You Light Up Our Lives |
Almost all of us are familiar with Jews who eschew Judaism’s ritual requirements with the argument that being a good person is sufficient to make one a good Jew. Surely, it is easy to understand the rationale behind fulfilling one’s responsibilities to fellow human beings, while it is more difficult to discern the value or effect of acts centered on our ritual relationship with God. One should not think that questions of this sort escaped our ancestors. We find just such a discussion in a tenth-century collection of midrash on a passage from Parshat Beha’alotkha.
And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: ‘Speak to Aharon and say to him: “When you light up (Beha’alotkha) the lamps, opposite the front of the lampstand shall the seven lamps give light.”’ (Numbers 8:1–2)
The word beha’alotkha literally means “when you cause to rise up.” Its plain meaning obviously refers to the flames of the lamps, yet it remains an unusual usage and therefore invites creative interpretation.
God commanded the lighting of the menorah, the Temple candelabrum, in order to provide light in the holy sanctuary of the Temple. A midrash raises a provocative question in this regard:
“That which the verse said: ‘For You light my lamp’ (Psalms 18:29) — Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Master of the universe, You say that we should illuminate before You, but You are the light of the world, and light resides with You, as it is written: “And the light rests with Him” (Daniel 2:22).’”........