subject tonight is the uniqueness of the מנורה, of the מנורה, the candelabra that they had in the משכן and the בית המקדש. The reason I chose this subject is because this פרשה, the פרשה, the portion of the תורה that we learn this week is פרשת תרומה, where we learn about the building of the משכן and all the כלים, all the vessels. And one of them, of course, was the מנורה, so I would be keen to discuss the מנורה. And the מנורה was unique. In certain ways it was unique, more unique than all the other vessels of the משכן and the בית המקדש. The truth is that every one of the כלים, every one of the vessels in the משכן and the בית המקדש is unique in its own way. So if we would be discussing the other ones, we would show how they are unique and what are special qualities in the others. Especially if we would be talking about the ארון, for instance, the holy ark, that certainly was special, it had the לוחות in it. But being that everyone has its uniqueness, so we will discuss the מנורה and the uniqueness of the מנורה. Now we do find that the מנורה was very special, more special than the other vessels of the בית המקדש and the משכן, because concerning the מנורה, it's the only vessel that the חזל, our sages tell us, that עדות היא לבאי עולם שהשכינה שרויה בישראל, that this was supposed to be testimony to the whole world that השם, the שכינה rests amongst the Jews, meaning rests in the בית המקדש. We don't find that expression concerning the ארון, even though the ארון, the ark, was the place where the שכינה was. That is the מקום משכן השכינה, that's the place where the שכינה dwelt, but it doesn't say that that was testimony to the world. The one vessel that was testimony to the whole world that this is what made people realize that השם rests in the בית המקדש and is there amongst the Jews, that was the מנורה only. And as the חכמים tell us, they ask the question: וכי לאורה הוא צריך? Did השם need light? Usually, you have a candelabra with light in a room because it's dark. Number one, at night, it's always dark, even if you have windows, at night it's dark. But a place without windows, it's even darker. Now the משכן did not have any windows. The משכן, the אהל מועד where the מנורה stood, so it was dark. Even in the בית המקדש there were windows, but not so many. But nevertheless, is this the reason they need the מנורה? Because it was dark, so השם needed light? Just like in a normal house, you need light to see what you're doing, so השם needed light? Certainly not. So then the גמרא asks, so why did they have the מנורה? And the

answer is, because that was supposed to be an עדות, a testimony for the whole world that השם rests amongst the Jews. How was the מנורה testimony? Because there was one light on the מנורה, the נר מערבי, the western side of the מנורה, western candle of the מנורה, always burned, never was extinguished. And that was a miracle, and that miracle showed the whole world that there is something special in this building, that this is something that happens constantly, and that showed the whole world that השם is there. But what I'm trying to bring out is that here we see that the מנורה has something special that others don't, and that's why really I chose the מנורה, to discuss the מנורה, because the מנורה was a special כלי, a special vessel amongst the other vessels. Now what I'm going to do is first discuss some of the technical details concerning the מנורה, and then we'll get a little, a little bit deeper in what חסידות explains, and based on קבלה obviously, and the רבי explains in his שיחות, what is the meaning of the מנורה.

First of all, where do we get this מצוה of making the מנורה? This week's פרשה, פרשת תרומה, it says: ועשית מנורת זהב טהור, you shall make a מנורה of pure gold. So there is definitely a positive commandment that you shall make a מנורה. Nevertheless, those ספרים that deal with מנין המצות, with numerating the 613 מצות, don't count this פסוק, the מצוה of making the מנורה as one of the 613 מצות. And let me elaborate a moment on this ענין. We know that there are 613 מצות, the גמרא says that, the גמרא bases it on the פסוק where it says, תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב. תורה was commanded by משה as an inheritance to Jews. And the גמרא says that the word תורה is the גימטריא, the numerical value of the word תורה is תרי"א, is 611. Why? Because 611 מצות we were told by משה. Two we were told by השם Himself. The first two דברות, the first two statements of the עשרת הדברות: אנכי השם אלקיך, I am השם your G-d, etc., לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים, the second one, you shall not have other god. That was said to us by השם Himself. But the others were said by משה. So the גמרא makes it very clear that there are 613 מצות in the תורה. Now,

