Associate Rabbi David's Column June 2009

Our Annual Meeting this year takes place during the week of Torah portion Beha’alotekha, which describes the menorah of seven lights that was to be fashioned for use in the mishkan (portable tabernacle during the years of wilderness wandering) and that later was a prominent ritual object in the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.  It was this menorah that, according to the traditional story in the Talmud, miraculously burned for eight days on one day’s supply of oil following the victory of the Maccabees that we now celebrate at Chanukah.  Indeed, the haftarah that we’ll hear in shul this coming Shabbat June 13 is the same haftarah that is chanted on the Shabbat of Chanukah week.  

The very first detail about the menorah that we read in this week’s parasha connects meaningfully with what we are doing here today as we gather for our Annual Meeting.  We learn that when Aaron lights the menorah, the seven lamps should give light “el mul pnei hamenorah”  (Num. 8:2).  The Jewish Publication Society translation used in the Etz Hayim Torah Commentary translates the words “el mul pnei hamenorah” as “at the front of the lampstand.”   

However, there is a certain amount of ambiguity in the Hebrew expression “el mul pnei hamenorah” – It could be translated as either “in front of the menorah” or, alternatively, as “towards the face of the menorah.”  The Talmud and several of the medieval commentators favor this latter interpretation.  They further understand the words “pnei hamenorah”/ ”the face of the menorah” to refer to the middle branch of the seven branches.  The 11th century French Jewish commentator Rashi explains that the three wicks on the right and the three wicks on the left all were tilted towards the menorah’s central stem, thus concentrating the light towards the center.   

The Italian Jewish commentator Sforno, who lived in Italy from 1475 to 1550, suggests that the three lights on the right represent those people who occupy themselves with “chayyei olam”/”eternal concerns” – i.e., with intellectual and spiritual matters.  The three lights on the left symbolize those people who occupy themselves with “chayyei sha’ah”/ “momentary concerns” – i.e., with practical, temporal matters.  All six lights are directed towards the center light to symbolize that all of our pursuits, whether ostensibly “religious” or ostensibly “secular,” can be carried out in a way that brings Godliness into the world. 

The world at large, the Jewish people in general, and our congregation in particular, need both kinds of people – scholars as well as salesclerks, artists as well as plumbers, writers as well as construction workers, musicians as well as engineers, clergy as well as business entrepreneurs, poets as well as physicians.  Sforno finds the same idea of mutual co-operation expressed in Exodus 19:8, where, just before the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, it says – “vaya’anu kawl ha’am  yachdav vayomru kawl asher diber adonai na’aseh” – “All the people answered together saying ‘all that Adonai has said we will do.’”  Together in co-operative community rather than separately as atomistic, isolated individuals. 

The other main detail about the menorah that we find in this week’s parasha (“[Torah] portion”) is that all its elaborate parts are to be “mikshah” (“beaten” or “hammered out”) from a single lump of gold.  We may see this detail too as a metaphor for community and Jewish peoplehood.  We are part of one integrated whole (like the single lump of gold from which the menorah is made); even as we branch out in various ways as unique individuals, with unique gifts and unique needs (like the various stems, cups, knobs and petals of the menorah).   

If you want to put this into a sound bite, you could say that the menorah is a vision of unity within diversity, and of diversity within unity.  Similarly, our OZ members have diverse theologies, ritual practices and life experiences yet we seek to foster a unified congregation that finds in Judaism the tools for healing the world and nourishing the spirit.  

This has been a wonderful year in the life of OZ – stock market conditions notwithstanding.  Our congregation is blessed with many caring and committed individuals and families and an inspiring set of leaders – beginning with Rabbi Joshua and Basha Brody and including the various members of our board, our committees (especially the Hebrew School Committee under the leadership of Susan Greenfield with whom I work so closely), our synagogue staff, our Hebrew School teaching staff, all my fellow Torah and haftarah readers (including the new crop of bnai mitzvah students) – and all of you who take part in the many and varied programs offered here. 

Like the rest of the nation, we as a congregation have serious financial challenges ahead of us.  But, to quote a popular credit card ad campaign – what we share as a kehillah kedoshah (“a holy congregation”) is “priceless.” 

L’shalom,

Rabbi David Steinberg