The will ménora (Hebrew: מְּנוֹרָה ) is the Chandelier with seven branches (different Candelabrum conventional meaning) of the Hebrew X, prescribed in Exode 31 to 40. This word “Ménorah” comes from the prefix indicating the source of a thing “to Me”, associated with the Hebraic root Norah, Nourah, of Nour, Nor (flame) to the female one. That is to say: Meaning MéNoRah “of the Flame”, “which comes from the Flame”; this flame according to the cabal, is not other than Schékhinah. Its original form in Y was drawn by Maimonide in one of its treaty midrashic: three right branches in the east, three in the west and one in the center. This form in Y, according to the cabal, was to recall the Seven branches of the delta of the Nile; and its holy oil, crowned water of the Nile which was to never miss.

According to Zacharie, these seven lamps are the eyes of God which take care on all the Earth. Always according to Zacharie, the candlestick with seven branches is framed of two olive-trees which provide oil to the lamps.

But the candlestick with seven branches is also an equivalent, and a heir, Babylonian tree of the light . Some also wonder if Menorah does not derive from an antique tree crowned , which would explain its form round in the Temple destroyed by Titus.

• “One gave him as many branches as one counts planets with the sun” (Flavius Josèphe)

• It is a “imitation of the celestial sphere prototype” according to Philon

Following Clement of Alexandria, the Christians regard the candlestick with seven branches as an equivalent of the cross of the Christ.

See too

• Hanouka, the candlestick with 9 branches for the festival of Hanouka.

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