when we look in the תורה, and we would count how many times the תורה says, "Do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that," you'll find much more than 613. So obviously, not every time the תורה says do this or don't do this go it goes into the חשבון, into the account of these 613. There must be rules which פסוקים where it says do something or don't do something, which are included as a counted as a separate מצוה and which not. And therefore, for instance, the רמב"ם, who has a ספר המצות, he gives 13 rules part of the ספר are the rules 13 rules which one is counted as one of the מצות, which one is not. And then you have others who have similar rules, different rules, different מוני המצות, different חכמים who counted the מצות. So some are counted, some are not. This מצוה of ועשית מנרת זהב טהור, this מצוה that you shall make a מנורה, which seems to be a very clear commandment, nevertheless, this one is not counted by the מוני המצות, by those that count the מצות, as a separate מצוה. Why? So here we have an argument between the רמב"ם and the חינוך against the רמב"ן. The רמב"ם and the חינוך hold that the reason that's not counted because it's all included in the general מצוה that we have to make a בית המקדש. There is a מצוה ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם, make for me a מקדש and I will dwell amongst them or in the בית המקדש. That the source for the מצוה of making the משכן that השם told משה רבינו in the desert, which also is the source of the מצוה later on to make the holy temple, the בית המקדש. And the רמב"ם says that none of the כלים are considered as separate מצות if they're all part of this one general מצוה of making a מקדש. And therefore, he doesn't count the מצוה of making the מנורה as a separate מצוה, he doesn't count the מצוה of making the שולחן the table as a separate מצוה, he doesn't count making the מזבח as a separate מצוה, because they're all included in this one major מצוה. That's what the רמב"ם holds and the ספר החינוך. On the other hand, the רמב"ן says that that is not the reason the רמב"ם may hold. And the רמב"ם explains: When you tell somebody, 'I would like to have a dwelling place, so make me a building, make me a house,' we assume it includes furniture, too. You expect to have a furnished house. So when השם said, 'ועשו לי מקדש, make me a מקדש, make me a house,' this מצוה includes this furniture, which are the כלים, and that's why they're not considered as separate מצות. On the other hand, the רמב"ן holds that that's not the reason. He says that the reason the different כלים, the different vessels, are not considered as separate מצות is because they are part of the מצוה of what has to be done with that כלי. For instance, on the שולחן, on the table, you have to put the 12 breads. And that's a מצוה that you have to put this 12 bread. So he says the מצוה of making the table is part of the מצוה of putting on the bread. So the מצוה that he counts is putting on the bread, and in order to have the place to put the bread on, you have to have a table. The same thing he says with the מנורה. There is a מצוה of הדלקת המנורה, to light the מנורה. So the מצוה of making the מנורה is not a מצוה in itself; it's part of the מצוה of lighting the מנורה, because the whole purpose of why השם wanted us to make the מנורה was to have a מנורה in which to light the candles when you have to light them. So therefore, that's not a separate מצוה. So this is just a general idea of why we do not consider the מצוה of making the מנורה as a separate מצוה. Then let's go on in more details, and we'll just go through some of the details, the technical details of the מנורה.

What was the מנורה made of? So as I quoted the פסוק, ועשית מנרת זהב טהור, you shall make a מנורה of pure gold. So obviously, the מצוה is to make the מנורה of gold. Nevertheless, that we find in the גמרא that if you can't make it of gold, if the Jews couldn't afford a מנורה of gold, a מנורה of gold was very expensive, you know how much gold it had, a ככר of gold. I don't know exactly the measurements in our in our measurement, in our weight, but it's very much. They say that, you know, in ארץ ישראל now they're making there is a group that's involved in making the vessels for the בית המקדש, and when משיח comes they should have it, and they're trying to make it exactly with the measurements and according to the instructions of רבנים. So as I heard, maybe someone knows better can correct me, that they're making everything exactly with the measurements and with the material that they have to, but the מנורה I heard they made of silver, not of gold. They couldn't afford it, because to make a מנורה of pure gold would cost millions and millions of dollars at the price of gold. But anyway, the גמרא says that it doesn't have to be of gold. If you could make it of gold, that's the best way to do it, but if you can't make it of gold, you could make it of other materials. There is an argument in the גמרא when we say other materials, can it be made of any material? Can it be made of glass or other materials? So there is an argument. One opinion says that you only could make it of certain types of metal, מתכת, and some say you can make it of anything. The הלכה is, as the רמב״ם פוסק, that you can only make it of metal, that you can't make it of anything else. That's concerning what the מנורה is made of. On the מנורה itself, as we learned in חומש, it had certain designs. The מנורה was made up of there were six קנים, six branches coming out, with one in the middle, so altogether it was seven. And the lights on top, they had cups on top where you would put in the oil with the wicks, and the the lights would have to be pointing towards the middle. So you had the six and the seventh one, the branches, and on these branches you had different designs: the designs of cups, buttons, and flowers, and there's a whole חשבון of how many you had to have. These designs only had to be if the מנורה was made of gold. If the מנורה was made of other material, it did not have to have these designs. And here again there is an argument between the רמב״ם and רש״י. From רש״י it comes out that you didn't have to make the designs when it came to other materials, but if you wanted to, there's no problem. According to the רמב״ם, some מפרשים say it comes out that you're not allowed to. The only only if it was made of gold you were able to make you had to make the designs, but if it was made of other material, other מתכת, other metal, then you're not allowed to make it. The truth is that this דין that you have to make these designs is only לכתחילה, that is the best way to do it. בדיעבד if you didn't make it, it's still a כשר מנורה, as long as it has the branches, the seven branches, and it has the cups on top.

