ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף יחזקאל 1:13

בהעלותך את הנרות אל מול פני המנורה יאירו שבעת הנרות, “when you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps cast light.” The Torah’s choice of the word בהעלותך, [as opposed to כאשר תדליק. Ed.] is a reference to the flame, שלהבת, which rises of its own accord (Shabbat 21). The sages consider the words as a form of עלוי, “spiritual ascent,” quoting Bamidbar Rabbah 15,5, G’d said: “it is not that I need your light but I want that you light up in My presence just as I lit up the path for you in the desert when I sent My pillar of fire ahead of you.” It will enhance your stature in the eyes of the Gentile nations when they observe that although it is G’d who provides light and illumination for the entire world, the Israelites provide light at His disposal. In order to understand the phenomenon of creating light out of darkness consider two things. 1) The human eye has a white surface surrounding a black pupil. Contrary to what you might expect we do not see with the white of the eye but with the black part. 2) Lightning is a derivative of celestial fire. It emerges from those regions and brilliantly lights up the entire horizon. We find this reflected in the vision of Ezekiel 1,13: “Such was the appearance of the creatures. With them was something that looked like burning coals of fire. This fire, suggestive of torches, kept moving about among the creatures; the fire had a radiance, and lightning issued forth from the fire.
In this paragraph Aaron was commanded to light the Menorah, both at this time and as a procedure to be followed for all times when the Temple was standing. The words דבר אל אהרן “speak to Aaron, etc.,“ convey the commandment as it applied in the desert in the Tabernacle, whereas the apparent repetition ואמרת אליו, “and say to him,” conveys the thought that the legislation being formulated here was for all future priests to observe. Seeing that this commandment of keeping the interior of the Tabernacle/Temple lit was not limited to the Tabernacle this paragraph does not mention the word אהל מועד, “Tent of Meeting.” This is in contrast to Exodus 27,21 where the details of the Menorah are spelled out and the Torah writes: באהל מועד יערך אותו אהרון הכהן ובניו, “in the Tent of Meeting Aaron and his sons shall arrange it, etc.” People might have thought that seeing there were no windows inside the Tabernacle there was a need for the lights of this Menorah, whereas in the Temple which was equipped with windows (Kings I 6,4) there was no need for interior illumination.

We find a similar concept in Ezekiel‘s vision of the מרכבה, “G’d’s heavenly entourage.” The prophet described a vision of the angels supporting G’d’s throne as respectively fiery and icy (1,13 and 1,22). If we consider that water or ice usually descends whereas fire usually rises, it becomes clear that we speak of natural forces with opposite characteristics, not to mention heat and cold which are opposites also. G’d arranged for water, i.e. the sky to have its habitat in the heights, whereas fire has its habitat down below.

ויהי קולות וברקים. The sounds which resembled thunder were the sounds made by the angels who accompanied G’d and who sang His praises. It is something the angels do every morning. We base this knowledge on Job 38,7 “when the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted for joy?” The beings described as ברקים are also angels seeing that we are told in Psalms 104,4 עושה מלאכיו רוחות משרתיו אש לוהט, “He Who employs His angels as winds which are His messengers, fiery flames His servants.” We also have the following verse in Ezekiel 1,13: ונגה לאש ומן האש יוצא ברק, “there was a brilliance to the fire, and from the fire went forth lightning.”