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The Zohar notes that Tabernacle was built in a similar fashion to the physical body. The Divine Presence is always drawn down from the spiritual to manifest in the physical; this is the secret of the Tabernacle as a "body" built to receive the "brain" within its shell.

The cherubs were symbolic of the fire and the thunder the Israelites experienced during the revelation at Mount Sinai. They were both constructed of gold, being recipients of the attributes Love and Justice. They were male and female in order to teach that these two genders represent the initiating force and the responsive force respectively.

The ark that the Jewish people constructed in the Sinai desert contained 3 layers representing three human dimensions. The innermost, made of pure gold and tucked inside the other two layers, reflected the Divine, spiritual essence. The middle ark made of wood reflected the more visible conscious personality. Nonetheless, our outer behavior must remain pure similar to the third and outer ark, made also of pure gold.

Silver represents the perfectly righteous, who funnel divine "light" into the mundane world. Gold is rarer and therefore more precious than silver; it represents those who have struggled with darkness and won. Copper represents those who live within the mundane but bring no light into it.

"Speak to the Children of Israel and take for Me a 'teruma'."

G-d commands the Jewish people to contribute gold, silver and copper towards the building of the Tabernacle. The word "teruma" actually means both "separating" and "elevating". These two explanations are related because a person separating from his possessions for a sanctified purpose, is also elevating them from their physicality to a higher spiritual dimension.