Based on that, there is an interesting argument between the ש״ך and the פרי תואר. We know there is a הלכה that we now are not allowed to imitate any of the כלים of the בית המקדש. We are not allowed to make a מנורה made of seven branches, of seven קנים, with seven lights. That's why a חנוכה מנורה is no problem, because a חנוכה מנורה has eight. As a matter of fact, there is even somebody who writes that one of the reasons חנוכה is eight days, because really there חנוכה should only be seven days. That's the faith one of the most famous קשיות in the whole of of of תורה is why is חנוכה eight days when the miracle was only for seven days? They found a jar of oil that was enough to last for one day, it lasted for eight days. So one day was not a miracle, one day it had! The miracle was for seven days. So why do we have eight-day חנוכה? And there are there's a ספר that's called נר למאה, it has a hundred answers, a hundred answers to this one question, and after that ספר there are more and more answers given. So one of the answers given is because if you would have seven days of חנוכה, the מנורה that you would have would have seven קנים, would have seven branches, and that's forbidden, and therefore they made חנוכה eight days. I don't know if it's an acceptable answer, but that's what some say. But anyway, the question is, the only time you can't imitate the מנורה is if you copy it exactly as it was in the בית המקדש. So what happens if you will make a מנורה with seven branches without the light without the designs? So it's not imitating the מנורה in the בית המקדש because the מנורה in the בית המקדש did have these designs. So the any any type any change, but anything that's not מעכב, anything that's only לכתחילה, so there is a מחלוקת. Some say that as long as you imitate the most fundamental הלכות, which is the fact that it has seven branches, already it is forbidden. And there's another opinion says that being that in the in the בית המקדש it had these designs, If you will not make the design, then you're allowed to make it. Now that's concerning the design, the decoration. The branches themselves, how were the branches shaped? Now we

all know that the way people think and the way it's usually painted in the pictures, is that the branches were made like the semi-circle, like the half-moon, and the top ones the little ones were smaller and then were bigger and bigger, so there were three coming out, and you had one in the middle. The truth is, we all know that the רבי spoke about this, and the רבי writes about this, that this is wrong. In other words, where do we know it's wrong? Because רש"י in חומש says very clearly, without any question, that the קנים, the branches of the מנורה, were באלכסון. באלכסון means slanting, not round, they were slanting. What is the opinion of the רמב"ם? And the רמב"ם is the main codifier, the main פוסק when it comes to laws of the בית המקדש and laws of קרבנות and laws of the כלים. What is the opinion of the רמב"ם? So there is a ספר called מעשה חושב, from one of the very, very great סופרים, and he says like this: that the רש"י, being that רש"י writes it was slanting, obviously רש"י holds that it went like a V, three three V's, slanting. But the רמב"ם, he says, being that the רמב"ם does not write how it was, so we assume, he says, that it probably, according to the רמב"ם, it was round. That's how he writes. And especially, he says, that the word קנה, and the פסוק refers to it as שלשה קנים, the word קנה he says, which means the branch, is usually round, that's what he says. And he was a great person, a מקובל. But the truth is, that not long ago, not long ago means 70-80 years ago, 100 years ago, they found the original manuscripts of the רמב"ם's own handwriting, the כתב יד פירוש of the רמב"ם, the רמב"ם's own handwriting. And there in the פירוש המשניות, in his commentary on the משנה, the רמב"ם writes about the מנורה, and then he draws a picture of the מנורה. He draws a picture, which he seldom does, he draws a picture with his own handwriting, and in that picture he draws the קנים are slanting. Now the רמב"ם himself writes when in on the picture, he says, that even though I'm making the picture, I'm not being מדייק, I'm not exact in everything that I write, that's what he says there, not exact. So one might say, maybe this is also one of those things where the רמב"ם is not מדייק, it's not exact. But ר' אברהם בן הרמב"ם, the רמב"ם's son, who knew the רמב"ם his father's opinions in everything, writes that my father specially made the picture with the drawing that the קנים go straight, and they are slanting, not round. Now according to this, we see clearly the opinion of the רמב"ם. Some claim, what about the רמב"ם not in his פירוש המשניות, not in his commentary on the משנה, what about his יד החזקה? In the actual ספר where he writes the הלכות, why doesn't he write over there that the מנורה was, that the קנים was slanting? And I must tell you the truth, the רבי writes, well, because that ספר of the רמב"ם, יד החזקה, is not a place for pictures, and that wasn't the רמב"ם's style. But then, a two years later, the רבי wrote that they found old manuscripts of the יד החזקה, not of the רמב"ם's own handwriting, in this case it was a מעתיק, it was somebody who copied, but old manuscripts before the print, people who copied it off from the רמב"ם's own manuscripts, and they have the יד החזקה. There the רמב"ם also makes a picture, and there the picture also is with the מנורה being slanting. And therefore the רבי says that even though the מעשה חושב writes that according to the רמב"ם it must be round, he says that he only writes it based on the fact that the רמב"ם did not write that it was any other way, so we assume it was that way. Had the מעשה חושב himself seen the רמב"ם's handwriting, there's no question that he wouldn't write this, he would certainly accept that the רמב"ם held it was slanting. And that's the rule in other things, that when a פוסק, a codifier, writes a certain הלכה based on the information he had, and later we find that there were old manuscripts that we see changes, then we follow those old manuscripts because we assume, and this is a הלכה, that the same one who wrote differently would have himself changed had he seen the old manuscripts. The אלטער רבי writes this in different הלכות לגבי רחיצת נדה, לגבי לגבי selling חמץ, מכירת חמץ, that he wants us to do it in a certain way because he found old manuscripts of the רשב"א, and Besides, the רבי says that he doesn't understand what the מעשה חושב says, that the word קנה usually means round. If you look in חומש, every time it says the word קנה, it means straight. קנה is a reed, and they're all straight, they're not circular, they're all straight, and therefore the רבי says there is no question that the opinion of the רמב״ם, and that seems like according to everybody, the מנורה, the branches, were not semi-circle, were not circular, but they were straight, which means slant, but in a straight line, going up in a slanty way. There is another opinion and another detail. The אבן עזרא writes something interesting. He writes it was like a half a crown, the מנורה. Now we think, some people think, that a half a crown means a half a circle. So, it's like the opinion of those that think that it was a half a circle. And I must tell you, that I saw in the Living Torah from, what's his name? Kaplan. He brings two opinions on the מנורה, in pictures. He writes one opinion is like רש״י, that it was straight, slanty, I mean not round, and then he says that the אבן עזרא holds that it was round, and he make the picture, the famous picture, that it was round. I must say, with all due respect to him, he made a big mistake. The אבן עזרא doesn't mean that. The אבן עזרא has another opinion בכלל. The אבן עזרא holds that it wasn't straight, it wasn't flat, I mean. The מנורה was not flat like we have it, it was like a שבת מנורה, like a שבת leuchters, that it goes like this, one is here, one is here, so it was like a semi-circle, that's why he says it was like a half a crown, a half a crown this way. The מנורה went like this, but he wasn't talking about whether the branches went this way or the branches went this way, he's talking about the branches were not flat, but they were round. And he made that mistake and he came out, he thought the פשט is that it was round this way. But לפועל, it's not like that. Then we go on further, where did this whole idea come that the מנורה was round? Why would we even think so, what made them think that it should be round? I mean

