Lighting of the Temple Menorah, The

By law, the menorah stood in a chamber into which only kohanim (priests) were permitted entry. But the law also states that an ordinary person may light the menorah. What is the point—and lesson—of this legal paradox?

The menorah, its lamps, and the flames they hold are the very mirror of our identity as a people, the way we interact with each other, and of the elemental strivings of the human soul