[Avodah] The shape of the Menorah of the Temple

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> 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.)

They don't say.  Although a strong argument against hollow is that it
would be difficult to do that while hammering the whole thing out of
one block of gold.  The reason the IE says they're hollow is because
he's focusing on the word "kaneh", and translating it for us.  He's
telling us what are the essential properties of a reed, so that a
metal object having these same qualities would also be called one.
The Rambam is not a pashtan, so doesn't have to deal with the word
choice.  Rashi is a pashtan, but he seems to have thought it obvious
what makes something a "kaneh". 


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

Specifically, the one that was made after the Chashmonaim, to replace
the one they made out of iron spears.


> 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).

Indeed the Maaseh Choshev is almost the first sefer to claim that the
arms were round; but he explicitly says that his basis is the fact
that the Rambam says "nimshachim ve'olim" and doesn't say "ba'alachson".
The only earlier sefer to make such a claim is "Chochmas Hamishkon",
which is not that much earlier.  And he also bases himself on the
Rambam's stimas halashon.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher