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By Rabbi Pablo Berman,
Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

All of us have played at some time the game of ‘differences’. You remember, don’t you? Two apparently identical images, which in truth are not identical. Each has some difference with respect to the other. If we glance at them, we do not see any difference, but if we observe carefully, fixing our eyes on each detail and moving from one image to the other, we will begin to notice the mistakes.

I read this phrase the other day: “the others are just your mirrors, that is, you can’t love or hate something in another person unless it reflects something that you love or hate in yourself.” I thought this maxim was interesting, whether we agree with it or not. That is why I mentioned the game of ‘differences’. We compare the drawings in order to find the mistakes present in the other image. It is always the other image that contains the mistakes, the differences; never our image. Turning to the field of people, it is always the other who holds the mistakes; the person in front of me is the one that is wrong, the one who contains in himself all the mistakes. It’s never me. Not my image.

God tells Moses how he should build, piece by piece, the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, wherein according to God’s words, He will reside in their midst. Ve asu li Mishkan ve shachanti ve tocham, “and you shall make me a sanctuary and I will reside in your midst.” The Sanctuary will not be an empty space, but rather completed with a set of elements the construction of which God would also explain to Moses. A wooden ark, to keep the Ten Commandments, a wooden table for the Lechem hapanim, and a gold menorah. Ve asita menorat zahav tahor, mikshah teasea hamenorah”. You shall make a menorah of pure gold, a miksha made of one piece; lo chuliot chuliot, say the Jewish sages, not from many separate parts but from a single body, the entire menorah of pure gold.

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav tells us this story about a gold menorah.

Once upon a time, a young boy left his father and dwelled in a faraway land for many years. When he returned home, he boasted of how well he had learned there the art of making candelabra. He asked his father to invite all the master craftsmen in the city, in order to demonstrate his skill.

His father invited all master craftsmen to come and check the skill that his son had acquired during the time he lived far away. But when the son showed one of the menorot he had made, all could see that it was very ugly. Later, the father went to the craftsmen and asked them to tell him the truth. Since they had no other choice but to tell him the truth, they told him that the menorah was very ugly.

Afterwards, the son boasted before his father, “You see the wisdom of my craft?”

The father answered that the craftsmen considered it of a very poor quality.

The son said, “To the contrary. With this menorah I have demonstrated my skill. I showed each one of them their own faults. I have included in this menorah every mistake committed by all local craftsmen. You did not understand why it was that one considered some part to be ugly while considering another part to be well done.

Another one, however, considered that same first part beautiful and wonderful, while for him, a second part was the one poorly done. This is true concerning all of them. What one considers bad is good for another, and vice versa. I have made this lamp based on their mistakes and nothing else, to show all of them that they do not possess perfection. Each one has his own faults, given that what is beautiful for one is deficient for another. But if I want, I can make a perfect menorah.”

I have proved to each one of them, repeated Rabbi Nachman, their own faults, and with the mistakes of each one, I have built this menorah. No one by himself can possess perfection. Each one of us possesses a part of such perfection. Moses’ menorah was perfect because it was possible to build it from one body, from one piece. Each one of us has faults, since what is beautiful for one, is deficient for the other. But also each one of us possesses a part of perfection. Let us try to unite, one by one, all those parts, and transform them into a one-piece menorah that projects its light over our lives and over that of all and each one of the people we love.

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Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearit Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

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