A Project Genesis website

Biblical Candelabra

Question

I have been searching for a picture or description of a biblical age candelabra. i am under the impression that is was of gold made into tubes through which flowed olive oil.

Answer

It did not have tubes but was from a solid piece of beaten gold and the olive oil was in cups at the top. (See Biblical description in Exodus chapter 25 verse 31-38).

Raphie Schochet
Providence Community Kollel

Follow-up question

Question

my puzzlement stems from the saturday morning torah reading two or three weeks ago. it opens with a description of lighting the lamps. is the candelabra referred to there the same as the one you describe. also was the one the maccabees relit also like that? i am a scientist and so my question is because i don’t understand how the oil gets to the cup. if there is no tube, then the whole amount of the oil must initially be present in the beginning. this would lead to a giant flame which is unthinkable to me.

Answer

In answer to your question. The oil was placed in the cups but there were wicks which is why they did not flame up. I personally have a menorah for Chanukah that works this way if you are interested in seeing. With regard to your Chanukah question this is actually a subject of debate amongst Talmudic Scholars some say that it was the same one others say that the menora became ritually contaminated and they had to construct a temporary one which itself is subject of debate exactly what it looked like. By the way there is an engraving on “Titus’s Arch” in Rome that is supposed to be a likeness of the menorah from the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Raphie Schochet
Providence Community Kollel
www.providencekollel.org