An Early Hanukka Present: The Rebbe and the Menora, Part 2

Ynet reports:

The renovation of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem that started in 1967 lasted over 15 years. During the construction of the Kotel Yeshiva over the Western Wall's plaza, an impressive building complex was discovered including the homes of affluent Jews, and ashes from the city's destruction in 70 AD.

The complex, better known as the Herodian Quarter – the Wohl Archaeology Museum, is the largest roofed archeological site in Israel (about 2,700 square meters). Actually it is a Jewish neighborhood overlooking the Temple from the final days of the Second Temple period. A bridge connected the Mount with the neighborhood in which the Temple's priests resided.

Findings reveal the lavish lifestyle of the neighborhood's residents including dozens of ritual baths, art works such as mosaics, frescos and stuccos.…

One of the most significant findings is the engraving of the Menorah. Since the Temple is less than 100 meters away, [and the Herodian Quarter looked down on the Mount and was populated by kohanim, priests, and their families, all of who would have seen the real Temple menora] it is quite likely that this is an exact replica of the real thing.…

Top left: The menora fresco c. 60 CE found in the Herodian Quarter; Center left: A coin from the Hasmonean dynasty featuring a menora; Center right: The Rambam's (Maimonides') schematic drawing of what he imagined the Temple menora to look like; Top right: Chabad menora based on the Rambam's schematic drawing and used for Hanukka. Please click images to enlarge.

In other words, the contemporaneous depictions of the menora have curved branches. The Rambam's version 1000 years later has straight branches.

Here's how this plays out now. No serious scholar today doubts the menora had curved branches. We simply have too many contemporaneous depictions of the menora made that way and there are no contemporaneous depictions with straight branches.

Enter Chabad. The late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson adopted the Rambam's version as a Chabad logo of sorts. At the same time, he claimed the Rambam's version was the historically correct version – the Temple's menora, the late Rebbe claimed, had straight branches.

I think the Rebbe first made this claim before the discovery of many of the coins, the fresco, and other contemporaneous depictions were found. Still, he stuck to his guns. Today, most Chabad menoras used for Hanukka have straight branches.

Is this a crisis? Not really. But it is wrong to teach the Temple menora looked a certain way when all available evidence says it did not. The Rambam would never have made that drawing if he had the coins and other evidence we have. He was not one for arguing against reality. That dubious honor has been left to today's haredi world and, in particular, its evangelists from Eastern Parkway.

An earlier discussion of this problem can be read here, along with Rabbi Seth Mandel's views. (Yes, that is Rabbi Seth Mandel of the OU.)

Comments

[Garnel Ironheart]

I'm not an expert on archaeology, but I wonder if it's possible there were two Menorah designs: one for the official menorah in the Temple and a popular one used by people in their homes.
The Chumash is naturally not clear on if the branches have to be straight or not and I've seen some commentators who held the branches were curved. In the various Temple institutes around the Old City they have both types on display.

[S.]

>I'm not an expert on archaeology, but I wonder if it's possible there were two Menorah designs: one for the official menorah in the Temple and a popular one used by people in their homes.

Of course it's possible, but the point is that all evidence indicates that it was rounded and no evidence shows it to be Vs.

By the way, what popular design are you referring to? The menorah for Chanukah use? That would have 8 branches (besides for the question of whether people lit the menorah while the bh"m stood).

[PishPosh]

The original Menorah that stood in the Mishkan and then the first Mikdash was long gone, sacked probably by Nebuchadnezzar and also even the the Menorah that stood in the post Bavel Temple before Hordus did his remodeling was lifted by the Seleucid Antioches. So sadly we cant know what THE Menorah looked like, only its probably third incarnation.

[Anon]

Wow Shmarya, are you loosing sleep over whether Chabad believes the menora had straight versus curved branches?

[Garnel Ironheart]

I guess the popular design I'm referring to is the one that shows up on things like Israeli coins, the crest of the state, the big menorah in the rose garden outside the Knesset and the one from the Arch of Titus (it's near the guy carrying the video camera). Those are generally rounded, not straight.

As for poor Shmarya, it must be a slow news day.

[Edious]

http://chabadtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1562

Its all Stated there.

[Edious]

http://chabadtalk.com/forum/attachment.php3?attachmentid=351&d=1072583325

A picture where its not round.
The son of the Rambam says it was not round but as hes father designed it.

[Edious]

Was is very fascinating about that picture that it seems its slightly rounded, no not the branches but it seems that the top was like a crown meaning if you were on top looking down the lights would not be in a straight line but rounded which is what the MA holds regarding the menorah being a crown of the Jews.

[Edious]

^^^What is very fascinating about that picture is that it seems its slightly rounded^^^

[Lawrence M. Reisman]

Edious has given us a link to a mural from the Dura Europos Synagogue in Syria. However, dates from the synagogue indicate it was built in 244 CE, 174 year after the Temple was destroyed. As such, it's not as authoritative as those from an earlier era. However, being the Rambam was in constant correspondence with Syria, it would seem likely that he knew of the mural, and in the absence of other evidence based his drawing upon it.

