At the beginning of the Parsha, Hashem describes the making of the Menorah in the Mishkan. The Alter Rebbe teaches that the Menorah is a metaphor for the Jewish People, especially during the time of Exile, and explains lessons in our service of Hashem by relating the process by which the Menorah in the Mishkan was made, and explaining how that process can be used in our own service of Hashem to make each of us into a “Menorah” that illuminates our surrounding.
Chapter 1
"וְזֶה מַעֲשֵׂה הַמְנוֹרָה, מִקְשָה זָהָב. עַד יְרֵכָה, עַד פִרְחָה [מִקְשָה הִוא כַמַרְאֶה אֲשֶר הֶרְאָה ה' אֶת מֹשֶה כֵן עָשָה אֶת הַמְנוֹרָה]." (במדבר 8:4)
“And this is how the Menorah was made: one solid piece of gold was beaten into this shape. All of its components, including its base and its ornamental flower designs [were made from one piece of gold beaten into the shape of a Menorah. Just as Hashem showed Moshe, so did he make the Menorah.]” (Bamidbar 8:4)
הִנֵה מְנוֹרָה נִקְרֵאת כְנֶסֶת־יִשְרָאֵל – שֶהִיא קְדוּשַת כְלַל נִשְמוֹת יִשְרָאֵל.
Now, the Menorah is also a reference to the level in Sefiros of Malchus of Atzilus, called “Knesses Yisrael,” which is the collective holiness of all the Jewish souls.
The Menorah in Zecharya’s Vision
This concept is expressed in the prophecy of Zecharya, where he has a vision of a Menorah (in the Haftora of this week’s Parsha, Zecharya 4:1-6):
[“And the angel who was speaking to me previously returned to me and woke me up like one who wakes up from sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see a Menorah of pure gold, with a bowl of oil above it, with seven lamps on it, with seven small pipes carrying oil to each lamp on its top. There are two olive trees next to it, one to the right of the bowl of oil and one to its left.” And I lifted my voice, and I said to the angel who was speaking to me, saying, “What are these, my master?” And the angel who was speaking to me earlier asked me, “Do you know what these are?” And I said: “No, my master.” And he answered, and he said to me saying, “This vision of the Menorah is the representation of the word of Hashem [to Zerubavel, saying, “Not with an army or physical strength will you succeed in building the Beis Hamikdash, but with my Spirit that will convince the king to personally support its construction, said Hashem.”]
The following is a visual representation of Zecharya’s vision: A Menorah with a large bowl of oil suspended above it and 49 small pipes flowing from the bowl into the lamps of the Menorah; seven small pipes to each lamp of the Menorah. In addition, there were two olive trees next to the bowl of oil, one on the right and one on the left. See image.
Zerubavel was another name for Nechemya ben Chachalya, a great Jewish sage who was an officer in the court of Koresh, king of the Persians. He was instrumental in the building of the Second Beis Hamikdash and of the city of Yerushalayim.
Knesses Yisrael and Malchus of Atzilus
The term, "Knesses Yisrael” - the “gathering of Yisrael (the Jewish People),” is a reference to the spiritual source of the entire Jewish People on the level of Malchus of Atzilus. On that level, all the Jewish souls are united with each other and their connection to Hashem is fully revealed. This is in contrast to how the souls of the Jewish People exist on the various spiritual levels of Beria, Yetzira, and Asiya, where the Jewish People exist as individuals with varying degrees of separation between one soul and another and between the souls and Hashem. See Tanya (Chapter 2) at length for a similar explanation of how Jewish souls exist in the world of Atzilus. [In Tanya, chapter 2, however, the explanation is related to with the way that Jewish souls exist in Chochma of Atzilus. However, a similar relationship exists in Malchus of Atzilus (Knesses Yisrael), but on a somewhat lower level of Divine revelation].
The Menorah in this vision is referred to as “the Word of Hashem.” This also refers to what it says in Tehilim (33:6), “With the Word of Hashem the heavens were created,” which is the level of Malchus of Atzilus, which is the revelation of Hashem that gives life to all the worlds.
This level also corresponds to ‘Knesses Yisrael’ (the gathering of Yisrael), which is called by this name because it ‘gathers’ inside itself the revelation of Hashem called ‘Yisrael,’ which is the level of Ze’eir Anpin that ‘Surrounds (transcends) all the created worlds,’ as it is written (Bereshis 33:20), “And he (Yaakov) called Him (Hashem), G-d, who is the G-d of Yisrael.”
We see that Hashem associated His Name with Yisrael (since He is called the G-d of Yisrael), and this is a reference to the revelation of Hashem known as ‘Ze’eir Anpin,’ which is the set of six emotional attributes of Atzilus. These attributes “surround” all worlds in the same way that a person’s speech and action are motivated by his emotions. Thus, the emotions ‘encompass’ his speech and actions. This is in contrast to Malchus of Atzilus, which is the creative power that is directly involved in creating all the worlds. This is similar to the way a person’s speech and actions express the person’s intellect and emotions.
This is why Malchus is called Knesses Yisrael, since it ‘contains’ in itself the full revelation of Hashem from the level of Ze’eir Anpin. It then uses that revelation to create the worlds, just like with a person, where the emotions and feelings that motivate his speech and action become included into any word or deed that stems from those emotions.
This level (of Malchus of Atzilus) includes in itself all the Jewish souls, from the greatest of the righteous until the lowest of spiritual stature.
