Our parashah begins with the command to light the Menorah. Our Sages Z"L tell us that when the time came to make the Menorah, it was difficult for Mosheh to understand how to make it, and he asked the Holy One, blessed be He, how to do it. G-d ordered him to take a kikar (about 30 kilogram) of pure gold and throw it into the fire, and from there came the perfect and ready Menorah.
Why was it difficult for Mosheh Rabbeinu how to make the Menorah? How is it different from the making of the other objects in the Tabernacle? And what can we learn from this for our daily service to God?
The particular mission of the Menorah in the Tabernacle was to illuminate. It was not used in the offering of sacrifices or to contain holy elements, all it did was illuminate, spread the light of holiness outwards, it was a testimony and a sign for the whole world that the Shechinah was with Israel, inside the building of the material Tabernacle. This was Mosheh Rabbeinu's question: How can the Shechinah be contained within a material building? The Shechinah is revealed through the study of the Torah, or through the tefillah, precisely a material object makes the light of the Shechinah shine, until through it G-d will extend the light of holiness to the entire world!
This is how Mosheh Rabbeinu received G-d's response: In fact, there is no capacity in man alone to absorb the Shechinah into materiality, this mission is G-d's, man must only throw his gold into the fire and G-d blessed be He will make the Menorah out of his gold. A Jew must voluntarily build a dwelling for G-d with the best of him, pure gold, and inside him G-d will make his Shechinah dwell.
The Torah commands us: “Make me a sanctuary and I will dwell within it” and the Sages Z"L explain “Within each and every one”. The Jew must build his personal Tabernacle and a pure Menorah within it. G-d, blessed be He asks me, it is not enough that the Shechinah resides in the world through Torah study or tefillah, but rather that I prepare my Menorah of pure gold, give the best of my materiality to G-d. Of course I cannot make my Menorah alone, I can only throw my gold into the fire, sanctify my materiality with devotion, “light a perpetual Divine fire” that burns in my soul. Then G-d will make of it a Menorah that will carry the Shechinah to the whole world, until G-d's light is fully revealed with the arrival of our righteous Mashiach, soon in our days.
