At the beginning of this week’s parsha, we learn of the elevation of the candles upon lighting the Menorah in the Mishkan each day. Previously in this column, we examined the Ramchal’s emphasis on identifying the Menorah (and indeed all the keilim in the Sanctuary) with conglomerations of lights and Rav Kook’s discussion of the form of the Menorah as multiple flames stemming from a single column. This also recalls the vision of Zecharya that provides the haftara for our parsha (as well as the Shabbat of Chanukah), juxtaposing the flames of the Menorah with the eyes upon the cornerstone of the Beit HaMikdash.
The Menorah typically, in rabbinic literature, signifies wisdom, and indeed our Sages taught that one who would seek wisdom should look to the South because the Menorah stood on the southern side of the Sanctuary. (Baba Batra 25b). In Rav Kook’s essay which we reviewed previously, he examines the number seven corresponding to the seven lights of the Menorah and the seven primary planets that demarcate the celestial realms. This corresponds to the teachings of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms in his little known but highly influential work Yirat El, which in spite of its obscurity was almost certainly known by Rav Kook. Although the text itself is rarely studied, many of us are familiar with the teachings it contains, as it is common to find the eastern wall of a synagogue adorned with an arrangement of Psalm 67 in the form of a Menorah. In his essay, Rabbi Eleazar explains in detail what each segment of each arm of the Menorah corresponds to in realms Above as in our world below, and the same seven planets figure prominently in this work.
Rav Kook, perhaps surprisingly, addressed the Menorah very little in his published writings, but one other place where it appears is in the eighth general collection of essays known evocatively as the “General Collections” (Shemone Kevatzim). In the 157th essay in that volume Rav Kook deals with the ostensible difference between the “light of Moshe” and that of the Moshiach. An attentive student of the Arizal will probably find deeper symbolism in the distinction Rav Kook is making, but he associates Moshe’s light with that of the Torah and the light of Moshiach with the light of Israel itself. So far this is fairly straightforward. The Menorah enters into the discussion because it evidently has its own light, so it bears asking what sort of light is that – and is it more like the light of the Torah or that of Israel?
The Menorah, Rav Kook explains, represents a special case. On the surface it seems to correspond to the light of Israel – after all, it produces its own light and it stands outside of the Kodesh Kedashim where the written Torah rests in the Aron and the Heavenly voice is heard between the keruvim atop it. The light that comes from the Menorah illuminates the whole Sanctuary and also spreads its glow through the entire world. This is very much akin to the light of Israel when we are at our best, and to our future role in the days to come when Moshiach will be our leader as Moshe once was. However, there is something very unique about the construction of the Menorah, Rav Kook points out. Moshe was commanded to have the Menorah built in the form that was revealed to him upon Har Sinai, but Moshe was not able to build it himself. According to the Rashi (following the Midrash), Moshe didn’t understand how to build it at all – he required the expertise of Betzalel to execute the vision that was given to him.
Rav Kook teaches that in this way the Menorah is a perfect allegory for the light of Israel which above all is the Torah SheBe’al Peh, the Oral Torah, that was given to Moshe but transmitted through each and every one of us. Every time we discover a new “Torah deMoshe MiSinai,” an unprovenanced edict associated colloquially with Moshe, we are reaffirming our connection to that primary source of all Torah and to Moshe who passed it on to us. However, at the same time, the Torah is something that is constantly being built by us, by Israel. It is the light of Israel which is identical to the light of Moshiach insofar as Moshiach comes at the end of time as the consummation – the crowning achievement – of everything we’ve accomplished up to that point.
The Torah was given to Moshe as the image of the Menorah was. It could not be otherwise because it is an emanation of the Divine Wisdom; it is infinite and transcends human knowledge. There is no way that any mortal could have simply imagined or constructed the Torah without direct Divine Inspiration. However, at the same time, the structure and form of the Menorah – all its details and the bits and pieces that hold it all together – these cannot be known by Moshe in a practical sense. He can see the overall form and understand the intent more than anyone else who ever lived, but he can’t do it for us. All he can do is pass on this wisdom to us for us to construct it.
In this way, the light of Moshe becomes the light of Moshiach in part through the construction of the Menorah. When the Kohen elevates its lights, he is elevating all of us, in spite of and because of all our differences, and he is unleashing the light of Israel into the world.
