ב"ה

Engineering Light

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Engineering Light

The windows in the Temple were designed to be narrow on the inside and wide on the outside, representing the fact that its purpose is to shine outward and share the light with the rest of the world. The goblets in the Temple Menorah also symbolize this idea.
Maimonides, Terumah, Holy Temple, Menorah, Lubavitcher Rebbe
Engineering Light
Disc 156, Program 623

Event Date: 30 Av 5742 - August 19, 1982

Windows are designed to be narrow on the outside and wide on the inside, to spread their light to a larger space. The windows in the Temple, however, were fitted the other way around, representing the fact that the function of the Temple’s windows were for precisely the opposite purpose. While regular windows are meant to bring light into a structure, the Temple’s windows were to bring light outside of them; sharing the light of Judaism with the rest of the world.

We find a similar idea in Maimonides drawing of the Menorah, symbolizing the import of taking the light of the Menorah, the light of the Torah, and sharing it with the rest of the world.

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1 Comment
David Harold Chester Petach Tikva, Israel June 16, 2021

Once a light source has been established it matters no at all how the light is directed. If it is constrained by the sides of the "goblet" (and partly reflected from its walls), then the intensity of the light will be greater than if this restraint is not present. However, the quantity of light being spread will be the same, and you cannot make the amount stronger by shaping the sides of the place from where the light begins to be radiated. Indeed, since the reflection is imperfect a small amount will be lost. If this were not a technical matter, then there would possibly be some justification in a philosophical sense for inverting the "goblets" and apparently magnifying some of the radiation. Reply

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