Cherubim – T’rumah
The Ark of the Covenant, from the 1728 Figures de la Bible
One answer is that they are not objects of worship. Yehudah HaLevi says they were acceptable because they were made at God’s command, whereas idols were explicitly prohibited.
Abravanel’s allegorical interpretation is that they were shaped like children and placed over the Ark cover to show that “from childhood onwards, every Jew must spend day and night poring over the Torah”.
Their wings were spread upwards “to teach that every Jew should let his thoughts soar up on high”; their faces were turned to one another to show “brotherly love for each other in loving service to mankind.”