[Shmarya]

It is also dated at 244 CE, almost 200 years AFTER the Temple was destroyed.

It's from the synagogue of Dura-Europos in Syria:

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/Art/TO_ArtOverview/biblicalArt.htm

More here:

http://www.atlastours.net/syria/duraeuropos.html

Map here:
http://www.atlastours.net/syria/sites.html

It's on the eastern boarder with Iraq, north of the Euphrates river – a long way and a long time from the Temple.

[fdfdsdsfdsfds]

>However, being the Rambam was in constant correspondence with Syria, it would seem likely that he knew of the mural

Not that likely, since the synagogue was buried in the time of the Rambam. It wasn't excavated until the 20th century.

Furthermore, he likely would have been unimpressed by the Hellenistic motifs of the DE synagogue, had he seen them.

More likely the Rambam pulled it out of his imagination, the same as anyone else who had to reconstruct the menorah based on the Chumash without seeing any historical depictions of it.

And of course, as has been noted, the 2nd Temple menorah wasn't a replica of the 1st Temple menorah, although it was presumably built according to the description in the Torah as best understood at the time.

[Lawrence M. Reisman]

"However, being the Rambam was in constant correspondence with Syria, it would seem likely that he knew of the mural

Not that likely, since the synagogue was buried in the time of the Rambam. It wasn't excavated until the 20th century."

We don't know that it was buried in the Rambam's time. It was certainly buried in our time. In any case, if you compare the mural to the Rambam's drawing, they are similar. Perhaps he was aware of another source based on the mural, or coming from a source common with the mural.

[Yochanan Lavie]

I like the Rambam, but he is not infallible. Nobody is (especially not me). I wish Chabad would adopt his attitudes towards rationalism, philosophy and kabbalah, rather than towards a lampost.

[Edious]

Actually most rabbis went to Syria so it had very good roots as in knowing facts since meny rabbis emigrated there after the second temple was destroyed and there where meny details that were handed down from generation to generation as the gemara describes the arguments of the details, which you scholars forget that the main yeshiva after the temple was Syria. To be exact pupudesa and surya this is modern day Syria. So shamrya statement that no serious scholar other then the son of the Rambam which may have had information that we don’t have in our modern day mainly sketches of the BH as he evidently knew many details as he describes the BH in great detail in he’s Halchaic and Mishnah works, which means it wasn’t a figment of he’s imagination. Now we have a clear picture that you see this is not the Lubavitch Rebbe making this up but there is proof that people held and again in a central rabbinic town at the time that the menorah was not round.

[Shmarya]

Let me list your errors:

1. A ten year old at the time of the exile would have been 185 years old at the time that painting was made.

2. The average lifespan in those days was about 45 years. That means, at best, 3 complete generations passed without any of those people seeing the real menora. In reality it was probably 4 to 5 generations.

3. The menoras depicted on coins from the Temple era and on the fresco found in the Old City from that era show curved branches.

4. No straight-branched menoras have been found from any era when the Temples stood or in Israel.

5. The ONLY straight-branched menora found is the one in far eastern Syria, many hundreds of miles from and 175 years after the Temple stood.

6. There is NO record of any yeshiva in the area of Syria the menora came from.

7. The rabbis did NOT flee to Syria after the destruction of the Temple. They for the most part stayed in Israel, moving north into the Galil. Tiberius was a center, for example.

8. Persecution worsened after Bar Kokhba's failed revolt and then again under Christian dominance once Rome converted in 312. It was then, well after the Temple was destroyed, that rabbis began to flee, many to Bavel. But, again, not to Dura-Europos.

9. Dura-Europos is about 200 miles away from the closest yeshiva, Pumbadita.

10. If reread the comments, you'll note that Rashi was the first we know of to posit straight branches.

11. If the Rambam's drawing is understood as a schematic – which is in effect what he wrote – then the straight branches don't mean anything. That makes Rashi a dat yahid.

12. And it really doesn't matter anyway – again, all available evidence shows the menora had curved branches.

[Edious]

Again you show your knowledge to be off. There were earlier generations that went to Syria before Rav which was about 150 years, (Mashneh Ben Chariysh was in Rome way before to amorim so there were those that went, R Yehudah who was a Tanna was in Syria and Hillel came from Bavel and I can go on and on of big people were in Bavel but yes the majority was still in Israel. Go learn some Gemara Gitten It will do you well on who was where when) Second your avg. age is the biggest load of crap I ever heard, and that it could be their grandfather knew someone who was there. Third it was within range of Talmudic yeshiva so they obviously took their information from a main body of scholars. And you know exactly which towns had yeshivas? It says in Gitten that the whole Syria was very knowledgeable and they knew all the laws. Rashi isn’t the only one the Rambam also holds this as proof that he’s son and main disciple clearly states that it was intentional and precise. I’m not going to get into it but the fact that they haven’t found does not mean anything, but since there are big people and holy people who hold it was round obviously there is some merit to that too, but it’s not the whole picture and there are serious scholars who dispute it.

[Shmarya]

You're a very confused person.

