Parashat HaShavua: Beha'alotcha

The Candelabrum: Our Ultimate Goals

“And God spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron, saying to him: when you light the candles atop the candelabrum, these candles shall give light.”

Numbers 8:1-2

These two verses, which open parashat Beha'alotcha, discuss the commandment for Aaron (and ultimately his sons) to clean and light the candelabrum every morning. We are told that there are several steps leading up to the candelabrum. Chazal tell us that each stair has greater holiness than the previous. In addition, while Aaron was the only priest to light the candelabrum during his lifetime, it was generally not part of the High Priest's responsibilities and was a task assigned to a regular priest. If the candelabrum was such an important vessel, why was the job of cleaning and lighting it every morning delegated to just a normal preist?

            

 I think that the candelabrum symbolizes human struggle and achievement. With each step we take, we move higher and higher, closer and closer, to realizing our goal, our own personal “candelabrum.” Our “candelabra” can be anything from passing a course to getting into a desired college to getting the summer job that we want so much. I also think that the fact that a regular priest — not just the High Priest — could clean and light the candelabrum in the Tabernacle and in the Holy Temple shows that we all have the ability to achieve our goals.

            

 In addition, we extend this comparison to B'nei Yisrael as a community. Similar to us as individuals, we, the B'nei Yisrael, are working toward a communal goal. This “candelabrum” is to ultimately leave the Diaspora when the Messiah arrives and rebuild the Holy Temple, when the candelabrum itself will be rebuilt — both a physical and a metaphorical realization of our goal. With each step that B'nei Yisrael take as a community to end the Diaspora, we are working toward the goal of rebuilding the Holy Temple and restoring its vessels, the highest level of holiness and the highest possible step. Each step, however small, still makes us holier as a community. The first of these steps took place not to long ago, in 1948, when the State of Israel was brought into existence, marking the first step taken towards reaching our goal: the Jewish dream, that, one day, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt, not by the hands of an elite few, but by ordinary Jews, and the the candelabrum be lit once again by a “normal” priest. This candelabrum will illuminate the world with its light, Chazal tell us, because the windows of the Holy Temple will be wider on the outside than the inside to let as much light from the candelabrum out and light up the world.