This is how the Menorah is made: from one piece of gold. From its base to its ornamental flowers, it is of one piece. Like the image that Hashem showed Moshe, so he made the Menorah. (Bemidbar 8:4)
The way the Menorah was made teaches us an important point about the avodas Hashem of every Jew.
It is recounted in Sefer Daniel that Nevuchadnezzar saw in a dream the image of a statue. This statue, composed of various materials, represented the general history of the nations of the world throughout the generations. But it also alludes to the essential form and nature of non-Jews.
It was a statue whose head was made of pure gold, whose chest and arms were of silver, whose abdomen and loins were of bronze, whose thighs were of iron, and whose lower legs were a mixture of iron and clay.
This teaches us that the nature of the nations of the world changes fundamentally over the course of time. They started out made of gold and then went down stage after stage until their “lower legs,” their end, is made of clay, which is the lowest of materials.
Not just the history of generation after generation is like this, but also the essential nature of the individual. The head of the non-Jew might sometimes be precious like gold, but the other parts of the body go down level after level to the lowliest.
It is not like that with Jews. About them it says – “This is how the Menorah is made: from one piece of gold. From its base to its ornamental flowers, it is of one piece.” This tells us two things.
Regarding the history of generation after generation, although there are vast differences between the later generations and the earlier ones, the Jewish people is “one piece of gold” from beginning to end.
And regarding the nature of the individual, the Jew is one piece of gold all the way from his “base,” his lowest aspects, how he eats and drinks and conducts his mundane business, up to his “ornamental flowers,” his spiritual beauty and splendor, when he learns Torah and does mitzvos. It is all one piece of pure gold.
All this teaches us that a Jew’s essential form and nature can never change. Jews will always dress modestly, speak respectfully, do business honestly, have mesirus nefesh for Torah and mitzvos. Even in this last generation, which is so much lower than that of our forefathers, we still need to preserve the pure form of a Jew, which is to be one piece of pure gold.
This applies as well to the way a person conducts his day. Not only the hours that he devotes to avodas Hashem are pure gold. Also when he is engaged in physical matters, he needs to do everything l’sheim Shamayim, to gain strength for serving Hashem. And the way he does these things should be with humility and modesty, free from pursuit of excess materiality.
Whether it is the “base” or the “flowers,” it is all one Menorah on which the sacred lamps burn with flames of kedushah. It is all one piece, all pure gold. This is what a Jew looks like; this is what Hashem is proud of.