Therefore, it is written (in Zecharya quoted above), “This is the Word of Hashem to Zerubavel,” since the message of Hashem expressed in the vision of the Menorah is not only to Zerubavel, who was Nechemya [called זְרוּבָבֶל-זָרוּעַ בְּבָבֶל- Planted in Bavel (exile)] one of the leaders who helped build the Second Beis Hamikdash, but also to every Jew in Exile who is confused, referring to זְרוּבָבֶל- זֶרַע הַמְבוּלְבָל- a confused person, mixed up between good and bad, referred to in Yirmiya (31:26) as “Children of men (human, moral tendencies) and children of animals (animalistic tendencies),” meaning that he makes himself like an animal, by following his natural desires in going after idle chatter or more coarse desires.
Regarding this person, the verse says, “And this is how the Menorah was made,” meaning that someone who wants to leave his unholy tendencies and make himself into a “Menorah” (something that shines Divine Light), he should fulfill the following process (hinted to in the continuation of the verse):
The Process of Making the Menorah
The first stage of the process: he should be “beaten;” The Menorah started as a round solid block of gold, like Rashi explains: “It was a solid block of gold, and the craftsman would strike it with a hammer to shape it properly into branches and other components, but it was not made from separate pieces welded together.”
Through the blows of the hammer, the gold at the top of the block of gold would be shifted down to the bottom, and the gold at the bottom would be shifted to the top, until all the parts of the gold were mixed together, and it lost its original shape and gained a new shape of a Menorah.
This is what a person should do to himself. He should break his natural tendencies, until they lose their original form, like it says (Avos 2:4), “Nullify your will before His (Hashem’s) Will.” What he originally put as his top priority (his physical desires and needs), he should put at the bottom of the priority list (and put fulfilling Hashem’s Will as the top priority). Then he will come to the proper balance. This is something that can be understood through some reflection.
The second stage of the process: After this, the verse says that the Menorah was made of “gold,” meaning that he should come to the spiritual level corresponding to gold, which is the fear of Hashem.
Silver, spiritually corresponds to love of Hashem, as in the wording of the verse (Tehilim 84:3) “My soul נִכְסְפָה-yearned for Hashem,” (the word נִכְסְפָה-yearning sharing the same letters as כֶסֶף-silver) that his soul yearns to attach to its source, (Iyov 33:30) “To be illuminated with the Light of Life.” This is called ‘the hidden love’ for Hashem that exists constantly in the heart of every Jew. (As is explained elsewhere).
And gold corresponds spiritually to fear of Hashem, like it says, (Iyov 37:22) “Gold is hidden away for those that bring themselves to serve Hashem, and put their faith upon G-d who is awesome and majestic.” (See commentary of Rashi on this verse.) We see that the verse connects the creation of gold to the awesomeness of Hashem. An awareness of the awesomeness of Hashem leads to a fear of Hashem.
This (attaining fear of Hashem) requires reflection upon the greatness of Hashem, who is Infinite, how He ‘fills (permeates) all worlds’ and ‘compared to Him, everything is totally unimportant.’ When one thinks about this, he will have awe and shame before the greatness of Hashem, who is Infinite.
The Role of Prayer and Praise
It is for this purpose that the Men of the Great Assembly established the order of the prayers together with the ‘Pesukei Dezimra-Verses of Praise’ that we say at the beginning of the prayers. According to the minimal requirement of the Torah, a person only needs to say the Shema and some personal requests, like in the time of the first Beis Hamikdash, when they did not recite all the prayers that we do because their mind was as clear as the heavens all day long, to be able to see, intellectually, and understand the wondrous truth of the Infinite Hashem.
But the Men of the Great Assembly (who lived in the time of the beginning of the Second Beis Hamikdash) saw that people’s intellectual powers decreased, and their hearts became more bound up with physicality, becoming more exclusively aware of the physical existence. Therefore, they established the order of prayers and blessings. All of them recount the praises of Hashem many times over, until a person will come to fear Hashem.
This is similar to what it says in the verse (Shir Hashirim 3:10), “His (Hashem’s) ‘beddings’ are arranged with gold,” meaning that just like someone who arranges a bed puts everything in the correct place, so too, someone who arranges his praises of Hashem properly makes a place to find the greatness of Hashem in everything that He created, which was only created for His Glory.
This is the idea of Pesukei Dezimra: To reflect on all of the details of the world that Hashem created with wisdom and majesty, and to see Hashem’s greatness in every detail of the multitude of creation. Saying the praises of Hashem, which are compared to arranging a bed, is connected to the idea of ‘gold,’ since praising Hashem brings fear of Hashem, which is associated with gold. This is why “His ‘bed’ (prayers) are arranged with ‘gold’ (fear of Hashem).”
The Seven Branches and the Seventy Souls
It says in the Zohar, there are seven shades of gold color in King David’s beard, signifying that he possessed seven qualities of the fear of Hashem (gold). Since King David was the ‘fourth leg of the Chariot,’ which is the aspect of Hashem’s revelation called (Tehilim 145:13): “Your Kingship is the Kingdom of all worlds.” The ‘beard’ signifies drawing down from the intellect. So, seven colors of the ‘beard’ signify seven aspects of intellect that King David had, with which he was able to come to ‘gold,’ meaning the fear of Hashem.
These seven types of understanding that bring to the fear of Hashem, correspond to the seven branches of the Menorah, (which was made of gold). They also correspond to the seven attributes that Hashem uses to create the world. When these seven attributes are divided into ten internal components each, we come out with seventy, corresponding the “seventy souls” of Yaakov, our forefather’s family, who went into Egypt.
These seventy souls are the soul-roots of all the Jewish souls, and every Jew is rooted in one of those seventy souls, which are categorized into seven groups (of 10). Therefore, every Jew is able to come to the level of ‘gold’ (fear of Hashem) through one of the seven types of understanding of Hashem, so that his praises of Hashem should be arranged appropriately.
