“This is the making of the menorah.” RASHI interpreted that the Creator showed him with the finger since he was perplexed about it. “One-piece work”: “It was one talent [piece] of gold. He would strike with a hammer, etc., this is how he made the menorah.” Elsewhere: “It was done by itself by the Creator.” “He set it up outside of the curtain of the testimony.”

We should understand what it means that Moses was perplexed about the making of the menorah, and what the talent of gold implies, and that he struck with a hammer, and also what it means that it was done by itself by the Creator.

By intimation, the menorah means man’s body. When the light of the Creator is dressed in it, the man shines like a lamp. This is why Moses was perplexed, how a man’s body could clothe the upper light when there is disparity of form between the light and the Kli [vessel], which is man’s body.

To this came the answer that it was a talent of gold. The body is called “a talent of Ze-Hav [English: gold, Hebrew: give-this],” meaning the will to receive. Striking it refers to Zivug de Hakaa [coupling by striking] where through the striking, a person overcomes, for two opposite things are called “striking” where each strikes the other and wants to cancel it. This is the meaning of hammering his will to receive in order to cancel it.

However, “he was perplexed about it,” meaning it is not within man’s power to invert the will to receive so it works in order to bestow. To this comes the answer, “This is how he made the lamp,” meaning that through the Creator, it was done by itself. This is the meaning of “He who comes to purify is aided.” However, it is true what the body tells him—that it is not within man’s power to invert it.

Thus, the difficulty to do the thing is called Kli, which is a lack. Afterward, the abundance, which is called “filling,” can come and fill the lack. But if he has no questions then there is no place to receive the filling for the lack. This is called “assistance from above.” Hence, it means that without questions, if a person does not begin, there is no place to fill the lack.

This is what the words “outside of the curtain of the testimony” refer to, that it is a testimony to the people of the world that the Shechina [Divinity] dwells in Israel. The question, “Does He need its light? After all, they walked by His light forty years,” and what fool would think that the menorah would illuminate for the Creator, if one of the thirteen tenets is that He has no body? Thus, how can it be said that the menorah is for Him?

Rather, this refers to the light of the lower ones, meaning the awakening of the lower ones. He brings evidence to this that in the desert it was only by an awakening from above and not through the work of the lower ones. But there it is the testimony. Although he said that a deed was done, it was only a miracle, and a miracle means that it was not done by the lower ones. This is the meaning of “Rewarded, I will hasten it; not rewarded, in its time,” that the whole of the “hastening” is for the lower ones, so they will think that they are doing something.