For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 54
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Moving to another statement from the last Mishna, the rabbis wonder about the staves of the Ark. Apparently, we learn both that they can be seen and that they can't be seen. How do we resolve this contradiction? Among many other ideas, the rabbis suggest that they might have been pressed up against the curtain, "like the two breasts of a woman (pushing against her clothes)". The prooftext? From Song of Songs, of course, 1:13, where "My beloved is to me like a bundle of myrrh, that lies between by breasts". In a similar tone, the wings of the cherubs touching each other in the Holy of Holies are said to stand in for the Jewish people, who are "... beloved before G0d, lie the love of a male and female".
The rabbis compare the hidden Ark with the modest bride who only reveals herself to her husband after marriage. They further this analogy between the hidden Ark and a divorced woman who was once allowed to show herself but then, since divorce, is again modest in his presence until they remarry. And thus, we will eventually 'marry' with these sacred representations of G-d's presence.
The rabbis then describe the many curtains, images and carvings within the Holy of Holies. Reish Lakish tells one story of the cherubs who look as if in romantic contact with each other.
This leads us to an exploration of the meaning between the metaphor of romnatic love between the Divine and Knesset Yisrael.