The scriptures tell that Adam, who was\were created - "male and female together" - "in the image and Likeness of the Elohim", was then transported to the Garden of Eden, where there grew the world's two most fabulous trees - "the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil". Adam was advised not to eat of its fruit. Having partaken of the fruit of the latter, Adam was exiled from the Garden of Eden and acquired death, agricultural labor and childbirth labors, whereas the Adamah - the Living Earth - was cursed for this sake. The "Way of The Tree of Life" became forgotten and guarded by "The Keruvim (Cherubs) and the Sword that Turns Both Ways".

We meet the Keruvim then, when an exemplary bunch of humankind (called the "Children of Israel") was being formed by a series of exemplary acts. After their redemption from the slavery of "The Land of Mitsrayim" (Egypt, and literally "the Two Constraints"), they started becoming a model "nation of priests" by receiving the Torah (Divine Instruction) Tablets, and the instructions for building of the tabernacle of the Lord. There, the making of two Keruvim is specified, and they were to stand above "The Ark of Covenant" where the two sets of Tablets were kept. The Lord of the Universe - YHWH - seemed to speak "from among the Keruvim" as long as the Tabernacle acted as the prime means of direct human-to-YHVH communications,

Next we meet the Keruvim again when, at the end of their exile and travails, the Children of Israel seem to come to fulfillment, "each under his vine and under his Fig tree", and Solomon's Temple - the Temple of Shlomo (His Peace) in Yeru-Shalem (the Wholeness-Vision) - was opened to connect Heaven and Earth. It was to "the Lord who Dwells among the Keruvim" that King Solomon prayed. It was towards the inner chamber of the temple that the Jewish priests and later mystics oriented themselves on their search to re-enter paradise.

With this information, we can proceed to design the appropriate sets for a game on the re-entry to the Garden of Eden, or paradise-Pardess. Ohad Ezrahi's 90-page essay "Shnayim Keruvim" (two Cherubs, in Hebrew) in our book "haYashan yithadesh vehahadash yitkadesh - he'arot leMashma'ut haMikdash" explains these hidden subjects in great erudition and detail (available in the HOPE Shop - book section).

In the following, we approach it through a little fantasy tale ...

"The Four Who sought to Enter Paradise"

Back to the TOP of page | Cyber Library's Short Story Section