The Maimonidean Menorah and Contemporary Habad Messianism: A Reconsideration

The menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum first described in Exodus 25:31–40, was a central part of the Tabernacle in the desert and later in the Temple of Jerusalem. This seven-branched menorah has served as the most widely used iconographic symbol of Judaism for more than two thousand years. Common to all these depictions are the central stem and the three arms extending in a U shape from the central stem.¹ The one exception to the commonly accepted iconography of the menorah as having U-shaped arms is found in Moses Maimonides’ halachic code, Mishne Torah. In his description of the furnishings of the Temple, Maimonides describes the design of the menorah, based on his understanding of the Biblical text. His version of the menorah has a number of differences from the “normative” iconography. The most distinctive difference is that Maimonides describes the arms as being straight, in a V shape, rather than the curved U shape.² The only visual representation of this menorah is found in the Kaufmann Codex, the oldest known manuscript of the Mishne Torah.

Until 1982, this interpretation of the menorah had no impact or influence on Jewish life or religious practice. Shortly before Hanukkah of 1982, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, decreed that the Maimonidean menorah should become the new standard design for all menorahs employed or displayed by Habad followers and institutions. There is no history of Lubavitch-Habad having a distinctive menorah before 1982. However, as this was also the period during which the intensification of Habad messianic activity occurred, the question must be asked if there is any correlation between the introduction of this new menorah and Habad messianic activity.

The past decade has seen an exponential growth in the scholarly discussion and analysis of the overt messianism that has defined the Habad hasidic movement since the early 1980s.³ Two recent scholars have addressed the meaning of the Maimonidean menorah and its place in Habad iconography. One has misunderstood the meaning of this menorah in Habad and the other, both a scholar and a follower of Habad, has offered an explanation that obscures more than it illumines. After analyzing the two theories here referred to, I offer my own analysis that will demonstrate that the Maimonidean menorah is a central iconographic representation of Habad messianism.

Maya Balakirsky Katz published an extensive article on the Habad public celebrations of Hanukkah that began in the late 1970s and continue to the present.⁴ She discusses the history and the meaning of the Maimonidean menorah in this article. The aspect of her article that is problematic is her discussion of the significance of the shape of the menorah.⁵ Two questions present themselves. First, why the sudden interest in a distinctive menorah? What was wrong with the traditional menorah designs? Second, why the Maimonidean menorah? It was an obscure topic in a theoretical text and the only known illustration was in a medieval manuscript. Further, there is no evidence that anyone actually made or used a menorah of this design before the Rebbe’s instruction to fabricate it, shortly before Hanukkah of 1982.

Katz explains the new Habad menorah as a rejection of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel, both of which adopted the menorah as a symbol. She writes:

R. Schneerson’s rejection of the State menorah does not simply reflect a boycott of the ancient Roman aesthetic, but of modern Israel’s adaptation of what he perceived as secularist “Roman” values. Just as Chabad and other Orthodox institutions earlier rebuffed the Star of David because of its secular Zionist appeal, Chabad adopted Maimonides’ menorah as a counter-symbol that could reflect a religious Jewish tradition, given that it was the design of a medieval Torah scholar.⁶

Katz’s argument, however, is unpersuasive, since if her logic is applied, a whole host of other Orthodox groups, hasidic and nonhasidic, which are non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist should have done something similar. Yet, we find that only the Lubavitcher Rebbe seems to have seen this as a problem...