When you kindle the lamps, towards the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps illuminate.
Here are some observations about this verse: 1) Why “seven lamps?” Being that the central lamp was not tilted, only the other six were inclined towards the face of the Menorah. 2) The Midrash* famously tells us that Hashem consoled Aharon about his tribe’s lack of participation in the dedication of the Mishkan by pointing out that his lot, the kindling of the Menorah, will outlast the sacrificial order. As the Ramban** asks, the service of the Menorah is also tied to the Mishkan; in what way, then, is it longer lasting?
Let us begin this week’s discussion with a mysterious passage from the Talmud***. In one of his fantastic travels, Rabbah bar bar Chanah was shown the location “where Heaven and Earth kiss.” discovering that it consisted of windows. He placed his bread basket in one of the heavenly windows and turned aside to pray. Upon concluding, he discovered that the basket had disappeared. Rabbah inquired of his guide as to whether there were thieves in the vicinity and was informed that it had be swept along by the rotating heavenly sphere – tomorrow at this time it would return with the basket.
Our second source to consider is the following talmudic teaching****: Hashem declared הגד לעמי פשעם ולבית יעקב חטאתם, Relate to My nation their sin, and to the House of Yaakov their iniquity*****. The Sages explain that the first half of the verse refers to scholars (“My nation”), whose inadvertent failings are deemed as egregious as deliberate ones (פשעם), as they should have known better. The latter half refers to the masses (“the House of Yaakov”), whose deliberate sins are regarded only as inadvertent, as one cannot expect more from them. The obvious problem is that it seems unfair that scholars should be more subject to punishment due to their higher spiritual status.
We can reinterpret this source with a comment elsewhere from the Maharsha. The Talmud****** relates that R. Elazar ben R. Shimon co-operated with the authorities in the purging of common crooks. R. Yehoshua ben Korchah accused him, “Vinegar son of Wine! How long will you give over Hashem’s people to execution?” To this the response was “I am purging the vineyard of its thorns.” The Maharsha explains that since he had been referred to as “vinegar,” R. Elazar retorted that wine sours into vinegar due to deficiencies with the grapevines, which are often caused by damaging thorns. If he would be successful in purging the community of its thorns, the rest of the population would not “sour.” In other words, the negative influence of the wicked affects the spiritual standing of the righteous. As Rebbe put it*******, אין פורענות בא לעולם אלא בשביל עמי הארץ, punishment only reaches the world on account of the ignorant – through their pernicious influence on the scholarly. As such, he refused to involve the Torah scholars in the dealings of the masses.
This, then, can be the intent of the exposition of Yeshayah. הגד לעמי פשעם, let the scholars beware – their sins… what precipitates them? ולבית יעקב חטאתם, the corrosive, sinful behavior of the ignorant.********
We can now attempt a reinterpretation of the passage about Rabbah bar bar Chanah. “The point where Heaven and Earth kiss” alludes to that which the laity (“Earth”) drag down the elite (“Heaven”) to their level. The many windows allude to the parallel funnels of spirituality for the two groups. As such, when the laity pumps down negative spirituality, it overflows into that of the elite. The message here is like that of Rebbi, to distance oneself from the ignorant. It is similar to someone who is drowning, flailing about. If a would-be savior would approach him, he would be pulled under the water as well; thus, the only option is to attempt to save him from a distance. Similarly, elevating the masses needs to be done from a safe spiritual distance.
Rabbah placed his breadbasket in a heavenly window. This means that he hoped that through his association with the pious (“heavenly window”) his livelihood (“breadbasket”) would be provided*********. Yet, that did not happen. Instead, through one joint prayer with the laity he was attacked by them due to their enmity toward the spiritual elites, effectively destroying his livelihood (“the breadbasket is lost”). The point being that it emerged that there was no need to warn the scholars to avoid the ignorant – the latter steer clear of the former on their own.
Rabbah suggested that perhaps the cause of the enmity towards the scholars was that they were insincere, only pretending to be pious (“perhaps there are thieves here”). The גנב, the thief, is a symbol of duplicitousness, as seen in the Talmud’s explanation that the גנב pays more for his crime than a גזלן because the former acts under cover – demonstrating that his fear of man is greater than his fear of Heaven – while the latter acts openly.********** Since the thief is hated in Heaven, people tend to dislike his as well, as per the rabbinic teaching. ***********
The response was that no, there was no insincerity on the part of the scholars. Rather the ill will from the ignorant is due to “the rotation of the sphere.” That is, over time societal shifts can produce awkward results. Since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the spiritual elites have become continuously more persecuted, forced to cede authority and influence to the ignorant, as described in the conclusion of Sotah. However, the wheel of the sphere continues to turn and what went up will come down. Eventually, society will right itself and the spiritual will be appreciated again (“wait until tomorrow and you will find it”).
