Halakha (rabbinic Jewish law) allows a menorah to be made of pretty much anything, even a potato. But it also ranks menorah materials in order of preference: gold is the best at fulfilling the mitzvah, silver second best, brass third, copper fourth, etc. Halakha also explains how the candles should be displayed, in what order they should be lit, and the need for a shammas ('servant') candle to use to light the other candles and prevent anyone from using the light of the actual Hanukkah candles as practical illumination rather than a stand-alone symbol of the holiday and a mitzvah. But how much of this fits in with the actual history of menorahs themselves? Not much, it seems.
Above and above right: ancient oil lamp (courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority)
Ha'aretz reports:
…The earliest Hanukkah menorahs were lamps of clay or stone, with an opening on top to pour in olive oil, and a small spout in the front for a wick. {Please see above photo.]
On Hanukkah, these lamps were placed at the entrance to the home on a specially constructed stand, in an increasing (or decreasing) number for each day of the holiday.
In Talmudic times, another model appeared: a smaller, mobile version of the lamp menorahs. It was a single lamp made of clay, stone, or, increasingly, metal - but it had eight wick spouts instead of just one.
Menorahs would further evolve in the Middle Ages: A new model appeared in the Jewish community of 13th century Spain (some centuries before the Inquisition) and spread from there to the rest of the Jewish world.
These menorahs, made of metal, had an ornate back wall (to affix the menorah to a wall), and a narrow tray on the bottom, with eight dimples for oil. It was in these menorahs that the shamash, an additional candle used to light the other ones, first appeared, and placed on a different plane so as to differentiate it from the others.
In other words, the menorah you light today is basically a Babylonian Jewish invention that was invented hundreds of years after – and hundreds of miles away from where – the Hanukkah story actually took place.
The invention of the menorah and most of the halakha concerning it took place at about the same time and in the same location that rabbis invented out of whole cloth the miracle of oil.