Sukkah 5B

דבר יוכני! תפשת מרובה לא תפשת, תפשת מועט תפשת. ואימא כאפי דציפרתא דזוטר טובא! אמר רב אחא בר יעקב: רב הונא ״פני״ ״פני״ גמר. כתיב הכא: ״אל פני הכפורת״, וכתיב התם: ״מאת פני יצחק אביו״.

of a bird called bar Yokhani, whose face is significantly larger than a handbreadth? The Talmud rejects this suggestion: If you grasped many, you did not grasp anything; if you grasped few, you grasped something. The Talmud asks: If so, say that it is like the face of a bird, which is extremely small? Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: Rav Huna derives that the thickness of the Ark cover was one handbreadth not through an actual comparison to the real faces of different creatures but rather by means of a verbal analogy between the terms penei and penei written in different places in the Torah. It is written here: “Before [penei] the Ark cover” (Leviticus 16:2), and it is written there: “From the presence of [penei] Isaac his father” (Genesis 27:30). The dimension of the Ark cover is like that of the face of a person, a handbreadth.

ונילף מפנים של מעלה, דכתיב: ״כראות פני אלהים ותרצני״! תפשת מרובה לא תפשת, תפשת מועט תפשת.

The Talmud suggests: And let us derive a verbal analogy from the face of God, as it is written: “For I have seen your face as one sees the face of [penei] God, and you were pleased with me” (Genesis 33:10). The term penei is used with regard to the face of God as well. The Talmud rejects this suggestion: If you grasped many, you did not grasp anything; if you grasped few, you grasped something.

ונילף מכרוב, דכתיב: ״אל הכפורת יהיו פני הכרובים״!

The Talmud suggests: And let us derive a verbal analogy from the face of the cherub in the Tabernacle and the Temple, as it is written: “Toward the Ark cover should be the faces of [penei] the cherubs” (Exodus 25:20), and their faces were presumably smaller than one handbreadth.