The Faces of the Cherubim and the Height of Their Wings

"And the cherubim shall spread out their wings" (Exodus 25:20). Rabbi Aha bar Yaakov said: no cherub is less than a handbreadth. What is a "cherub"? Rabbi Abbahu said: like a child, for in Babylon they call an infant "ravya." Rav Pappa said to Abaye: if so, regarding what is written, "the face of the one was the face of the cherub and the face of the second was the face of a man" (Ezekiel 10:14), then the face of the cherub is the same as the face of a man? He said to him: a large face and a small face. It was taught: just as we find in the everlasting House [the Temple], the cherubim stood at a third of the height of the House, as it is written, "and the House that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty cubits high" (1 Kings 6:2), and it is written, "the height of the one cherub was ten cubits" (1 Kings 6:26). So too in the Tabernacle the cherubim stood at a third of the height of the Tabernacle. How high was the Tabernacle? Ten, as it is written, "ten cubits the length of the board" (Exodus 26:16). How many handbreadths is that? Sixty. Subtract the ten of the ark and the cover, and twenty remain; and it is written, "and the cherubim shall be spreading their wings upward," above ten. But perhaps their wings were level with their heads? "Upward" is written. And say that they were raised much higher? Does it say "upward, upward"? And from this we learn that a sukkah which is not ten handbreadths high is invalid. This works well for Rabbi Meir, who says all cubits are of the middle size; but for Rabbi Judah, who says the cubits of the vessels are by the cubit of five handbreadths, the measures, the partitions, and the dividers are a law given to Moses at Sinai.