B’Haalotcha
The Menorah
June 2, 2007

Light provides a fundamental symbol to all human beings. By light we see; and by light we are seen. But light means much more than that.
In Genesis when God begins to create the universe God begins with light – which then provides the fundamental distinction in creation: light versus darkness. When God fashions the heavenly luminaries on the fourth day, the sun, moon and stars provide light. According to the midrash and Jewish mysticism, that primordial light of creation God then stored away for the righteous in the world-to-come.
In the darkness of the Tent of Meeting or Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai, Israel’s first sanctuary, the 7 branched menorah illuminates the interior of the tent. Only one light remains lit perpetually, the middle light of the menorah called the ner tamid, the term used today for the light over our ark. That menorah may already have become the national symbol during the First Temple, but it was certainly the symbol of the nation during the Second Temple period, which ended with the Temple’s 70 CE destruction by Rome. To this day on the Arch of Titus in Rome, Italy constructed by Roman Emperor Titus to immortalize his victory over Israel, Roman soldiers of the Tenth Roman Legion are depicted carrying the menorah into captivity. That monument intended to immortalize Roman strength has been transformed by history into a shrine to Jewish immortality. The Romans have long since gone the way of all flesh, but the Jewish people survives and thrives even 2 millennia later: the vanquished far outdistancing the victors.
In the sixth century in Persia, around the time of the first Jewish exile, Zoroaster preached Zoroastrian dualism. He taught that there were two fundamental powers in the world warring with one another: good vs. evil, which he symbolized as light vs. darkness. That cosmic dualism was opposed by Zoroaster’s contemporary, the biblical prophet whom we refer to as Second Isaiah. The argument over whether there exists a cosmic force for good fighting a cosmic force for evil continues today in Judaism vs. Christianity, as Christianity followed the Zoroastrian path of dualism while Judaism followed the biblical path of monism. All of this comes as naturally to human beings as the original statement of light vs. darkness that we encounter in the first chapter of Genesis.
Now here, in Sarah’s portion, as Israel prepares to leave Mt. Sinai for the first time in over a year, the high priest constructs and then dedicates and lights the Tabernacle menorah. But symbols live and grow, or die. The menorah in the Tent of Meeting comes to symbolize the entire nation. When the Syrian Greeks later desecrate the altar in Jerusalem, and three years later the Maccabees rededicate the Temple, they celebrate an eight day holiday of dedication called Hanukkah. Lighting the menorah becomes the central symbol of that ceremony, but instead of the traditional 7 branched menorah of the Tabernacle it transforms to an eight branched menorah of Hanukkah. This menorah we find in virtually every Jewish home today, and its midwinter light illuminates children’s smiles as families gather to exchange gifts and celebrate the end of oppression. Instead of a symbol of creation, or good vs. evil, the menorah comes to symbolize freedom, and the gumption to take Jewish fate into our own hands even in the face of death.
Finally, in 1948 the menorah became the official symbol of the third Jewish commonwealth, the State of Israel, and stands across from the Israel Parliament building, the Knesset, as a reminder of the state and the longevity of the Jewish people.
Light has primordial significance. It is a natural symbol. The menorah, first constructed in Sarah’s Torah portion, has a long honored place among our people. Its light continues to shine from the ner tamid over the ark, in the symbol of Israel, in every Hanukkah menorah and in the heart of every Jew. We believe in God’s light. Evil in the universe is not the result of some force separate from God, but exists naturally in every person for us to overcome. May this remembrance of the Tabernacle and the light within enable all of us to rekindle that light as well, that God will live in our souls and be realized in our actions, and then God’s light will once again become the light of all the world, as in the first days of creation.