Parshat Terumah, 3rd Portion, Exodus 25:31-26:14, February 9, 2016

The Torah today talks of a menorah. This is the original menorah, not the one that we use for Hanukah. It has six branches with another branch in the center. Oil and a wick were put in the branches and lit. The first branch to be lit was the one in the center, but it would not go out, like the burning bush when Moses met God.

Jews think of themselves as the light, first to bring to the world monotheism (though probably this may be a stretch), and next to offer the world an ethical system based on a balance of justice and mercy.

Judaism was not initially a religion, which is said to have come later with the idea of faith. When one knows something for sure, that there is a God and the God talked to Moses and gave him laws (for example), then they don’t have religion. But when uncertainty develops and one doubts (not abandons) their beliefs, then they start to have a serious spiritual practice.

So the light symbolizes Judaism, but also represents the light in us that is (not “comes from”) the divine. It is not our bodies, but rather the spirit that was breathed into our body when we came alive. Rabbi Jonathan Slater speaks of “out breath, in breath” suggesting that, as Jews start the day in the evening, we start our life breathing out the gift of life from the universe.

It is prosperous to think that our lives just come from a biological process. That process gives us mechanical function, but it takes the universe to give us life, as God breathed life in Adam in the first creation story. The menorah, only to be housed In a temple, represents that glow... the lives of a people, the gift of the universe, the symbol of the glow of pure love. As we connect with others and even with who we are, a bright light comes from the menorah. Quick, where are my sunglasses?