Beha'alotkha: The Menorah and the Flat Tire

by Rav Moshe Leib HaCohen Halbershtat, founder and head of the Yoru Program for the Training of Rabbis and Community Leaders , yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The first verse in this week's Torah reading of Beha'alotkha (Bamidbar 8-12) relates to the Menorah in the Tabernacle: G-d told Moshe, "Speak to Aharon and tell him, when you kindle – raise up – the lamps, towards the face of the Menorah the seven lamps shall illuminate."

The Medrash (Bamidbar Rabba 15,4) teaches that Moshe was charged with building the Menorah, but he had great difficulty doing so: Not only was it be adorned with various golden flowers and other decorations, it all had to be sculpted out of one block of gold. Therefore the Torah tells us that G-d first showed him precisely how to do it – "And this was how the Menorah is made" (verse 4) – and even then, caused it to emerge miraculously from the gold. That is, after G-d commanded Moshe in Sh'mot 25,31, "Make a Menorah out of pure gold," the Torah immediately continues, "the Menorah shall be formed…"

Why would G-d command Moshe to do something that he cannot do? In the end, Moshe simply threw the gold block into the fire and the Menorah came out ready-made. Here in Bamidbar we read in the above-cited verse 4 that Moshe made it, when in fact the Medrash teaches that G-d made it. How can we explain this?

On the verse in Tehillim “For you light My lamp” (18,29), the Medrash teaches:

 Israel said before the Holy One blessed be He:‘Master of the universe, You say that we should illuminate before You? You are the light of the world, and light resides with You [see Daniel 2,22]! So why do You say: “Toward the front of the Menorah the seven lamps shall illuminate" (Bamidbar 8,2)? …

'It is not that I need you, but rather that you shall illuminate for Me in order to elevate you before the nations, so that they will say: See how Israel illuminates for the One who illuminates for the entire world!'

This is not at all clear. The Gentiles are supposed to think highly of Israel for thinking that they can illuminate the way for G-d?! Believing something so seemingly foolish, that G-d needs them to light His way – how can that raise Israel's prestige in the eyes of the nations?!

To answer this, we must continue reading the Medrash, which states:

This is like a sighted man and a blind man who were walking along the way. The sighted man said to the blind man: ‘When we enter the house, kindle this lamp and shine it for me.’ The blind man was puzzled: 'Until now you supported me, and now you ask me to shine the light for you?'

The sighted man said, ‘It is so that you will not be beholden to me for having accompanied you along the way.'

The Medrash likens G-d to one who is sighted, as is written, "G-d's eyes roam the entire earth" (Zechariah 4,10), while Israel is likened to a blind man, as is written about Israel when it sinned, "We grope like the blind along a wall" (Yeshayahu 59,10). G-d wished Israel to light the Menorah, using the word for "raise up," as in the verse [with which we began above], "… when you raise up the lamps…" – so that this will raise up Israel's honor, for G-d wished to show them honor in this way.

Let us elaborate. There are three levels of "giving," and via this mitzvah of lighting the Menorah, G-d teaches us how to reach the highest of the three. The three levels are:

1. One who gives sourly and unhappily, such that although the recipient receives, his experience is one of bitterness and being put down.

2. One who gives with a bright countenance, about whom R. Yochanan teaches allegorically [Tr. Ketuvot 111b]: "One who shows the whiteness of his teeth to his friend [i.e., smiles at him], is better than one who gives him actual milk to drink, as can be derived from [B'reshit 49,12]. "Furthermore, in Avot D'Rabbe Natan we learn that one who greets his friend happily is as one who gave him all the gifts in the world, even if he gave him nothing physical. This is a very high level of giving – but it is not perfect, for the recipient still has a feeling of shame that he received something for nothing, "bread of shame;" he feels "shackled with thanks," as the Hebrew phrase has it: Asir todah, totally indebted.

3. The third level of giving, then, is where there is "mutuality." That is, after one gives something to another person, needy or otherwise, he should ask him to do him a favor as well, even if he does not really need it. This will prevent the recipient from feeling any embarrassment; instead he will feel, "It's not just me who is needy; we help each other!"

This is what the Medrash is referring to: Hashem asks Israel, so to speak, to illuminate the way, so that they can feel, even to a small degree, that there is something that they can do for Him as well. [This of course has not only symbolic value; in the covenant that G-d has forged with Israel, we also have obligations towards Him, namely, to keep His commandments.]

This of course also explains why G-d commanded Moshe to construct the Menorah, even though this was beyond his ability. The message was: "If someone wants to do something, give him the feeling that what he is doing has value, even if this is not quite the case. The Torah states: "The way that G-d showed Moshe to do, this is how he did the Menorah"(Bamidbar 8,4) – even though in actuality, it was G-d Who made it.

I recall that a few years ago I was in a pancheria [a place where flat tires are repaired] in Eilat. The owner's father was there as well, an older man who did not have full use of his faculties. He walked around, moved tires from place to place, and basically did nothing particularly useful, and sometimes even the opposite – but his son, the boss, made him feel that he was important. From time to time he would ask his father to return a tire to its place, or something similar, and he did in a very respectful manner, giving his father the sense that he was still useful.

This is the message that we learn from the way Moshe "made" the Menorah.