Why does the menorah have space for 7 candles

However, there are many commercially produced Hanukkah menorahs that do not conform to these rules. Please send us a photo of the finished product — regardless of the design choices you make!

Rabbi Julie Zupan serves as the director of learning and engagement for Audacious Hospitality at the Union for Reform Judaism , where her work focuses on supporting interfaith couples and individuals exploring Judaism.

Affiliate Hat ReformJudaism. Home Learning Answers to Jewish Questions. Once secular Jews started making seven branched menorahs in the modern period, religious Jews decided to jump on the bandwagon, so to speak, and use the same form for nine-branched Hanukkah menorahs. How did you approach researching and writing about the various myths and legends about the possible existence of the original Temple menorah, including claims that it is being hidden at the Vatican? I hope it comes through how much I love these people that I am studying, even if I think they are wrong sometimes.

I wanted that to come through in the book. The last thing I wanted was for these people to come across as simpletons. They are not. They are good Jews trying.

Zionism has always had embedded in it this messianic potential for self destruction. Everyone who founded the system knew that they were playing with fire and bringing in messianic stuff. There is no symbol more potent than the menorah in Jewish culture, so it makes sense that an object with that much messianic potential would be too good to pass up… My menorah is good and holy and the process that I have developed from the Bible until yesterday is a happy process almost all the way.

And what should come through, I hope, is how much I love all of it. I am asking that we look closely at what we are doing. I deeply feel that our culture deeply needs protection and we have to ask questions… Is support for the various Temple parties the best thing that we could do for the future of klal yisrael [the entire Jewish people]? In Streetwise Hebrew for the Times of Israel Community, each month we learn several colloquial Hebrew phrases around a common theme.

These are bite-size audio Hebrew classes that we think you'll really enjoy. This month, we're learning phrases on the topic of strength and power.

Ready to get tough with us? By Steven Fine. To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership.

Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Of a talent of pure gold shall it be made, with all these utensils. The priestly author of these words believed that the Menorah had been made by Moses, and had been with the Jews when they wandered through the desert.

The seven-branched Menorah would have burned from evening to morning Leviticus , Measurements are not given in the Bible, and reproductions of the Menorah are absent from this period; perhaps the measurements can be derived from the Talmud Menahot , 28b , which says that the Menorah was eighteen handbreadths high. When the temple was rebuilt, there was only one Menorah, not ten.

The object is mentioned with some stress in the book of Chronicles , which was written immediately after the Exile, and is based on Kings. The next line, however, has no parallel in Kings, and is therefore an insertion by the author of Chronicles :. The priests offer to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices, set out the showbread on the table of pure gold, and care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening.

This line is from a speech that enumerates the priestly duties, and it is obvious that the author considered the Menorah very important.