{"id":73481,"date":"2020-04-19T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T20:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73481"},"modified":"2020-04-19T23:48:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T20:48:00","slug":"face-off-from-ox-to-cherub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/face-off-from-ox-to-cherub\/","title":{"rendered":"Face-off: From Ox to Cherub"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"73481","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"462","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Not your familiar baby-face\r\n\r\n","content":"

In Chapter One, Ezekiel described a four-sided creature with the faces of a man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox (1:10), that the Sages named the Merkabah (divine chariot). In this chapter, he repeated most of that description save that the ox was replaced by a cherub (14). Just what was a cherub, and why did it replace the ox?<\/span><\/p>\n

In Genesis (3:24), we encounter cherubs holding a \u201cfiery ever-turning sword,\u201d who were guarding the path to the tree of life. We next encounter them as objects that reposed atop the Ark of the Covenant, with the additional notation that they had outspread wings (Exodus 25:20), whose dimensions are given\u2014at the time of the construction of the Temple\u2014as a 10 cubits wingspan (1 Kings 6:24) and 10 cubits in height (6:26). The Israelites, on their way to battle the Philistines, took along the \u201cArk of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts enthroned on the Cherubim\u201d (1 Samuel 4:4), an epithet that recurs in 2 Kings (19:15) and Isaiah (37:16), as well as in Psalms (80:2, 99:1). The pictorial representation of cherubs as children and the adjective cherubic meaning childish innocence seem to derive from the Ammora R. Abbahu\u2019s specious identification (or folk etymology) of the Hebrew <\/span>keruv<\/span><\/em> with the Aramaic <\/span>ke-ravya<\/span><\/em> – \u201clike a youth\u201d (Hagigah 13b).<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the substitution of a cherub for the ox, Radak related the Talmudic interpretation (Hagigah, op. cit.) that Ezekiel prayed for the removal of the bovine face because it was too reminiscent of the golden calf and contravened the rabbinic dictum that \u201ca prosecutor cannot become a defender.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*See also Raanan Eichler\u2019s essay: <\/span>What Kind Of Creatures Are The Cherubim?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73482,"id":73482,"title":"ez10-cherub","filename":"ez10-cherub.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/face-off-from-ox-to-cherub\/ez10-cherub\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez10-cherub","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73481,"date":"2020-04-19 20:47:28","modified":"2020-04-19 20:47:34","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":535,"height":681,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","medium_large-width":535,"medium_large-height":681,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","large-width":535,"large-height":681,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","1536x1536-width":535,"1536x1536-height":681,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","2048x2048-width":535,"2048x2048-height":681,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub.jpg","post_full_size-width":535,"post_full_size-height":681,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez10-cherub-330x420.jpg","home_baner-width":330,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Cherubim - 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