[Avodah] Behaaloscha Menorah's Different Symbols

[Cantor Wolberg]

"When you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the  
seven lamps cast light" (Numbers 8:2). As explained in Shmos 25:37,  
the three wicks on the right and the three on the left were all  
directed toward the Menorah's central stem, thus concentrating the  
light toward the center. Because its light was not spread out, the  
Menorah symbolized that God the Source of all light, did not need it  
to illuminate His Tabernacle. (Rashi).

What do the six outer lamps represent, and why must they all face the  
seventh center stem?

The commentators explain that the six outer branches represent the six  
fields of knowledge: medicine, physics, mathematics, art, psychology  
and sociology. These are essential fields of scholarship. They enable  
us to live our lives with the ability to conquer all the problems  
facing existence.

But the Torah is telling us that society cannot rest on knowledge  
alone. Unless this information is focused and directed toward the  
center stem - symbolizing God, Torah and spirituality - then this  
wisdom is for naught. Or worse, destructive, through its misuse.

ri 
  
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