logically, you start thinking, why would they make it circular, why wouldn't they make it straight, what's the idea? To us it's strange, straight, we're so used to a מנורה being round, that we say, why not? But if you start thinking about it, why would they go out of the way to make it round, what's wrong if it's straight? The main thing is that it comes up on top, and you have the seven places to put the cups on, and that's it. It came from the design of the מנורה on the Arch of Titus. In Rome, you have the Arch of Titus, and when Titus, Titus conquered ירושלים, and he brought the מנורה to Rome, they made an arch in honor of his victory, and on the arch they made a shape of the מנורה. And there, the shape of the מנורה is this way, is the מנורה being round. Now, we know that to us in הלכה, that has no value whatsoever, the thing that they made for Titus. Besides, we see things on that מנורה, that design, which are against הלכה, which we know for sure are wrong. You know that there is a design of a snake on the מנורה in the Arch of Titus, and that snake was a design of עבודה זרה, so they put that design. We know that על פי הלכה, the גמרא says the רמב״ם פסק'ס that the the מנורה had on the bottom, had a what is it called? A base with three legs, and in Arch of Titus it doesn't have it. So, obviously what they did on the Arch of Titus was not a copy of the real מנורה. There probably were many other מנורות in ירושלים that people used, and some of them were like that, and that's the one that they copied when they made it on the on the Arch of Titus, but that's not really what the מנורה is, the way רש״י and the רמב״ם make it very clear that it was באלכסון, it was slanty, not round. And therefore, the רבי said very clearly that it's important to emphasize this, because if we make a picture of the מנורה round, what we're really doing is giving in to what Titus did. We're following Titus rather than following the רמב״ם. The whole point of that arch was to degrade the אידן, to show, to make them low. They would There's a writing on the on that arch says Judea Capta, or something like that, which means, the Jews are captured. And at certain times, they would force Jews to walk over to that arch, to stand there, to show that they are prisoners. And we're going to do our הלכה and our things and our studies based on the Arch of Titus? We have to know that it comes from the רמב״ם and from רש״י. So, it's very clear that the shape of the מנורה was that the קנים were slanty, rather than round. Where did this מנורה stand? Let's go to the next part.

Where did the מנורה stand? It stood in the היכל. You know that the בית המקדש had a courtyard with different levels, different places. Then they had the building in the middle. The building had three compartments. The first one was called the אולם, which was empty, like a hallway. Then you had the היכל, and then you had the קודש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies. קודש הקדשים had the ארון, the היכל had three כלים: had the שולחן, the table, the מנורה, and the מזבח, the small מזבח. So the שולחן was on the right, the the מנורה on the left, and the מזבח was in the middle, it was like a like a סגול. And the the the שולחן was pulled a little closer to the door, so it was like a סגול. That's where the מנורה stood. There is a big מחלוקת which way the מנורה stood. The מנורה, one opinion says it stood between צפון and דרום, north and south, the מנורה was, it's between north and south, and the other opinion is it stood between מזרח ומערב, east and west. But that's a big opinion, and the רבי has a long, long explanation, all the שיטות of the מנורה, all about explaining this.

What was the purpose of the מנורה? To light the מנורה. When did they light the מנורה? So it says in פסוק, מערב עד בקר, from evening to morning. But there is a מחלוקת. Now, everything is an argument. There is a מחלוקת between the רמב״ם and רש״י and other ראשונים, no, not רש״י, other ראשונים, many ראשונים. Many of the ראשונים hold, and that's the accepted opinion, that they would light the מנורה once a day, towards the evening. They would light the מנורה in the evening, they would put in enough oil that it should last throughout the whole night till the morning, and in the morning they would come and clean it out, only the נר מערבי, only the western one, and that's a big argument which one is the western one, but the western one stayed lit, and if it was extinguished they would put more oil in it, and it should last for a whole day. But the rest they did not light. They cleaned the מנורה in the morning, but they would not light the מנורה till the evening again. According to the רמב״ם, the מנורה was lit the whole time. They would light it at night till the morning, and in the morning they would light it again, till the night. And he learns it out from פסוקים, and then there's a big argument between the two when it was lit. But it's all based on the פסוק says מערב עד בקר, from evening to morning. The פסוק also uses the word תמיד, steady, that means the מנורה had to always be lit. So according to רש״י it means that at least one was always lit, and according to the רמב״ם, all of them always had to be lit, and therefore, when it went out, they had to light it again. Now

