Prof. Steven Fine | TheTorah.com

Menorah, Its “Branches” and Their Cosmic Significance

Midrash Tanchuma relates how Moses didn’t understand God's instructions for how to construct the menorah. This highlights the complexity of the Torah’s instructions, which commentators from antiquity until today struggled to visualize. One approach, taken by Philo and Josephus, was to interpret the menorah symbolically.

Menorah, Its “Branches” and Their Cosmic Significance

Midrash Tanchuma relates how Moses didn’t understand God's instructions for how to construct the menorah. This highlights the complexity of the Torah’s instructions, which commentators from antiquity until today struggled to visualize. One approach, taken by Philo and Josephus, was to interpret the menorah symbolically.

“There We Saw the Giants”—Premodern Encounters with Giant Bones

Greek, Roman, Christian, and Jewish authors described discovering enormous bones buried just beneath the earth’s surface and interpreted them through their own lenses: Greeks and Romans saw mythic heroes and monsters; Jewish writers identified them as biblical giants, especially Og, king of Bashan. These discoveries reinforced the enduring belief that ancient humans were far larger than those of today.

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