Study Menachot folio 29A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and the 18 of the 6 branches; this equals 22 goblets. Concerning the knobs as well, it is clear how the number 11 was reached. The Candelabrum contains the two knobs of its main shaft, as the verse states: “Its knobs” (Exodus 25:34), with the plural “knobs” indicating that there were two, and the 6
But from where do we derive that the Candelabrum contained 9 flowers? According to the verse there are the two flowers of its main shaft, as it is written: “And its flowers” (Exodus 25:34), and the 6 of the 6 branches, as it is written: “In one branch, a knob and a flower” (Exodus 25:33), meaning
Rav says: The height of the Candelabrum is 9 handbreadths. Rav Shimi bar Ḥiyya raised an objection to the statement of Rav: We learned in a Mishnah (Tamid 30b): There was a stone before the Candelabrum and it had 3 steps, upon which the priest would stand and prepare the lamps for kindling. If the
Rav said to him: Shimi, is it you who is asking me such a question? When I said that the height of the Candelabrum is 9 handbreadths, I was referring not to the total height, which is 18 handbreadths; rather, I meant that the Candelabrum is 9 handbreadths from the point at which the branches extend
§ It is written: “And the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that perfect gold [mikhlot zahav]” (II Chronicles 4:21). The Talmud asks: What is meant by mikhlot zahav? Rav Ami says: It is a reference to the fact that the Candelabrum and its vessels exhausted [kilattu] all of Solomon