concerning the מנורה we find an interesting thing, that when השם commanded משה רבינו in פרשת תרומה to make the מנורה, it says נתקשה משה. משה had a hard time understanding how to do it. And finally, השם said to him, take a chunk, a כיכר, chunk of gold, throw it into the fire, and it'll be made by itself. And that's what happened, that it will be made it was made by itself. But the question is right away, why was it so hard to understand? Why is the מנורה worse than any other vessel? השם told משה רבינו about all the vessels, how to make the שולחן, and all complicated, how to make the ארון, it's all complicated, but as complicated as it is, I mean nowadays you have people doing things, besides you have machinery, but other even without that, people who are smart craftsmen know how to make complicated things, they're able to understand it. משה רבינו was pretty smart, and משה רבינו was able to understand, his שכל was enough to understand all the כלים, how to make the שולחן with the different pipes and the different things, everything was clear. Now why was the מנורה so hard to understand? Especially, as it says in חומש in פרשת תרומה, that not only did השם explain, explain it to משה רבינו, השם told משה רבינו how to make the כלי, He showed it to him. אשר הראית בהר, He actually showed him. He showed him on the mountain, He showed him a ארון, He showed him a שולחן exactly what it looks like. Like nowadays, you have, if you don't understand something, they show you a video, and when you see on the video exactly how they make it, makes it much easier. משה saw a video of the ארון, a video of the שולחן, השם showed him exactly how to do it. So He showed him the מנורה too. Why is it so hard to understand how to make the מנורה? Why did it have to be made by השם? Now the answer, על פי חסידות, על פי קבלה, על פי חסידות is that it wasn't that משה רבינו could not understand how physically to make the מנורה. What he couldn't understand, how could a physical מנורה be the object that should be able to draw such godliness into the world? Now I'll explain what I mean. The בית המקדש was the place where השם rested, which means השם who is unlimited, השם who is בלי גבול, who is infinite, rested in a physical building. Now we know a human being who is limited who he is needs a place to live, so he lives in a certain house. השם is unlimited, השם in truth is all over, and He is not limited to a place, and here we're saying השם said make a building, a physical building, bricks or in this case it was from wood, and make these physical vessels, and ושכנתי בתוכם, I will dwell there. It's something that's hard to understand. And we know when we learn חסידות and קבלה, we know that there are many levels in godliness. Godliness comes down to the world in a form of השתלשלות. The light is stronger, the אור The level of Godliness, the level of Godly light that shined, that stayed in the בית המקדש, was the highest of anything that's possible. Because there are many levels. The world as it is has Godliness in it, otherwise the world wouldn't exist, but it's a very small amount that the world could take it. The amount, the spiritual amount, the quality of Godliness that was there in the בית המקדש is something that's unbelievable. As a matter of fact, if one is to use the terms of קבלה, you know which level of Godliness was in the משכן and the בית המקדש? עצמות ומהות, the essence of השם Himself. Other things are called light. Light is only like a ray, which is only an התפשטות, only a superficial part of it. The essence, the essence of השם was in the בית המקדש, in the משכן. The essence of השם dwelt in the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies. And that's why in the Holy of Holies, there was something that's beyond nature and even beyond beyond nature. The ארון, the holy ארון, the holy ark, was אינו מן המדה. The מקום ארון אינו מן המדה, the ארון did not take up space. Know what that means? The ארון was an object that had a space, it had a measurement. You had to make it in a special measurement. The פרשה says it had to be two and a half אמות long, an אמה and a half wide, an אמה and a half height. So it had specific measurements. And it means physically that if you'd take a ruler and you'd measure it, you'd see these measurements. Nevertheless, it didn't take up place. That's two and a half אמות in the middle of the room, so what are you left with? Seven and a half. If you're left with seven and a half, on one side you should have three and a quarter, and the other have three and a quarter. What happened was when they would count from the wall to the ארון, on one side was five, on the other side was five. Then they measured the ארון, it was two and a half. Then they moved away from the ארון, and they measured from one wall to the other, it was 10. Didn't make sense. It's a contradiction. It's called נמנע הנמנעות, it's an impossibility. It's an impossibility. All kinds of miracles that happen are not impossibilities, they're things that can't happen. For instance, if someone would say there was a miracle happened that I flew up, it's not a contradiction. It's just something that I can't do. השם could make a miracle and it'll happen. But this is a contradiction in itself. As a matter of fact, there were people, actually real פרומע יידן, that held that השם can't do anything that's a contradiction. 'Why, we know השם is כל יכול, השם could do anything.' So know what they claim? Actually, they wrote this to the רשב״א. They claimed like this, they gave an example. 'Can you take an elephant and push him through a hole of a needle? Can it be? This is big, and that's small.' So they said, 'No, השם could do anything. If השם will want to do that, He'll make the elephant become so tiny and it will go through. Or He'll make the hole become so big. But that the elephant should be big, and the hole should stay small, and you should push through, that's impossible.' Or they gave an example, רכוב ואינו רכוב, a person should be riding a horse and not riding at the same time. Can it be? 'Why, השם could do anything.' So know what השם could do, they said, He'll make two of you, one riding and one not riding. But they should take, while you're riding, it can't be, it doesn't make no sense. So the רשב״א writes to them, and this is not חסידות or קבלה, the רשב״א, one of the ראשונים, writes in a תשובה. He writes to them, 'You're mistaken. השם is נמנע הנמנעות. השם is impossible of impossibilities.' And he proves it from the ארון. 'You see the

