What is the significance of the seven golden candle sticks in the tabernacle that the prophet Moses built?
Answer:
There is much symbolism in the seven ‘candlesticks’ of the Menorah fashioned by Moshe for the Tabernacle. One theme, based on Maharal, is that the six outer arms of the Menorah represent the six directions of the three-dimensional world. All arms, in the words of the biblical verse, “faced” the central shaft, which represents the point that takes its place in the center of the six directions of the world, and unifies them with a single purpose and function.
This theme is represented by many phenomena in the world: the seventh day (Shabbat) is the central point of the week, around which the six working days revolve; the mouth is the central organ of the face, around which the other six organs ‘revolve’ — and so on.
In this sense, we can also understand the Talmudic statement whereby the light of the Menorah provided testimony to the fact that the Divine Presence dwelt among Israel. The Divine Presence is the ‘central point’ around which the entire world revolves, and the light of the Menorah was an expression of this Presence.
