The current compulsion to re-imagine Israel education is exhausting and exhilarating – yes, both. The concern of the growing number of non or anti-Zionists within the Jewish Community outlined in the JFNA survey and the more recent  Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, is at once fascinating and frightening – yes, both. 

I have long argued, most recently in the Prizma Israel Education Now Journal Fall 2025 Article that our approaches and pedagogies for Israel education can and must be informed if not anchored in Jewish education. It is in this spirit that I believe this week’s portion of Terumah can be extremely instructive.

The Building of the Tabernacle evokes one of the most fundamental goals of Zionism

אנו באנו ארצה לבנות ולהבנות בה

We have come to our land to build and to be rebuilt in it.

In an analogous way, the building of the Tabernacle was not for God, rather for us. With an eye for details which the (IKEA like) instructions demand, the injunctions are the blueprints for an ethical way of life, or the core values that will enable becoming אנשי קודש a virtuous people.

Yet at the heart of the pivotal directives in the construction of the tabernacle lies a striking incongruity 25:18;

וְעָשִׂ֛יתָ שְׁנַ֥יִם כְּרֻבִ֖ים זָהָ֑ב מִקְשָׁה֙ תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה אֹתָ֔ם מִשְּׁנֵ֖י קְצ֥וֹת הַכַּפֹּֽרֶת׃

Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover.

What are these cherubs? These exquisite beings had the form of a child’s face. Tractate Succah 5b;

אָמַר רַבִּי אֲבָהוּ: כְּרָבְיָא, שֶׁכֵּן בְּבָבֶל קוֹרִין לְיָנוֹקָא רָבְיָא

Rabbi Abbahu said: Like that of a child [keravya], as in Babylonia one calls a child ravya.

The Midrash Aggadah gives voice to the discerned dissonance;

ועשית שנים כרובים. והלא אמר לך וצוך במעמד הר סיני לא תעשה לך פסל וכל תמונה (שמות כ’ ד’). לא קשיא, לך לא תעשה אבל לי עשה

How is it possible that we are required to create these images, we have been commanded at Sinai, that we are NOT to make for yourself a sculptured image…The Midrash resolves this seeming discrepancy by explaining for yourselves you are not allowed but for Me (God) you are. The midrash brings further examples of directives that appear to contradict each other and closes by introducing a staggering concept.

אלה וכיוצא בהן ברצון אחד נאמרו

“These and similar to them were said [by God] as one utterance”, implying that these ostensible contradictions were spoken by God simultaneously, rather than consecutively, representing a divine, unified declaration, that can hold more than one truth. 

The conundrum is offered another resolution by the fact that the Cherubim being in the area of the Holy of Holies were in fact never seen by the people, professedly endorsing the idea that they were made for God. Yet this argument is refuted in an astonishing revelation brought Talmud Yoma 54a

אָמַר רַב קַטִּינָא: בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל עוֹלִין לָרֶגֶל, מְגַלְּלִין לָהֶם אֶת הַפָּרוֹכֶת, וּמַרְאִין לָהֶם אֶת הַכְּרוּבִים שֶׁהָיוּ מְעוֹרִים זֶה בָּזֶה

Rav Ketina said: When the Jewish people would ascend for one of the pilgrimage festivals, the priests would roll up the curtain for them and show them the cherubs, which were clinging to one another, and say to them: See how you are beloved before God, like the love of the two cherubim. 

There are deeper and more fundamental ideas that are being shaped through this. Ideas that can also inform how to face Israel (Education) at this moment. 

The enjoinment for construction, more sculpturing of the cherubim is striking. They must be formed, chiseled from one large slab of gold. Later in the portion of Terumah, another iconic item must be constructed in the same manner, the Menorah, 25:31

 וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ מְנֹרַ֖ת זָהָ֣ב טָה֑וֹר מִקְשָׁ֞ה תֵּעָשֶׂ֤ה הַמְּנוֹרָה֙ יְרֵכָ֣הּ וְקָנָ֔הּ גְּבִיעֶ֛יהָ כַּפְתֹּרֶ֥יהָ וּפְרָחֶ֖יהָ מִמֶּ֥נָּה יִהְיֽוּ׃

You shall make a Menorah of pure gold; the menorah shall be made of hammered work; its base and its shaft, its cups, calyxes, and petals shall be of one piece.

Intriguingly with some poetic license we might understand ‘miksha’ not only as something solid but also as hard, difficult, קשה Kashe. Out of this “difficulty” one is invited, instructed to produce a seven branched menorah, two stunning childlike images, different from each other. Out of difficulties, “hard”ships, we are able to produce our most breathtaking images, ideas that are visions to behold. 

An additional symbolism that speaks far beyond the specific object, arises out of the term מִשְּׁנֵ֖י קְצ֥וֹת from the two ends or extremes, describing how the cherubim were configured at the ends of the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. From these two extremes their wings, arms were stretched out to meet, and lovingly hold each other. What a stunning image, that surely ought to instruct our educational philosophy and purpose through our building in order to be rebuilt.

The many perspectives, faces we value, the multiple branches that arise out of what appears to be a Miksha a solid block a difficulty is truly illuminating, instructive and crucial בימים ההם בזמן הזה in those days, at this time.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)