Tafsiran Keluaran 25:31: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Chizkuni & Da'at Zekenim

“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold” [25:31]. You should make a golden lampstand with seven branches. God had commanded this so that the person should be fearful when he will come into the Tabernacle and will see beautiful lights standing before him. He will consider the Sanctuary to be important. Therefore, the lampstand stood in front of the curtain, before the people. That is to say, the Holy One Himself does not need light, but it should illumine for the people. It is known that the soul has great pleasure when it sees much light. Each person’s soul was taken from heaven, which is purely a great light. Therefore, the soul has pleasure when it sees light, and therefore, King Solomon, of blessed memory, compared the soul to a light, as the verse says, “the lifebreath of man is the lamp of the Lord” [Proverbs, 20:27]. Therefore, the lampstand had seven branches for the seven great stars that rule the world. The lampstand stood on the south side, since wisdom and Torah is with the people who live on the south side. The lampstand was compared to the Torah, as the verse says, “for the commandment is a lamp, the Torah is a light” [Proverbs, 6:23].³⁰Bahya, Exodus, 25:31.

The Table was in the north of the lampstand and the Table was about wealth, since the essence of gold comes from the north, as the verse says, “by the north the golden rays emerge” [Job, 37:22]. This teaches us that the person cannot study the Torah alone; he must have something with it. That is to say, he must also eat. Therefore, the Table stood near the lampstand, which is compared to the Torah.³¹Bahya, Exodus, 25:38.

Baal ha-Turim writes. It is written that the letter samech is not found in the section on the lampstand. This teaches us that where there is light, there is no Satan and no evil encounters. Therefore, each person is warned to go with a light at night whenever possible.³²Baal ha-Turim, Exodus, 25:31.

מקשה תיעשה המנורה OF BEATEN WORK SHALL THE CANDELABRUM BE MADE — i. e. one should not make it of separate pieces nor shall one make its branches or its lamps as separate limb — a kind of work called souder in old French, Engl, to solder, but is was to be made in its entirety of a single mass of gold. He (who made it) beat it with the hammer and cut away with the implements of his craft thus making the branches spread out in this direction and in that (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 61:1).