“This was the form of the Menorah: from its base to its flower ….” (Bamidbar 8:4)
Rashi explains that Hashem showed Moshe Rabbeinu the form of the menorah since Moshe had difficulty with constructing it. The Medrash tells us that the menorah symbolizes the Jewish people, and each component of the menorah corresponds to a particular virtue of the Jewish people.
Rav Gamliel Rabinovich adds that the pure gold composition of the menorah alludes to the fact that every Jew, no matter his background or level, is forged of pure gold, i.e. his essence is completely good. Even the simplest Jew, or one who may be on a low level, suggested by the base of the menorah – the very bottom – is nevertheless made of pure gold.
The Ari, z”l, writes in Shaar HaKavanos that all the souls of the Jewish nation are like gold. Just as gold is covered with dirt and needs to be extracted and cleaned, so too the Jewish people had to descend to Egypt, become enslaved and subjected to hard labor in order to cleanse and refine them.
This was what Moshe Rabbeinu found difficult to understand. How could Hashem imply that the essence of every Jew is good (made of pure gold like the menorah) if there were sinners among them?
For this reason, Hashem showed Moshe the form of the menorah made of fire. Fire was brought to a very high temperature in order to rid the gold of all impurities. Hashem wanted to assure Moshe Rabbeinu that the gold was, indeed, pure. In a similar vein, the soul of every Jew emanates from beneath the Throne of Glory. Even when the Jewish people do not do good, it is not because their essence is bad. Rather, because they have been placed in a material world, a certain amount of physicality clings to them and the soul becomes tarnished. The soul remains pure; it only needs to be refined and cleansed.
The Sefer Toldos Adam cites the Talmud (Keritot 6b) that states that a fast that does not include the participation of some of the sinners of the Jewish people is not a valid fast. This is derived from the fact that the unpleasant smell of the chelbonah [spice] is included with the pleasant fragrances of the other spices of the incense. He expounds that every Jew has a pure essence, and every Jew is precious. This is as our sages assert (Sanhedrin 44a), “Even though a Jew has sinned he is still a Jew.”
What makes the Jew so precious?
Hashem says (Shemos 19:5), “You shall be to Me the most beloved treasure of all peoples.” Likewise, before we recite the Krias Shema every day, we say, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who chooses His people Israel with love.” We are a part of Hashem, as the Zohar states: Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu and the Jewish people are one.
Accordingly, the Talmud teaches (Sanhedrin 58b) that one who strikes the cheek of another Jew it is as if he struck the cheek of the Divine Presence. Similarly, our sages tell us that since man is created in the image of Hashem, when one speaks lashon hara about another person, he not only commits an egregious sin against another human being, it is as if he spoke negatively of Hashem.
A Jew stumbled and committed an egregious sin, which snowballed, and the Jew soon found himself leading a completely transformed life.
One day the Jew experienced a spark of inspiration, and he began to regret the disgraceful lifestyle he had adopted. He tried to do teshuva, but he could not forgive himself for all the transgressions he had committed. He was so distraught that he soon began to lose his will to live.
It was suggested that he should go to the Lev Simcha, the great Rebbe of Ger. With no other helpful suggestion, the Jew went to the Rebbe. There he poured out his bitter story. He told of the difficult times he had experienced, and now his inability to start a new life because wherever he went and whatever he did he was haunted by the sins that he had transgressed.
The Lev Simcha looked at him intently for a moment and then he said to him: For twenty-two years Yaakov Avinu had no information on where his beloved son, his ben zekunim (the son of his old age) was. When he finally did meet up with him, we do not find even once that Yaakov asked where he had been or what had happened. Yaakov Avinu didn’t ask Yosef for any explanations about how he had ended up in Egypt. The Ramban tells us that Yaakov did not know that Yosef’s brothers had sold him, He did not know that he had been thrown into a pit with snakes, that he was forced to work in the house of Potifar, that he spent twelve difficult years in prison.
From this we understand, said the Lev Simcha, that we don’t speak about the past, and we don’t contemplate it. It’s like the past never happened. The moment that a person’s good heart decides to do teshuva, to reunite with his roots, he doesn’t have to think about the past at all. What will he gain thinking his past deeds? That is just the Evil Inclination who wants the person to remember his earlier deeds so that he will despair and not return to Hashem.
The great R’ Menachem of Amshinov once said that a person should carry two timepieces in his pocket. One, he said, should serve to remind the person how fleeting time is. The hour is already late, and the person has to treasure the time he has left to be involved in the service of Hashem. The second timepiece should tell the person that it’s never too late and he still has time to rectify the wrong.