ארון, the מקום ארון אינו מן המדה, the place took up place and didn't take up space at the same time.' Why was the ארון like that? Because השם Himself, who is beyond limit and not limit, everything together, lived in the משכן, in the בית המקדש. And the question is, how's that possible? How is a physical thing possible to contain השם? And you know who actually asks this question? שלמה המלך. When שלמה המלך built the בית המקדש, the first בית המקדש, and he davened to השם, the words that he used was, השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך ואף כי הבית הזה. There're different פשטים, but one of the פשטים is, the שמים ושמי השמים, the heavens and the heavens of heavens, can't contain You. This house will contain You? This physical house? It's a פלא, it's a wonder. And what's the answer? Yes. How? With the כח of השם. Only השם could make it happen. So therefore, the fact that the בית המקדש contains השם, and the different vessels contains השם, is only בכח of הקדוש ברוך הוא, only in the hand and in the כח, with the power that השם gave. And therefore, if not for that power, making those כלים would mean nothing.

Out of all the כלים, there was one כלי that has the greatest problem. Because all the כלים, as much as we say that they contained השם, they did, and therefore we need a כח of השם, but it wasn't in a revealed way. The only vessel that in a revealed way showed that השם is there is the מנורה. As I said before, that the מנורה was עדות היא לבאי עולם. This was the testimony for all the people in the world that the שכינה lived there. So this is the one that's the hardest. That's why out of all the vessels נתקשה משה, משה couldn't understand, how can I make a מנורה? Now he didn't mean that he can't understand how to make the physical part of the מנורה. How could a מנורה hold it? How could the ארון hold it? How could the שולחן hold it? How could the building hold it? Well, there it holds Him in a way that you can't see it. So השם gives the כח and you can't see it. But the מנורה is supposed to be in a way which would reveal it. And that's why נתקשה משה, משה couldn't understand how that's possible. So what's the עצה to it? So השם said, "You're right. You can't do that, I'll do it. You just throw it in, you do something," because השם wants us to do something, "and you throw take that piece of gold, throw it in, I'll make it." Because if the other vessels, I put in that strength which should contain Me. Here, I'll go a step further. Not only will you put in will I put Myself in with a special כח, I'll make it. And it's interesting, רש״י in חומש says that משה didn't know how to make it, so על ידי הקדוש ברוך הוא נעשית מאליה, through השם it was made by itself. Now, it's a contradiction. If it's made by השם, so it's not by itself. But רש״י says through הקדוש ברוך הוא נעשית מאליה, made by itself. So על פי קבלה what רש״י is trying to tell us is that there are certain things that even every מצוה that we do and every good deed we do affects in the spiritual worlds, has all kinds of effects in the עולמות העליונים, that's obvious, whatever you do has effect. Now, certain things are so high and so deep that our עבודה, what we do will not have any effect there. It's as if it's done by itself, not based on us, because we can't reach. There are certain levels that by our behavior, we reach that level and draw down Godly light. When we put on תפילין, by putting on תפילין, it reaches, makes us reach a certain Godly level, and because we're doing the מצוה, it draws down Godliness into the world. Then there are certain levels that we can't reach. We can't do anything to it. That's why it's called נעשית מאליה, it's as if it's done by itself. And another thing, רש״י says another point. רש״י says, when it says ויעש את המנורה, he made the מנורה, so רש״י says, I think in בהעלותך, ויעש, he made. מי שעשה, it doesn't say who made it. So רש״י says whoever made it made it. What do we mean by that? So the simple פשט is, רש״י is trying to tell us that even though it doesn't mention a name, someone made it. That's according to the opinion that it was made by somebody, not by השם. But it's a deeper פשט. It doesn't say who made it because it's such a level that we cannot describe that level. There are certain Godly levels, and I'm speaking purely from חסידות and קבלה, there are certain Godly levels that can be described, that has a description. And the essence of השם cannot be described. Where do we see it? We see it very simply in the beginning of תורה, by מתן תורה. Which were the first words השם said? אנכי השם אלקיך. So He referred to Himself with three names: "I am השם, your God." I, אנכי. Then He said הוי׳, the next word was השם, "I am God," and He referred to Himself with the name י-ק-ו-ק, and then אלקיך, which is the name אלקים. Now אלקים, it says, is the גימטריא הטבע, is the same numerical value as the nature. הוי׳, י-ק-ו-ק is beyond nature, השם the way He is beyond nature. It's made up of three words: היה, הוה, ויהיה, past, present, and future together. Obviously, it's beyond nature. Naturally, you can't have all three together. And what's אנכי, I? So חסידות, זהר, that even the name י-ק-ו-ק, which is the highest name, it's called שם המפורש, שם העצם, שם המיוחד, there's all kinds of titles, it's still a name. What's a name? A name is a description. A Godly description. Then you have the essence of השם which cannot be described by anything, not by any name. And the זהר says that the word אנכי, I, is a title of השם דלא יתקרי לא בשום שם ולא בשום אות כלל. It's a level that cannot be described with any name or with any description. And the only thing השם could say when He refers to that is, I. And the truth is, when we talk to Him, we also use the same three descriptions, not descriptions, the same three titles: ברוך אתה השם אלקינו. אלקינו is שם אלקים, השם הוי׳ is י-ק-ו-ק, and then before that we say, אתה, You. Who's You? It's השם, the essence of השם. And that cannot be called by any name. And that's what רש״י says, that it says by יה, He made, מי שהוא, whoever made it, but you can't call Him by any name. It refers to such a high Godly level by the מנורה that you can't call Him by any name. Similar to what it says in חסידות on ויקרא, it says ויקרא אל משה, He called to משה in the beginning of פרשת ויקרא. Here, it doesn't say ויקרא השם אל משה, השם called to משה, like other places, וידבר השם אל משה, השם spoke to משה, it says ויקרא אל משה. So, it says in different places that this calling of השם was not like usually that השם lowered Himself to a certain lower level and related to משה רבינו. It was like He, without a name, He. A נקודה of מי הוא, a נקודה, it doesn't say who because it's the עצמות of השם. And the נקודה by another פסוק, too. It says והיה ביום ההוא יתקע בשופר גדול, משיח will come at this, that day, it will be blown with the big שופר. It doesn't say who blow it. Why doesn't it say who blow it? Because the blowing will come from such a high Godly level that we can't refer to it with any name. And that what the מנורה is. The מנורה is this very the the bringing down of the light in the world from the עצמות of השם that was in the בית המקדש, in a way that it should be revealed in the world, that it was an עדות, it was a testimony to the world. And that's why we see another interesting thing by the מנורה. The מנורה was light. There were many other miracles in the בית המקדש, but the מנורה was light. Now, there's an interesting thing. The

