I had the pleasure of seeing an olive oil demonstration at a nearby shul's Chanukah gathering, and the rabbi giving the demonstration showed us two different ways of making wicks for the menorah.

The Ashkenazi wick style was made by pulling and rolling a piece of cotton ball into a cylinder.

The Sephardi wick style was made my pulling a piece of cotton into a flat square and then pulling up the 4 corners and twisting into a cylinder.

It immediately struck me that this Sephardi wick could be aimed within the oil cup, and this might help to explain pshat in Rashi!

The shul's rabbi and others who saw the demonstration were also unaware prior to this about this Sephardi wick style.

The rabbi giving the demonstration and the shul rabbi as well as others I have asked about this over the years have said that they understood that Rashi was describing something like draping the wick over the side of the oil bowl toward the inside light.

There is a certain type of baking tray used for cakes which form something like the shape of a moat around a castle with an open center. Upon seeing a disposable aluminum tray in this shape that came with a commercial cake I thought that perhaps in the time of the Beis Hamikdash that they might have used something like this shape as a type of float, and that the float would have some directionality to it.

But given the physics involved all such floats would be aiming straight up (ignoring the slight curvature of the earth between the oil bowls) and would not really fulfill what Rashi described, that all the flames were aimed to a common POINT over the center flame.

And even with metal floating boats of this type, I would suspect that they would freely rotate around while floating just like a swimmer or a boat without a center keel if the bowl had a circular cross section.

So this has been my long term quest, to understand what Rashi meant by all flames aimed to a common point above the center flame.

And these aimable Sephardi wicks might hold a possible key, since a square cotton base stuck into an oil-filled bowl would tend to neither move nor rotate, and the twisted corners which form a central wick tip could in fact be aimed, with all outer flames aimed to a common point.

Is anyone here familiar with these wicks, or seen them in use?

Here is a non-artist's rendering of either this Sephardi wick or a dreidel, or perhaps a Sephardi wick with dreidel overtones:

My apologies for leaving off the passuk citation, which happens to be in this morning's layning.

Bamidbar 8:2, the 3rd and 4th Rashi comment. This is in Parshas Beha'aloscha.

8:2 ... When you kindle the lamps, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven lamps cast light

Rashi: toward the face of the menorah -- This means toward the middle lamp, which is called "the Menorah" because it is not on the branches but rather, on th ebody of the Menorah, ie, on its central shaft.

shall the seven lamps cast light -- of the six lamps that are on the six branches the three of them on the east, the wicks in them turn toward the middle lamp and similarly the three of them on the west, the ends of their wicks turn toward th emiddle lamp. Why? So that people should not say, "He needs its light."

Artscroll Sapirstein Addition here clarifies from Sifrei 59:

Thus all seven lamps cast light toward the same point, "toward the face of the Menorah."

and Tanchuma 5:

The wicks of a candelabrum are usually arranged to point in different directios in order to spread their light over a wider area. Here all of the wicks were focused on the same spot to make it clear that the Menorah was lit in fulfillment of G-d's commandment, and not to provide illumination (Gur Aryeh).


My additional comments:

I have never understood how wicks can be aimed or focused since it seems to me that the flames simply rise straight up from whatever point they are burning, absent drafts.

I can imagine a chimney effect, such that with flames arranged in a straight line, as our menorahs, that there is greater heat in the center and perhaps greater draft, which might cause an upward accelerating draft to pull the flames inward.


But the passuk seems to be talking about a mechanical aiming, since the draft is not really under Aharon HaKohein's direct control, and physics of floatation, and mathematical "normal" vectors from the oil bowl surface just don't match aiming.

Hence this aimable "sephardic" wick style may be what the commentary has in mind.

I remember reading that the place where the Menorah was set up has special geomagnetic forces in place. If that is so, then the the flames could indeed deflect and get focused all towards one point - the Holy of Holies (?). After all, our perception of "up" is against the sum of all forces that we feel: if you are in outer space, you don't know where "up" is; if you are on a merry-go-round, your "up" is slightly turned towards the center of rotation, as well as towards the sky; if you are moving a burning candle in an accelerating car, the flame will deflect back; if you put an iron rod in a vertical electric coil and start running electricity through it while increasing the current, the rod will go up in the coil. These are all not our perceptions, but rather actual manifestations of the laws of physics (so called Newtonian relativity theory).

Similarly, it is possible that the flames altered their "up" so as to focus to one point if they were positioned correctly. Let's not forget that according to Maimonides, Hashem chooses not to regularly alter the laws of nature. But when needed, the sea will split, the candles will focus, and will burn as long as they are needed, too.

quote:

Hashem chooses not to regularly alter the laws of nature.

Shalom Alex:

Thank you for your helpful comments.

Would you agree that one of the well-known miracles of the Beis HaMikdash was that if one measured from the one side wall to the Aron Kodesh, and added that measure to the measure of from the other wall to the other side of the Aron Kodesh, that the sum was exactly the same as what would be measured between the two walls, thus by measurement, the Aron Kodesh was not taking up space, eventhough it could be perceived from our space?

Absolutely.

So then Hashem does seem to choose to regularly alter the laws of physics at least in this area of the Beis Hamikdash?

By definition, Hashem "dwelling" in our midst is a miraculous deviation from our laws of nature, or perhaps that the laws of nature have a "singularity" when it comes to this area of the Kodesh HaKodashim?


Furthermore, Hashem, even in the midst of miracles, seems to give us something which we can perceive to be fairly natural -- the sound of a Shofar blast growing stronger and stronger, the sight of a bush with a flame but the bush not getting consumed by the flame, etc.

How wonderful it would be to read a more accurate description of the reality behind the scenes when we have the realization that we are in fact witnessing a miracle, a deviation from the normal paths of nature.

Singularity, or "spontaneous remission" for medical miracles, just don't do justice.

Rob, I think Hashem still does not regularly alter the laws of physics: He only needed to set it up once in that place ("HaMakom Hazeh").

A geophysicist friend of mine once told me that there are about 60 such places on the face of the earth, and the geophysicists call them "geomagnetic vortices" - they still (in as many years as geophysics exists as a science) haven't figured out why or how they work.

Two such vortices are along the West Coast of the US: the Oregon Vortex and the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. I only know that Enstein and other great physicists tried to figure out the "why" and the "how" and did not succeed.

I am not attempting to make the Miracles associated with the Chanukkah lights, or with Aron Hakodesh, appear smaller. These are miracles indeed, whatever definition you choose.

What I am saying is essentially paraphrasing the Rambam, that Hashem does not do anything that is impossible. Maimonides wrote in the Guide and in other texts that what appears as impossible to us now does not mean that it is impossible to Hashem now, or even to us later.