The menorah is an almond tree with Cretan apples.

A shining tree, it has branches, flowers, almond-shaped calyxes and even knobs (kaftorim). In the Babylonian Talmud, Menahot 28b, Rabi Shmuel asks, “What do the knobs (kaftorim) resemble? A sort of Cretan apple.” The Cretan apple was a delicacy in the Ancient Near East. Inside the outer layer of fruit was a tart juice. The sages saw a connection between the shape of this fruit and the knobs of the menorah. These apples grow directly out of the branch, as they are “of one piece with it.” The leaves above the Cretan apples resemble the petals above the knobs of the menorah. The plant continues growing above the top of one apple into the bottom of the apple above. The ancients named some of their countries after one of their characteristic plants. Egypt, we know, was also called the land of the Sycamore. Perhaps the knobs are called kaftor because the same word is the placename for Crete in Hebrew.

The Judean hills were known as the land of Moriah. There the moriah plant (mor) grows symmetrical branches on each side. This is the pattern of the branches of the menorah.

There is a stage in the development of the almond in which neither the sepals nor the petals have fallen from the top of the developing fruit, while the rim is formed by the remains of the flower. This is the explanation of the almond-shaped calyx with “knob and flower” (kaftor vaferah).

We think of the menorah in terms of the light that it gives off, but not of the aroma caused by the burning of the olive oil. The Talmud teaches: “A north wind is good for wheat when it has reached a third of its ripening [when it is still green, and the kernels have not yet filled with starch] and bad for olives at the time when their flowers have opened. A south wind is bad for wheat when it has reached a third of its ripening and good for olives when their flowers have opened. What are the signs of this? The shewbread at the north side of the Tabernacle and the menorah in the south. Each calls forth its own wind.” (Bava Batra 147a). The shewbread (lehem hapanim) was placed on the table representing the wheat and barley. It was turned toward the north wind. The menorah in which the olive oil was burned was turned toward the south wind, which favoured the growth of olives. Together, according to the sages, they symbolized the request that God bring every wind at it’s appropriate time. Today this is reflected in the various insertions in our prayers for wind, dew and rain. An ancient meditation reads: “May it be Your will that the north wind blow during the first weeks after Passover, in order to give the barley and wheat time to mature and their kernels fill with starch. May the olive buds wait to open their flowers, and may the south wind come only after the grain has ripened and the ears have hardened. May each call forth its own wind.”

God asked Jeremiah, “What do you see?” Jeremiah replied, “I see an almond tree.” God replied, “You have seen right, for I am watchful (shoked), to bring my word to pass.” The almond tree displays daily watchfulness. It makes use of every spell of warmth and light between the waves of cold and rain to open its flowers and form its fruit. The formation of the fruit before the petals and buds have fallen conveys this watchfulness.

The menorah is constructed of pure gold, but it expresses the tree of life in its design.