten cubits, which is 60 handbreadths. So the top of the cherubs would have reached a height of 20 handbreadths.
דל עשרה דארון וכפורת – פשו להו עשרה, וכתיב +שמות כה+ והיו הכרבים פרשי כנפים למעלה סככים בכנפיהם על הכפרת. קרייה רחמנא סככה למעלה מעשרה.
Deduct the ten of the ark and the ark-cover, and ten handbreadths remain; and it is written, "And the cherubim shall spread out their wings on high, covering the ark-cover with their wings" (Exodus 25:20).
[From which we see that] that the Merciful One calls [the wings that were stretched] above a height of ten handbreadths a covering."
The ark was ten handbreadths high, including the ark-cover. The Torah uses the word "skhakh," translated here as "covering" to refer to the cherubs who must be above 10 handbreadths. Hence, using this calculation we can conclude that the skhakh must be above 10 handbreadths.
On a more "midrashic" note we might find it interesting that the skhakh is described as above us like the cherubs who seem to be the seat of God’s throne on earth. By extension, we could say that the skhakh is our version of building God’s throne.
ממאי דגדפינהו עילוי רישייהו קיימי? דלמא להדי רישייהו קיימי!
But how do we know that their wings were above their heads? Is it not possible that they were on a level with their heads.
The Talmud still persists on asking. The cherubs sat 10 handbreadths high. How do we know that their wings were above that? Maybe there wings were exactly at 10 handbreadths which would mean that the skhakh could be included in the 10 handbreadths.
אמר רב אחא בר יעקב: למעלה כתיב.
ואימא דמידלי טובא! – מי כתיב למעלה למעלה?
R. Aha b. Jacob answered, It is written On high .
But perhaps this means that the wings were raised very high?
Is it then written, On high, on high ?
R. Aha b. Jacob says that we learn this from the word "above." The wings were above their head. And this doesn’t mean that the wings were very high, for if that was the intended meaning it would have repeated the word high. Thus we can learn that while the cherubs sat exactly at 10 handbreadths, their wings were above the 10 handbreadth mark, just as our skhakh must be.