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This week's Parsha, Beha'atlotcha, opens with God's commandment to Aharon regarding the Menorah in the Mishkan.

Hashem explains the construction method of the Menorah as such:
מקשה זהב עד ירכה עד פרחה מקשה היא
The Menorah was essentially "a single block of gold, hammered from it's base to its flowers" (Bamidbar 8:4). 

We know from earlier on in Parshat Trumah that the Menorah is extremely elaborate, clad with cups, knobs, flowers, and blossoms.

So why is the fact that the Menorah must be carved from a single unit all that Hashem chooses to reiterate when describing the menorah here? What is so significant about this aspect that it is the one detail mentioned?

The answer lies in the idea that the Menorah represents the Jewish people. In the most literal sense, Am Yisrael is meant to be an "Or La'Goyim" (a light unto the nations).

Just as the Menorah is compromised of many different branches, pieces, and parts, so too Am Yisroel is made up of so many types of people - observant, secular, those who work, those who learn - from all different backgrounds and nationalities. It is crucial that we remember that, like the Menorah, we all come from one base, and we all share a common destiny. No matter how different, we are all grounded by Hashem and the Torah that was given to us as a nation.

This year, in all honestly, it has been pretty easy to feel our common base. We are all here learning and growing and sharing this intensely religious experience together. But it won't always be like this moving forward. We won't always be learning Torah together all day in the holiest place on earth; we'll be at different colleges, in different states, doing different jobs.

So, to leave everyone with a last message on our final Shabbat together, I want to urge everyone not to forget the common base we share.

We'll have time-consuming homework, new types of friends, and different sets of problems, and our common base, our central devotion to Hashem, won't be as tangible. So I want to urge everyone, in the year(s) to come, when we might be feeling a bit more distant from our Judaism, or our inspiration from this year feels like it's fading, to think of the Menorah.  Picture its many parts, its intricate designs, its multiple branches, and then remember that it is all carved from one gold base. Wherever life takes us, whatever we do, we are all carved from the same base, and must strive to hold on to our connection to Torah and Hashem.