From one many, from many one: Holy design. Trumah (Exodus 25:1 - 27:19)

The menorah was chosen as Israel’s national symbol, so it’s spoken for… otherwise I might have suggested that it would go very well with America’s "e pluribus unum". Sorry guys.

Among the tabernacle furnishings detailed in this week’s reading, the 7-branched menorah (lamp) is one of those “well, we don’t know specifically what it means… but of course it’s there, makes perfect sense” things. The menorah is described in some detail; like for much of the Tabernacle’s other furnishings, that’s enough detail to do a credible job, but also not so much that no degrees of freedom are left to the artist. What shape are the “goblets” to take? What kind of “flowers” are to be represented? What was its foot to look like? (While Titus’s arch shows the famous stepped design, Jewish representations from the era show a tripod base, for example). For that matter, how high is this menorah meant to be? What will be its wingspan? Or maybe, the motif was common enough, recognizable enough to a bunch of slaves escaping from Egypt, that it could be executed without further detail (maybe it even had an Egyptian resonance, like the cherubim on the ark maybe did?). But either way, there are no explanations for the menorah’s presence, or its symbolism, in the text. Why seven branches? The usual assumption is that this links back to the 7 days of Creation – a visual reminder of God’s role as universal Creator. For that matter, why a lamp at all? Is it to represent Divine light, and/or the light of creation?

Into the interpretive space allowed by the text’s silence, I would like to propose that the menorah might also be saying something else. Something surprisingly like, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). A motto of the United States (arguably, one of three, with “In God we Trust” and “Liberty”), this conveys the idea that the United States is a federal nation, made up of the union of independent states – out of the many, one. The states voluntarily unite (but do not dissolve), to form something greater in their union. Unspoken is the important assumption that the states remain equal partners in this union – this isn’t one powerful state phagocyting weaker neighbors, a la USSR.

Back to the menorah, and bear with me: there are seven separate branches; each is its own light, ostensibly equal to the others, spread out on a level and in a plane – as equal as a 3-dimensional object can make them. Like equal independent states, say. They spread out on two sides, suggesting balance; maybe even, mutual opposition producing balance, or opposition for the sake of the whole. Like those states balancing one another out in the union - maybe one is more liberal, another more conservative, say?

Once lit, the separate lights shed by the seven lamps once again become one light – e pluribus unum! – and it’s that unified radiance that shines out. That light is to shine out towards the front (literally, “towards its [the menorah’s] face”, 25:37) – meaning, not randomly all around; the light is forward-focused – directional, intentional, purposeful. Maybe, the purpose is something akin to “a light to the nations”, or even “a shining city on the hill”. The union of the separate parts now forms a greater whole, one capable of shining a stronger light out against the darkness, one that can accomplish a greater purpose than its separate parts could have.

But wait – look down. The branches also all spring from one common trunk, as if e unum pluribus (or rather, according to Grok, ex uno plura, with belated apologies to those teachers who tried to make me learn some Latin, any Latin): the seven branches have a common origin, a common root, and a common substance flowing from that root all the way up to the lamps holding those flames.

So more fully, it’s “ex uno plura, e pluribus unum”.

There must be a center, and margins.

There must be diversity. That much is true. We cannot be rigid, monolithic, a society of identical drones – whether it’s of the Left or Right. Diversity, by which I mean diversity of thought and outlook, not the false diversity of skin color or sexuality, allows us flexibility – without which we’d be left helpless in a world which does change around us, and which does throw new challenges at us every day. That diversity, though, must itself play within limited parameters. The lights are not to be all over the place. None of them are to identify as stuffed bagels. And none is supposed to be located way on the other side of the sanctuary. The lights are to spread out, but within spatial limits, with regularity and symmetry – and they must work in concert, towards a common direction. Order and purpose run throughout the design.

So there is to be a spread, yes, left and right – and, there must also be a center, an unchanging, constant root and trunk, because the while the world is ever-changing, it’s also built on some eternal truths – things which will never change, no matter what else happens. Things which can and must anchor us, things we can and must organize and orient ourselves around, and will keep us steady in the worst of storms. And by the same token, things which we forget – or worse, willfully forsake – at our mortal and eternal peril. Truth and honor; family, friends, and community; eternal values and faith. And yes: God, the One (Uno) from which all else flows – and must turn back to in the final analysis.

This all scales. Doesn’t matter whether that’s at the scale of national society, at the local scale, or that of the family or even the individual, the principle applies. Mom and Dad should show a united front, and have a common goal (say, to raise a family of the best people possible) – but Mom and Dad are not meant to be identical, copies of each other. They will have different personalities, care differently about different things, and have different solutions for different problems. In some situations, Mom’s approach is better; in others, Dad’s got a better chance. And same goes at the individual level: the sane personality is an integrated one. Not a rigidly monolithic one, and not a conflicted, divided one or one so open the brain falls out. One that remembers that it all flows from the One, and that we must be both flexible and versatile, but also united towards one unifying goal – preferably the highest one possible.

Ex Uno plura, e pluribus unum.

And God help us all.