This relationship between the spiritual and the coarser elements in Jewish society is alluded to in the verse ודברתם אל הסלע ונתן מימיו והשקית את העדה ובעירם, and you shall address the rock and it shall give forth its waters, and you shall provide water for the assembly and their animals.************ If the rock – the dense proletariat – is rectified, that will allow the flow of spirituality to pour forth for the spiritual strata – עדה reading דעה, men of wisdom.
It is also alluded to in the passage of Pesach Sheini in our sidra*************. ויהי אנשים אשר היו טמאים לנפש אדם, it was that there were men who were impure to a human lifeforce. The verse can be parsed as: ויהי אנשים אשר היו טמאים, the masses were impure in their lowly spiritual state, and consequently לנפש אדם, it affected the spirituality of the scholarly elites (אדם in his elevated state), ולא יכלו לעשות הפסח, and they were rendered incapable of engaging in their spiritual pursuits – פ"ה ס"ח, their oral activities of prayer and Torah study, ביום ההוא, with the pristine day-like quality that they were accustomed to. The ignorant complained למה נגרע לבלתי וגו' בתוך בני ישראל, why should we lose out to not be amongst the Jewish People, i.e., to be separated from the elites (reminiscent of the claim to Rebbi cited earlier).
The response is איש כי יהיה טמא לנפש או בדרך רחקה, a man that will be impure to a lifeforce or on a distant road.************** That is, someone who is טמא לנפש, on a lowly level, needs to be kept at a distance, apart from the scholarly. Such a person’s Pesach offering is tailored to his lower level, involving both matzah and chametz.***************
Finally, we can return to the portion of the Menorah. The term נר is a reference to a person – who consists of 248 limbs and the two letters which stand for נפש ורוח ונשמה, the parts of its soul, totaling 250, the numerical value of נ"ר. Thus, בהעלתך את הנרת, when you elevate the masses, אל מול פני המנורה, uniting them with the spiritual elite, יאירו שבעת הנרות, be wary that all of the lamps should be lit, i.e., the high standards of the scholars should not be compromised by this proximity.
The passage continues, ויעש כן אהרן. The term עשיה is at times used for תיקון, rectification. Aharon rectified his own shortcomings, allowing him to elevate the public along with him. That is, when there is an apparent shortcoming in the generation and its source is not evident, it is appropriate for the tzaddik of the generation to assume that it lies in himself and not in others.
R. Elazar ben R. Shimon had taken the approach that the burden of guilt is to be attributed to the public, hence he claimed that he was purging the vineyard of its thorns. R. Yehoshua b. Korchah retorted יבא בעל הכרם ויכלה את קוציו, let the Owner of the vineyard come and purge his thorns. While literally this refers to Hashem, in light of the above we can render this: let the בעל, the distinguished one of the generation, its tzaddik, purge himself of his own thorns. If you, R. Elazar, would take this approach, the sins of the generation would be ironed out in consequence. Indeed, later in the narrative, we find R. Elazar adopting penance for his own shortcomings.
As Rashi**************** states about Aharon, להגיד שבחו של אהרן – his praise lay in that he turned inward to face his own shortcomings instead of those of others. As a result, he was successful in elevating the public without compromising the scholarly class. All of the lamps turned towards the center. Hence, Aharon’s ultimate praise was שלא שינה, that he managed to preserve the holiness of the spiritual elite despite their outreach to the rest of the nation.
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* Tanchuma, Beha’aloscha 5. ** Bamidbar 8:2.
*** Bava Basra 74a.
**** Bava Metzia 33b. ***** Yeshayah 58:1. ****** Bava Metzia 83b.
******* Bava Basra 8a.
******** This may also be the meaning of another verse (Tehillim 83:14): לו עמי שומע לי ישראל בדרכי יהלכו, If only my people (the masses) would heed Me, then Israel (the elite) would go in My ways.********* I heard from my mentor, the Besht, a clever allusion to this phenomenon in the names of the sons of Leah,רא"ו שאני ב"ן – ראובן see that I am pious; שמעון - and through this my renown will be heard (שמע),and I – לוי ;spread , fraternize (לויה) with the pious; יהודה – and the public will thus praise (הודאה) me; יששכר וזבלון – and I will obtain an arrangement to be supported in my learning. ********** Bava Kamma 79b. *********** Avos 3:10.
************ Bamidbar 20:8.
************* Ibid., 9:6. ************** Ibid., 9:10.
*************** Pesachim 9:3. **************** 8:3