[Avodah] The shape of the Menorah of the Temple

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:28:36PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> HOWEVER, that's not exclusive to the arms ALSO being curved. Here, see the
>> long version, [25]:32:
>>     Veshishah: ta'am qanim. Agulim, arukhim, chalulim.
>
> In a word, pipe-shaped.  Round, long, and hollow.  That is, round
> in *cross-section*, not curved.  He's translating the word "kaneh",
> or rather explaining which aspects of a reed were replicated in
> these "kanim"....

Except that places description of the cross-section on either side of
mention of the length. I read "curved and long hollow things".
And actually, given the IE's placement of the arms, "qaneh" is more
arguably a nest, as per Mishlei 27:8, which would also explain the
bowl in Zekhariah's nevu'ah (4:2). And the IE could be thinking
of Zekhariah, whose nevu'ah calls the branches "muzaqos" (pipes).

Nowever, naniach your way, which fits Yeshaiah 19:6 and 42:3 (which
mentions both qaneh and a wick (!)), my problems are resolvable
according to the IE.

The fact that the IE says they're hollow would resolve my metallurgical
problem. (Although I don't know if Rashi and R' Avraham ben haRambam,
the two explicit "diagonalers", would agree they were hollow.)

The fact that he's describing the mishkan, whereas the archeology is
all late bayis sheini (or beyond), could answer my archeological
question.

If the menorah is kosher either way (and the text of the Yad doesn't
codify anything either way, just "nimshachim ve'olim", as per the beraisa
Melekhes haMishqan 10 and Menachos 28a), the mishkan's menorah could
have had long diagonal arms even while that in bayis sheini happened to
have curved ones.

As for the value of semicircular (albeit not the more stable
parabolic) arms:
Maaseh Chosheiv (ch 7) makes a point of having something that looks like
galgalei haraqi'ah, based on the parallel made between the neiros and
the kokhvei lekhes in the beraisa in Middos (see also Yalqut, Pequdei
419b).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Despair is the worst of ailments. No worries
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