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The long and, to be fiank, rather tedious chapters of the Book of
Exodus which we read at this time of the year about the construction of
the Tabernacle with all its elaborate furnishings, appurtenanes and
rituals have little relevance for us today.
We hardly recognise in them
anything that plays any part in our religious life tpday. But there are
one or two exceptions, and among them the reference, at the very beginning
of this wekk's Sidra, to the Ner Tamid, the Perpetual Light.
~
'
Actually, that isn't quite the right translation, for it
from the Biblicél account that
evening till morning"
(m.
it
3:8:¥%g§?t
was kept burning only at night, "from
27:21), and indeed another passage makes it
clear that the wick was kindled every day at dusk and trimmed the following day at dawn (Ex. 30:7f). (The fact is that the word
Eggig can mean
continual as well as continuous. as in gggggg Egggg, the daily offering.)
And that was also, as far as we know, the pracfice in Solomon's Temple.
What then would have been the purpose? As the Bible doesn't tell us,
we can only guess.
In part, I suppose, it was simply.utilitarian.
To
keep the sanctuary lit up at night served to prevent intruders from
defiling it or stealing its precious utensils, and enabled the priests
and levites to attend to any chores that might be necessary in preparation
for the morning service. But it is also reasonable to suppose that from
an early time the Ner Tamid acquired, in addition, a symbplic meaning.
If so, thére was really no reason why it should be kept burning
only at
night, XIX Indeed it seems that in the Second Temple, built after the
Babylonian Exile, it was kept burning all the time; and since it served
no utilitarian purpose durmng the hours of daylight, it now became
more
than ever a symbol.
What it lboked like, we know from various ancient sources and not
a.
' 2 '
least from the Arch of Titus in Rome.
golden
We must envisage a/candlestick
(in Hebrew menorab) in the shape of a tree with seven branches, each
ending in a chalice representing an almond blossom, through which the
wicks were fed with pbive 011.
Indeed, we bane just such a description,
as you may recall, in the book of Zechariah (on. 4).
From the Temple, the Ner Tamid passed into the Synagogue, which the
Rébbis called mikdasb glgfi, "a little sanctuary" (Meg. 29a); but in order
to maintain the distinction between the two, it was not considered proper
to 3221 the Ner Tamid o@ the Temple, and it therefore took the form, as
still does today, of a single lamp suspended in front of the Ark. ilt
is one of the few objects of interest which we can point out to nonfiJewiab
visitors. But when 3:23 do, they almost invariably ask us: "What does it
it
mean?"
And then we usually make up some vague, impromptu explanation
and hope that it's somewhere near the mark.
This morning, let us see
whether we can be a little more Specific.:]
The first thing we can.say is that light generally lends itself to
symbolisma
hols.
It is
perhaps the richest and the most universal of all symp
So much depends on light.
Most obviously, vision - a fact perhaps
more obvious to our ancestors before the days of electricity than it is
to us, though we are sometimes sharply reminded of it, as during wartime black-outs or power—cuts.
Safety, too, depends on it, for under
cover of darkness wild beasts go prowling, murderers and robbers lie
in wait, cpnspirators hatch their evil schemes and, to the superstitious
mind, demons are liable to pounce. XXEKKEXXXXXKXOIMHOIKRM:of:
waxxyzxnnxxxzxx one of the most
dreaded demons of Jewish mythology, although of Babylonian origin, is
a female creature called Lillitb whose name derives from the word lailah
“
meaning 'night'.
Indeed, life itself depends on light, for most species
of animals and plants cannot exist withdut it.
- 3 _
It is no wonder, therefore, that in a general sort of way, light
came to symbolise everytfiing that is good, and darkness everything that
is evil, and consequentlyrthat God became associated particularly with
light.
According to the Creation story in Genesis, his very first act
is the creation of light.
there was light.
"And God said, 'Let there be light'; and
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated
the light from the darkness" (Gen. lzfif).
burning bfish.
Mbses experiences God in a
He amfl others have a vision of Him which seems like
w
"a pavement of sapphire stones, like the very heaven for clearness"
(Ex. 24:10).
as
iL
k
Eu.“
Maui
h Same :Ixém‘ rmL‘ukn-
After communiCating with God, hls face sblnes,
L
Ezeklel's
.
account of his vision of the heavenly chariots is full of expressions like
'brightness', 'flashing', 'gleaming' and "Sparkling'.
The Psalmist,
addressing God, says: "Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garmenm"
And again: "If I say, 'Let only darkness cover me, and the light
about me be night,‘ even the darkness is not dark to thee, but the night
(104:2).
is bright as the day" (159:11f).
The Priestly Benediction inckudes the
clause, xg—er adonai panav eleycba, "The Lord cause His face to shine
upon you;" Another Psalm contains the prayer, b'or-cha nir-eh 2;, "In
‘thy
light let us see light" (36:10).
There is indeed a danger in this association of God and light, for
it XKHHK poses the question: Where then does the darkness come frame
There was always a tendency in mythology to associate it with other
beings, such as the demon Lilith. And in the Zoroastrian religion this
dualism became a fundamentak principle, with two deities vieing with each
other for the control of the universe: Abura-Mazda, the god of
light, and
Abriman, the god of darkness. This, of course, presented a major chalhnge
to Jewiah monotheiam, and the Second Isaiah, who lived in Babylonia just
at the time when Zoroastrianisn bad begin.to spread,
responded to it
_ 4 with the daring affirmation, in God's name: yotzer g; u-vore chosbech,
"I form light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the
Lord am He who makes all these" (#5:?).
Later, as I am sure you know,
this very phrase,fififi with a slight change, was taken over into the fitmrgy
and recited every morning before the Shema.
