{"id":46849,"date":"2019-01-02T21:29:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T19:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=46849"},"modified":"2022-07-28T06:09:29","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T03:09:29","slug":"the-menorah-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-menorah-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Menorah: Then And Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,672,363],"acf":{"old_id":"46849","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"125","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Eternal symbol with a rich and mysterious history","content":"

In the beginning of our chapter (Numbers 8:3-4), we are told that Aaron kindles the seven lights of the Menorah \u201cso that they faced forward on the Menorah, just as the Lord commanded Moses. This is how the Menorah was made: It was made of hammered gold\u2014from its base to its blossoms. The Menorah was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses\u201d (see Exodus 25:31-40). <\/span><\/p>\n

This Menorah has a long history, extending from the Desert Mishkan to the two Temples in Jerusalem, then on to Babylon and Rome. According to various legends, the Menorah was eventually taken also to Carthage and Constantinople. According to another tradition, the Menorah of solid gold (weighing approximately 45-60 kilograms), remained in Rome, where it is, to this day, hidden in the catacomb treasuries of the Vatican. <\/span><\/p>\n

A highly influential depiction of the Menorah is found on the frieze of the Arch of Titus in Rome, being paraded there with other Temple implements in the Roman victory celebration following their destruction and plunder of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. This depiction of the Menorah served as a model for the official emblem of the State of Israel soon after its founding in 1948. <\/span><\/p>\n

A rabbinic tradition, supported by various additional sources, records that during the Talmudic period the golden Menorah was on view in Rome, in the \u201cTemple of Peace\u201d opened in 71 CE under the Emperor Vespasian, together with other spoils of the Roman pillage of Jerusalem: \u201cRabbi Shimon said: When I went to Rome I saw there the Menorah. All of its lights were inclined toward the middle light\u201d (Sifre Zuttah to Numbers 8:2). This eye-witness account reflects a preceding midrashic interpretation of the biblical description that the lights were burning \u201cso that they faced toward the Menorah\u201d (<\/span>el-mul pnai ha-menorah<\/span><\/em>); but here understood to mean that miraculously the three lights on each of the side branches were inclined toward the central light in the middle of the Menorah. <\/span><\/p>\n

It turns out that this imaginative depiction of the Menorah, with all its seven lights burning, is not merely a flight of literary imagination. The Menorah is depicted in just this way on some artifacts, most notably in the 4<\/span>th<\/span> century synagogue mosaic at Hammat Tiberius excavated in the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. <\/span><\/p>\n

These literary and architectural depictions of the Menorah preserved in our land and literature, are hopefully the harbingers of the return of the actual Menorah itself to its home in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: by Steerpike – Arch of Titus Menorah.png<\/a>, CC BY 3.0,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":46852,"id":46852,"title":"Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah","filename":"Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-menorah-then-and-now\/num8-arch_of_titus_menorah\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num8-arch_of_titus_menorah","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":46849,"date":"2019-01-02 19:29:35","modified":"2019-04-08 14:35:15","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1024,"height":571,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-300x167.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":167,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-768x428.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":428,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-1024x571.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":571,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":571,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":571,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":571,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-753x420.jpg","home_baner-width":753,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Menorah: Then And Now","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Eternal symbol with a rich and mysterious history","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":46852,"id":46852,"title":"Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah","filename":"Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-menorah-then-and-now\/num8-arch_of_titus_menorah\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num8-arch_of_titus_menorah","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":46849,"date":"2019-01-02 19:29:35","modified":"2019-04-08 14:35:15","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1024,"height":571,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-300x167.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":167,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-768x428.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":428,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-1024x571.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":571,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":571,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":571,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":571,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Num8-Arch_of_Titus_Menorah-753x420.jpg","home_baner-width":753,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106769,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46849\/revisions\/106769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}