Parshas Vayakhel: Remotely Related

“And he made the Menorah of pure gold….” (Shemos 37:17)

T

he Midrash says that Moshe had difficulty making the Menorah. So Hashem told him to throw the gold into a fire, and the Menorah emerged fully formed. The Chofetz Chaim questions Moshe’s inability to make the Menorah, considering that he created all the other keilim of the Mishkan in full detail.

He answers that Moshe Rabbeinu was certainly able to create the physical aspects of the Menorah. However, each of the keilim of the Mishkan also had a spiritual influence on Klal Yisrael. The Aron brought wisdom; the Shulchan, gashmiyus; and the Mizbeiach, closeness to Hashem. And the Menorah channeled the influence of nitzchiyus, eternity, as represented by the Neir Tamid, the eternal flame that’s never extinguished. The fact that Klal Yisrael will never cease to exist was established through the Menorah (Rabbi Moshe Norman, Chicago Community Kollel Parsha Encounters).

“So how was it?” I settled into the booth for a long-awaited coffee date with my friend Tammy and picked up my cup. She’d just come back from a whirlwind two-week buying trip to the Far East for her business, and I was curious to hear about her trip.

“So I saw places I never knew existed, and met a zillion people, some of whom maybe I’d rather not have met….” Tammy grinned at me.

“But the craziest thing was the Shabbos I spent there. Months ago, when I was planning my itinerary, I realized I would be out in the boondocks on Friday, on an island with a name you can’t even pronounce! There was only one ferry a day to get there… that’s how isolated it was.

“Basically, I didn’t think there was anything else around besides the factory I’d be visiting. I planned to stock up on kosher food before I got there and resigned myself to spending a lonely Shabbos on my own.”