Parashat: Terumah

Parashat: Terumah
Torah Reading: Numbers 28:1–15

“On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a calyx and three petals … so for all six branches issuing from the lampstand.”

— Exodus 25:33

This verse is from the description of the menorah, the seven-branched candelabra, that was to adorn the sanctuary the Israelite were building in the wilderness. As pointed out by Israeli scholar and botanist Nogah Hareuveni, the description of the ancient menorah is almost entirely in botanical terms, hinting at a connection highlighted in the Talmud between the menorah and a specific plant that grows in Israel (a variety of sage). This is a reminder that Judaism always grounds us in nature, and that even the within the artifice of the menorah, it evokes the natural beauty of the land. Just as the holidays remind us of the cycle of the year, our sacred objects too, connected us always to our ancestral land.

— Rabbi Daniel Plotkin