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THEMES of Featured Zohar Articles

The Menorah and the Sefirot
The Zohar teaches mystical secrets about the Menorah in the Holy Temple.
The ten vessels of the Tabernacle symbolize the sefirot:

The Menorah - chesed
The Table - gevura
The Altar - tiferet with its connection to malchut
The Basin and Jug or Laver - netzach and hod
The Ark - bina
The Curtain - chochma
The cherubs on the Ark - keter
The Weight of Eight
The number eight is associated with an awareness of the miraculous.
The miracle of Chanukah is connected to eight, the number above nature - represented by the number seven - for a one-day supply of pure oil for the Temple menorah lit after the defeat of the Greeks lasted eight days. The Hebrew word for the number eight is "shemona"; the word "shemen", meaning "oil", is its root. Thus we see a connection between "miracles", "eight" and "oil".
A Menorah Meditation
The five elements of the flame are associated with different Divine names.
The Zohar mentions several elements of a candle flame:
1. "The flame itself", in which the various manifestations of light appear,
2. The unchanging or steady aspect of the flame’s white light,
3. The fluctuating aspect of the blue or black light,
4. The destructive aspect of the flame, symbolized by the red color that sometimes appears within the blue or black light.
Each of these elements is metaphorically associated with different Divine names.
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