<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><!--StartFragment--><p><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><i>"When
you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps cast light"</i>
(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. (<i>Rashi</i>).</span></p><p><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"> What do the six outer lamps represent, and why must they all
face the seventh center stem?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b>ri </b></font></p>
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