Taamei Hamitzvos - The Menorah - The Spiritual Illumination of the Torah
Mitzvah #98 Sefer HaChinuch
Unlike the Aron, which symbolizes the actual Torah that was received by prophecy, the Menorah symbolizes the wisdom of the Torah as attained by the study of the Jewish people (Rav Hirsch).
The central branch represents the Written Torah, and the six protruding branches represent the six orders of the Oral Torah (Arizal, cited in Be’er Basadeh). The Menorah’s 7 branches, 22 cups, 11 spheres, and 9 flowers add up to 49 components, corresponding to the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuos, the day the Torah was given. This is why, during these days, some have the custom to recite Tehillim §67, which has 49 words, written out in the shape of a Menorah.
The Menorah weighed 120 manah, corresponding to the three-times-forty days that Moshe spent on Mount Sinai in order to receive the Torah (Maaseh Rokeach). The Menorah is positioned in the south of the Mishkan, which is called its “right side,” since “the heart of the wise man is on his right” (Koheles 10:2; Midrash Tadsheh §11).
According to the Midrash, the verse "The beginning of Your words shall illuminate” (Tehillim 119:130) alludes to the Menorah. Arizal,Rama (Toras HaOlah §16), and the Vilna Gaon explain this to mean that the opening verses of the Torah’s five Books allude to the various components of the Menorah: The opening verse of Bereishis has 7 words, alluding to the number of the Menorah’s branches; the opening verse of Shemos has 11 words, alluding to the number of the Menorah’s spheres; the opening verse of Vayikra has 9 words, alluding to the number of flowers; the opening verse of Bamidbar has 17 words, alluding to its height [1]. The opening verse of Devarim has 22 words, alluding to the number of cups.
We may suggest that the opening verses of the five Books, as well as the five components of the Menorah to which the opening verses allude, correspond precisely to the contents of those Books, as follows:
Bereishis is the Book of Creation, which the verse describes as “He formed seven pillars for it” (Mishlei 9:1); meaning, Hashem created the world in seven days (Rashi). The Menorah thus has seven lamps that correspond to the seven days of Creation (Tanchuma), set upon the seven pillar-like branches of the Menorah;
Shemos describes 11 tribes subjugated in Egypt and then redeemed; hence, it begins with eleven words corresponding to the eleven spheres of the Menorah. The twelfth tribe, the priestly tribe of Levi, did not undergo subjugation in Egypt, and are generally regarded separately from the other tribes. The word for sphere, kaftor, shares the letters of the word kafut, meaning bound, as in slavery.
Levi comprises eight families (Livni, Shimi, Amram, Yitzhar, Chevron, Uziel, Machli, and Mushi), plus Aharon’s Kohanite family, for a total of nine. So too, Vayikra, the Book that sets forth the special mitzvos that pertain to Levi, begins with nine words, corresponding to the eight flowers along the branches of the Menorah, plus a ninth by its base. The flowers are associated with the Tribe of Levi, as we find that Aharon’s staff sprouted blossoms (VaOlech Eschem Komemiyus).
Bamidbar describes the Jewish People traveling through the Wilderness in a camp of seventeen elements: the Mishkan in the center; surrounded by four family groups (Gershon to the west, Kehas to the south, Merari to the north, and the families of Moshe and Aharon to the east); surrounded by four groups of three tribes. The encampment as a whole may be regarded as an eighteenth element. This finds expression in the Menorah’s height of eighteen handbreadths, which is alluded to in the seventeen words of the opening verse of Bamidbar, along with the kollel, as explained in the footnote above.
In Devarim, Moshe teaches the Torah to the Jewish People, and the Torah is symbolized by its twenty-two letters; hence the Book of Devarim begins with twenty-two words corresponding to the twenty-two cups. A cup, a receptacle, is a fitting symbol for Jewish People’s reception of the Torah from their teacher, Moshe, here in the Plains of Moab, whereas on Mount Sinai it was Moshe alone who received the entire Torah.
A Torah scholar is compared to a tree, and so too, the Menorah has a trunk, branches, flowers, cups similar to the ovary of a flower, and spheres shaped like fruit (Rav Hirsch). The height of the Menorah is that of an average man (Alshich). Measuring eighteen handbreadths, it has the numerical value of the word chai (life) because the Torah is the Tree of Life (Toras HaOlah). The cups, which contain the spheres, from which blossom forth flowers, allude to the three stages of a Torah scholar’s development. First, he must focus on receiving Torah from his teachers, like a cup. Then he must focus on retaining his studies, like a sealed-off sphere. Finally, he becomes capable of blossoming and producing novel Torah-true insights (Dvar Mikra, by Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein). The seven lamps correspond to the seven gateways to the soul: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth (Midrash Tadsheh §11). Every Jew is capable of radiating with Divine glory by acquiring Hashem’s wisdom that is contained in the Torah, our national heritage.
[1] Although the Menorah’s height is 18 handbreadths, the Commentators explain that a) the eighteenth handbreath corresponds to the base of the Menorah; or that b) it is actually only a partial handbreadth and is therefore not counted; or, that c) it is alluded to by the kollel; or that d) it is alluded to by the beis of Bereishis, or e) a combination of the above.
