In reviewing the command to construct the menora, we discover an inherent tension in the verses. The command opens with the words:
“And you shall make a menora of pure gold; of beaten work [or, “all of a piece”] shall the menora be made: its shaft, and its branches, its bowls, its bulbs, and its flowers shall be of the same.” (Shemot 25:31)
There is a tension between the active command “you shall make” and the passive description “it shall be made.”
Through an analysis of the text we will attempt here to understand God’s demand of Moshe and the actual execution of the command. Thereafter, we will address the ramifications of the meaning of these verses for our worldview.