Indeed, theré is a theory
that it was_at first done in the open air at sunrise, in protest against
the Zoroastrian priests who used to greet the rising sun, which they
identified with the god of light.
The prayer reads: "We praise You, 0
Lord our God, King of the universe, Maker of light and Creator of darkness
Author of peace and Creator of all things.
In Your mercy You give light
to the earth and to all who dwell upon it" (SOH, 124f).
And the corres—
pmng prayer in the evening service says: "You make day and night, rolling
light away from darkness, and darkness away from light" (SOB, p. 65).
But though both light and darkness fire the creation of one and the
same God, it is, as we have seen, with light that He is especially
associated. Light, in the words of the American.Reform prayerbook, is
"5 symbol of the divine". But it is also a symbol of the divine
32 Egg,
for as the book of Proveahs says, Egg adonafi nisbmafi Eggg, "The Spirit
of man is the light of the Lord" (20:27). But what is it that nourishes
the divine in man, that illuminates his spirit with the light of God?
_
is knowledge.
Darkness is a symbol of ignorance and falsehood. That
is so even in English usage, for to throw light on a subject is to
reveal
the facts concerning it. So, too, in Jewish tradition, light standa for
It
knowledge, especially of God's will. It stands therefore for revelation,
for Torah. g; ggg mitzvah v'torah 9;, "For the commandment is
a lamp, and
the Torah is light" (Prov. 6:23). So says the book of Proverbs.
And when
Isaiah says, L'chu v’nel'cba b'or adonai, "Come, let us walk in the light
of the Lord" (2:5), he means: Let us live according to God's
teachings.
_ 5 -
Light is of course also a symbol of joy, just as,XXH even in English
usage, its opposite, gloom, connotes depréssion.
And that accounts for
its special association with the Sabbath as a day of joy.
Elgggggg
la-shabbat Eggs, "You shall call the Sabbafih‘a dékight" (Isa. 58:15),
said the Second Isaiah, and it is for this reason that the Pharisees,
against the opposition of the Sadducees, institgted the kindling of
lights to weléome the Sabbath.
Light symbolises, more particularly, the joy of deliverance.
For
the opposite of freedom, oppression, is naturally thought of as a condition of darkness. To this day, when I try to recall my childhood in
Nazi Germany, I see automatically a clouded sky, even though the sun
must have shone as frequently then as it does now. Similarly, when at
the outbreak of the first woild war it was said that the lights were
going out all over Europe, the expression had a metaphorical as well as
a literal meaning. And(on this Sabbath before Purim, when we recall the
story of the threat of destruction that hung over the Jews of Babyloniaq
we are not surprised to find that the elation they felt when the threat
had been averted should be described in the phrase,,La-y'hudim hgz'tah
gggg glglggggg, "The Jews had light and gladness" (Esther 8:16), a phrase
borrowed by Isaac Luria in the Middle Ages when he wrote the hymn which
we sang earlier in the service, yom zeh l'yisrael orah v'simcbah, "This
day is for Israel light and rejoicing."
But because light symbolises deliverance, it also alludes to the
ultimafie redemption of Israel and mankind, and in reference to that
such
phrases as these abound in Scripture: "The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light" (Isa. 9:2); "Arise, shine, for your light
has
come" (Isa. 60:1); "The path of the righteous is like the light
of dawn,
which shines ever more brightly until the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18);
and
“TL
meau
I",
1'”,
WMNg-M kw"
(“4.60:3”).
‘
._6._
In the rich symbolism of light, when used in Jewish ritugl, all these
connotations may well be implied: God's presence, His creativity, the
divine in man, knowledge, revelation and Torah, joy, deliverance and
redemption. But there is another which is especially related to the
Ner Tamid.
For according to the Talmud it testifies that the Diw.ne
Presence dwells in Israel (Shab. 22b).
And a Midrash on our Sidra about
the Ner Tamid and the olive pil which aLl the Israelites were to bring for
it, adduces a verse from Jeremiah, "The Lord called
you a green oliVe tree
(11:16),to make the point that our forefathers were so called because
“they brought light to all the world by their faith" (EX.R. 36:1). And
that, of course, brings us straigfit back to Isaiah's prophecy that we are
to be "a light to the nations" (42:6).
That is indeed a much over-quoted phrase, and it has about it all the
vagueness of a preacher's platitude :3§Z§?:tufise1 of perfection. And yet
it should not be too lightly dismissed. There is, after all, a struggle
going on in the woflld which may well be described as s strflggle between
light and darkness; and in that struggle, if it means anything to be a Jew,
we must play our part. The Dead Sea Scrolls include a sgrange document
entitled m'gillat milchemet b'ney g; biv'ney choshecb, "The Scroll of the
War of the Children of Light against the Children pf Darkness." There
the struggle is described as a kind of cosmic upheaval at the end of time.
We need not think of it in such extravagant terms, nor can we expect, as
individuals, to make any great impression on "the nations" as collectivi—
ties.
And yet each one of us, by what we do and by what we refrain from
doinglin our daily lives, can contribute a little bit to the safeguafiing
and tfifiJinérease of those conditions in the
make for redemption:
wt?gijgfia
reason; moderation, friendliness and cheerfulness, LWe can contribute our
little drop of olive‘pil to keefi the Ner Tamid burning. And to that
i" 1*
_ 7 _
extent we are, or we must try to be, 2:321 2g, childfi?
oi i$%ht: by
appointment to His divfiuhityr the Almighty purveyors of Llight Land jay to
mankind.
,And if the Ner
Tamid that hangs in front of the Ark reminds
us sometimes of that obligation, it becomes a great deal more than a
ritual ist ic ornament .