Dr. Steven Fine on the Cosmic Significance of the Menorah鈥檚 Branches
Mar 1, 2020 By: yunews
Dr. Steven Fine
Dr. Steven Fine is Churgin Professor of Jewish History and director of the . He recently published 鈥淢enorah, Its 鈥楤ranches鈥 and Their Cosmic Significance鈥 in .
As he explains, 鈥淢idrash Tanchuma relates how Moses didn鈥檛 understand God's instructions for how to construct the menorah. This highlights the complexity of the Torah鈥檚 instructions, which commentators from antiquity until today struggled to visualize. One approach, taken by Philo and Josephus, was to interpret the menorah symbolically.鈥
He concludes that 鈥渢he biblical description of the Tabernacle menorah is indeed difficult to conceptualize. Each element of this complex artifact is open to interpretation, and attempts to visualize the original artifact can be perplexing. Philo, Josephus, and then Yannai opted for an astrological interpretation. Ancients had a profound awareness that 鈥楪od is watching us from a distance.鈥 The menorah represented this connection.鈥
Dr. Steven Fine