Again, it was about 200 miles from the nearest yeshiva center, which was not an easy journey 2000 years ago.

You know, it's possible one rabbi came all the way from eastern bavel to Egypt and told Philo a thing or two but, you see, one does not base entire shitot on extreme possibilities.

The rest of what you write is, charitably, a load of crap.

[R]

What does is matter what it looked like?
If the Menorah were to be found then I am sure one would know by the dating process they make an arecheological discovery, it isn't going to be found by little Yankele shepherding the sheep.
I don't know why Lubavitch made a whole deal out of it (apart from it was what the Rebbe god wanted). Just because the Rambam says he thinks the menorah looked that way doesn't mean that was the case as he wasn't there at the time.
As for that little Menorah pic found in Israel from the time...they weren't that great at art were they?

[avi]

The Yaavetz states that there was an ancient tikaneh not to use sacred letters and symbols for mundane use. That could explain why the the branches were depicted round on coins etc.

As Edious stated there are others that hold that the menorah had rounded branches, so this may be moot.

However, the abundance of one type of symbol does not really prove anything. How many Jews actually saw the Menorah in the temple? What did the average home menorah look like? Perhaps the artists copied from actual objects in their home. Also many of these menorahs do not have octagonal bases like Titus' (Yimach Shmo). Do these coins/murals prove what the base looked like? The flowers? etc

Also why are there no real depictions of other symbols?

As far as Rashi is concerned, he admits freely when he does not know something. He also says regarding the third bais HaMikdash that he had no real teacher etc only what was divulged to him from heaven.

He does not make this statement regarding the menorah.

I admit all this is speculation. But you must admit that Gedolim of Rashi and Rambam's stature require serious attention and study. Even if they "imagined" it to be so.

Regards,

Avi

[Shmarya]

How many Jews actually saw the Menorah in the temple?

Certainly the kohanim who lived in the house where the fresco was found say the real menora, as did the king – a kohain –who minted the coins.

Also why are there no real depictions of other symbols?

There are many. Etrog and lulav are common (see why Hanukka has 8 days for why), as are depictions of the showbread.

And, again, Rambam writes that the menora drawing is in effect a schematic not a literal depiction.

So we're left with Rashi who, you admit, had no mesora on this and was doing his best – absent all the evidence to the contrary we now have – to understand the menora.

[avi]

Shmarya,

There really are not a lot of temple symbols. Etrog and lulav are not temple symbols. I googled showbread and and did not find any ( although you may have seen some). How about the altar or Aron? Or the begadim ( although pomegranates are common)

Rashi's statement was concerning the Third Temple structure. This may include the menorah but probably does not since he makes no mention of this in his Torah commentary.

Regards,

Avi

[Shmarya]

Lulav and Etrog ARE temple symbols. Again, check out what the Macabbees were doing when they made Hanukka 8 days long (hint: it was to make up for a holiday not properly celebrated because the Temple was still in Greek hands).

The shewbread is depicted, along with the altar, on the fresco from the Hasmonean Quarter of the Old City, dated to circa 60 CE:

http://research.yale.edu:8084/divdl/eikon/objectdetail.jsp?objectid=5373

[edious]

""did not receive any direct information on this issue from his revered
teacher,77 for if he had, he most certainly would have mentioned
it at some point in the two Responsa that he composed
regarding MBP"

He did. This guy is twisting truth, shmarya did you learn from him?

[Fleishike Kishke]

Isn't there a medrash that says that Moshe did not know how to make the Menorah hammered out of one piece of gold so he threw the metal in the fire and presto-change-o out came the menorah perfectly formed? Hard to imagine that the same magical thing happened twice, so perhaps the two menorahs looked different.

Personally I like the rounded look better. I know for sure that even if the menorah did have straight branches it didn't have a sign on the bottom like those contraptions affixed to the tops of cars reading Happy Channukah FROM CHABAD!!! I wish I could play with the font size to better make my point that those signs seem to be only marginally connected to publicising Hanukkah but much more so to aggressively tooting CHABAD.

[1]

B"H
The reason Chanukah miracle as well as other miracles are publicized is to reignite the fire of faith in the souls of Jews (and others) who are reminded or made aware of the miracle.
Since this fire needs to be maintained and increased to have meaningful and lasting effect , since it needs to be coupled with Torah learning and observance of the mitzvot it is only natural that "Chabad" a place where this can be accomplished should be "advertised" next to a public menorah made by Chabadniks.
PS. I would have no problem if someone who likes Aish or Hillel some other organization would also make a public menorah and make a huge sign "Aish HaTorah wishes you a happy Hanukah!" in fact they should also include their website where people can come and learn more about Hanukah and find the nearest Aish center for example.

[Sheeesh]

Shmarya,

Do you have a job or are you independently wealthy? Or, do you live in an alternate universe where Earth's rotation is significantly longer than ours? Intelligent people want to know.

[Max Kohanzad]

perhaps the Rebbe was describing the menora of the Third Temple - seeing ad he thought himself to be the messiah - there seems to be no reason why he can have a say in the interior design of the Temple?