מצוות that are light have a special quality. Which by the way includes the מצוה of Jewish women lighting שבת candles. What's so special about the מצוה of light? Let me explain it. We know that every מצוה that a Jew does is really a candle. Every מצוה that a Jew does is really light. The פסוק says, נר מצוה ותורה אור, a מצוה is a candle and the תורה is light. So, every מצוה really is light. What kind of light is it? Spiritual light, it's not physical light. Physically, the מצוות are not light. תפילין is not light, תפילין is a box. ציצית is wool. שופר is a שופר. מצה is a cracker. But we say these physical things are spiritual light. The spiritual light transformed through a an order of השתלשלות till it turned into a מצוה. So, when we eat מצה, really this is Godly light transformed into a מצה. So, it showed that when it's transformed, it went down from level to level, till finally it turned into something physical. Those מצוות that even in their physical form are light, show that the Godly light did not have did not go descend so low, because even when it came down to their physical form, it is still light. It's a physical light, obviously, but it still has a closer connection to its source than the other מצוות. The other מצוות are further away, and this, as low as it came to become a physical thing, it still kept the quality of being at least physical light, but it's light. So, the מנורה, being that the מנורה was so special, it was the מצוה that was light, because the Godly light that connected to the מנורה was so strong that even in its form after coming down into this world, remained in a shape of light. And that was brought into the whole world, because as I said before, the מנורה was light, it's not that השם needs light, but it was to bring the light into the world. And it

says that that is the reason why in the בית המקדש the windows were made in a strange way. Normally, the windows, nowadays things are different, but in the old days, the windows in a building, the wall was very thick, so the windows were, the outside of the window, it was narrower and as it went into the house, it became wider. The reason's very simple. That the light, the sunlight that will come in, should be able to spread into the room. In the בית המקדש, the windows were built the opposite. חלוני שקופים אטומים. Inside they were narrow, and outside they were wider. What was the reason? Because normally you want the light from the outside to come in, but the בית המקדש, the purpose was that the light from the inside should go out. And which was the light? The light of the מנורה. The physical light of the מנורה went out, and that represented the Godly light of the בית המקדש spreading outside. So, the מנורה was the vessel that brought השם, who was in the משכן, in the בית המקדש, השם who was all over, and mainly in the ארון, nevertheless, the מנורה was the one that brought that Godly light out into the world. Which explains another thing, and I'll finish just with that idea.

