The Lampstand of Pure Gold Shown to Moses on the Mountain

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 369:4

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"And you shall make a lampstand of pure gold." It was taught: a service vessel made of wood, Rabbi declares unfit, and Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah declares fit. Rabbi expounds by general-and-particular: "and you shall make a lampstand," a general statement; "of pure gold," a particular; "the lampstand shall be made of hammered work," a return to the general. By a general-particular-general you judge only according to the particular: just as the particular is plainly of metal, so all must be of metal. Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah expounds by inclusion-and-exclusion, including in the end even wood, and excluding only earthenware. It was taught: if one has no gold, he may bring silver, copper, iron, tin, or lead. Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah permits even wood. And it was taught: a person may not make a house in the form of the Sanctuary, a portico like the hall, a courtyard like the Temple court, a table like the table, or a lampstand like the lampstand; but he may make one of five branches, of six, or of eight. Of seven he may not make, even of other metals. Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah says: even of wood he may not make seven, as the Hasmonean kings did. They said to him: from there is no proof, for those were iron spits coated with tin; when they grew rich they made them of silver, and richer still, of gold. The seven branches of the lampstand are indispensable to one another; the seven lamps are indispensable to one another, for the word "shall be" is written of them. Our Rabbis taught: the lampstand was to be made of solid metal and of gold. Made from scrap pieces, it is unfit; from other metals, it is fit. The Gemara works through the verses: "a talent of pure gold shall he make it" (Exodus 25:39), "hammered," and "this is the work of the lampstand, hammered gold" (Numbers 8:4), deriving that when gold, it comes as a full talent with its cups, knobs, and flowers, and the word "hammered" at the end excludes the trumpets. Shmuel said in the name of an elder: the height of the lampstand was eighteen handbreadths. The feet and the flower were three handbreadths; two handbreadths plain; one handbreadth holding a cup, knob, and flower; two plain; one with a knob and two branches going out, one this way and one that, drawn up to the height of the lampstand; one plain; one with a knob and two more branches; one plain; one with a knob and two more branches; two plain; with three handbreadths left at the top holding cups, knobs, and flowers. To what are the cups likened? To Alexandrian goblets. The knobs? To the apples of Crete. The flowers? To the blossoms of the pillars. There were thus twenty-two cups, eleven knobs, and nine flowers, each kind indispensable to the others. Rabbi Yonatan said: what is "upon the pure lampstand" (Leviticus 24:4)? That its making came down from a place of purity. It was taught, Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah says: an ark of fire, a table of fire, and a lampstand of fire came down from heaven, and Moses saw and made their like, as it is said, "and see and make them after their pattern that you were shown on the mountain." Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: Gabriel, girded like a workman, showed Moses the making of the lampstand, as it is said, "and this is the work of the lampstand" (Numbers 8:4). The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: three things were hard for Moses until the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him with His finger, and these are they: the lampstand, the new moon, and the creeping things; and some say, also the laws of slaughter. Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: Solomon made ten lampstands, and for each he brought a thousand talents of gold and put it through the furnace a thousand times until it stood at one talent. And does it lose so much? But it was taught, Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Yehudah says: it happened that the lampstand of the Temple exceeded that of the wilderness by a Gordian gold dinar, and they put it through the furnace eighty times until the dinar was lost. Once it stands, it stands.

Themes

TempleMosesDivine Revelation

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