Parshat Behaalotecha

When your raise the lamps . . . (Numbers 8:2)

When a person builds a house, he makes the windows narrow on the outside and wider on the inside, so that the light from the outside should optimally illuminate the interior. But when King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he made the windows narrow within and wide without, so that its light should emanate to the outside and illuminate the world.

(Midrash Rabbah)

[We have] nothing at all, besides this manna (11:6)

A person derives pleasure from material things only in comparing what he has to what his neighbors have. So although they could enjoy every taste in the world in the manna, they derived no pleasure from it, since everyone had it . . .

(Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschutz)