Tables & lights – B’ha’alot’cha
The menorah in the sanctuary is the subject of the opening verses of the sidra. God laid down how it was to be constructed, and Aaron ensured that every detail accorded with the Divine specification.
The way the sanctuary was designed, says Rashbam in his commentary, meant that the lights of the menorah shone directly upon the table of show-bread which was opposite it.
Explaining Rashbam, Rabbi Isaac Bernstein, a dynamic English preacher, wrote, “The tables on which the loaves of bread were placed represents the material goods of this world. The menorah symbolises the light of Torah. By having the menorah cast light on the table we are being told that a life conceived only in terms of the ‘table’ is a life lived in darkness.”
Bernstein continues, “This theme finds its ultimate expression in the dialogue between Jacob and Esau. In encouraging Esau to accept his modest gift, Jacob remarks, ‘Accept my gift which has been brought to you, for God has favoured me and I have everything (yesh li kol). Esau refuses, declaring, ‘I have much (yesh li rov), my brother’.
“Esau, for whom God does not exist, felt an emptiness, despite his enormous wealth, which would not and could not permit him to declare that he had everything – that he was at peace with himself. Jacob, however, could speak in terms of completeness and contentment since he had both ‘table’ and menorah” (“Jewish Chronicle”, 27 May, 1983).