There's another point in the מנורה, an interesting thing. In that drawing that the רמב״ם with his own holy handwriting made of the מנורה, he also made a drawing of the different decorations. So, you have the buttons there and you have the flowers and you have the cups. And the גמרא tells us that it was the the shape was not like a regular cup, but it's called כוסות אלכסנדריים, like the cups used to be in Alexandria. That the bottom of the cup was narrow, narrower, and the top was wider. That's what it says. So, the רמב״ם makes the cups on this diagram, on the drawing, but the way he shapes the cups is upside down. They're facing down. Now, we would imagine that the cups in the מנורה should be facing up. Actually, some say it was that way, and they give a simple reason why they needed a cup. Just in case the oil overflowed, it should have where it should fall in. There were cups there on the on the on the on the branches, so the oil should coming and should falling on the floor. But the רמב״ם specifically makes the cups upside down. Now, why would he want to do that? Why would the cup be upside down? Especially when we know that usually by all the מצות, you have to do them in the natural way, a straight up. For instance, when we take the ד׳ מינים, the the לולב and the אתרוג, it says a הלכה that you have to take it דרך גידולו, so the way they grow. So, first of all, hold the אתרוג upside down, not יוצא the מצוה. People hold the לולב upside down, is not יוצא the מצוה. You have to hold them straight up. So, why by the cups here, the רמב״ם designs it that it was upside down? But the answer is the whole purpose of the מנורה was to take this godly light of עצמות ומהות of השם himself the way he was in the בית המקדש and it was supposed to represent how this light was there to come into the world, and bring the light into the world, that's why the רמב״ם makes it upside down. What's the concept of a cup? Why do we have a cup?

There are certain things that כילים which are to store liquids. You have a bucket, a barrel, that's to store liquids. A cup is not made to store liquids. A cup is made to drink from. In other words, the idea of a cup is not so much to be a מקבל, a receiver, but to be a משפיע. See, a a a a bucket, where you store liquid, it's a מקבל, it's a place that holds. It's to receive and hold. A cup certainly you have to first receive in order to drink from it, but the idea is to take the cup and fill it up in order to drink. You don't fill it up to put it away. It's to be משפיע, to give out. Since the מנורה, the purpose of the מנורה was to take the light and bring it out, that's why the cups were there as cups, not as buckets, and in a form as when you're drinking, when it comes out, when it's upside down. When you hold a cup in the beginning, it's standing straight. But when you drink it, when it's משפיע, you turn it around, and it goes upside down. Actually, this fits to what the רבינו בחיי says. The רבינו בחיי says that the design was supposed to represent the מזלות, the constellations, as they are משפיע, he says these words, "as they are משפיע, as they influence the עולם השפל, this lower world." So, these cups represented the idea of השם's light, which was in the מנורה, and the משפיע to give it over to the world. And that's why the cups were upside down. And this is the idea of the מנורה. And that's why the מנורה is more unique than the other כילים of the בית המקדש. The

other כילים were holy. The ארון was the holiest of the holiest. The ארון הקודש was in the קודש הקדשים, you never could walk in except once a year the כהן גדול with special בגדים, with special garment. Nevertheless, there was something special in the מנורה. The מנורה was the one that brought the light into the world. The physical light represented the spiritual light and the miracle that took place with the מנורה that the light never went out, that brought the godly light and that represented the godliness that's coming into the world. And that's why the מנורה merited something that no other part of the בית המקדש merited, had. When the בית המקדש was destroyed, we have no more ארון, it's hidden somewhere, but we don't have it. We have nothing left of the שולחן, we have nothing left of the מזבח, we have nothing left of the בית המקדש. We have, כביכול, the כותל המערבי, which is only from the outside wall of the הר הבית. That's all we have. The מנורה we still have, and that's חנוכה. The continuation of the מנורה is still there. That's why, and I'm and I'll finish with this, the רמב״ן says in a letter, in in בהעלותך, that after they dedicated the משכן, every day, the first twelve days, different נשיאים, princes of different tribes of the different tribes, brought קרבנות, except שבט לוי. So, אהרן felt bad. So, השם said to אהרן, "Don't worry. Don't feel bad. There's something that you do that will be better than what they do." And what is that? "You light the מנורה." And the מפרשים asked why is that special? Etc, etc. Anyway, the way the רמב״ן explains it is that we're except in, "You light the מנורה. That's something that's eternal." הנירות הללו אינם בטלים לעולם. These candles of the מנורה will never be בטל. We'll continue forever. What do you mean continue forever? It stopped at the 2nd בית המקדש. It didn't. Because חנוכה is a continuation of those candles. And why? Because those candles represent such a great light from the highest source, from עצמות ומהות, all the way down into the world and, therefore, we still have it now, till, very soon, we will see the מנורה again in the בית המקדש with משיח צדקנו. Yes.

How come we see every picture has a round מנורה? It's always pictured like that, or you see one like this, round. Yeah. Because the מנורה itself, no one saw it. So that's why they make designs. But the רבי said that in order to remind us of the true shape of the מנורה, even for חנוכה we should try to make מנורות with the slanty קנים, the slanty branches, just as a reminder that we should keep in mind that this was the real מנורה, and not to follow the מנורות of the גוים. Yes. You said we're not we're not we're not allowed to make any of the כלים of the בית המקדש, but earlier you said that the רבנים of the made to be ready. For the בית המקדש? To be ready. That you're allowed to. You're allowed to make it for the בית המקדש. You can't make it for your own use. But if you want to make it for the בית המקדש, there's no problem. Yes. You

said that the resting of Hashem's presence is in the מנורה, but didn't you say the שכינה rested in the קדש הקדשים, the ארון? But from there, how does it come into the world? Through the מנורה. There it's not בגלוי, there it's בהעלם, you don't see it. And what, but the עדות לבאי עולם, what was the עדות, testimony, for the world? That was the מנורה. There was steps for the מנורה? בגשמיות, so you should be able to stand on it and it was 18 טפחים high. Well, in order to be able to stand and look over and be able to work with it, you probably need steps. That's why