Rambam's Chabad Menorah was only a Diagram
Happy Chanukah
“And why are you twisting yourself into a pretzel to fit Rambam into a round menorah? You can just say that he didn’t see the preponderance of the archeological evidence and didn’t know that it was round. Ramban, for example, had no trouble saying that Rashi was never in Eeretz Yisroel and did not have a clear picture of its geography…”
Of course, the only question is that the Rebbe, who saw “the preponderance of the evidence” chose to wreck the menorah anyway.
It’s coming back to me now. The Rebbe said it had an approval of Abraham Maimonides, Rambam’s son. So it was good enough to change thousands of years of tradition and create a new branding logo for Chabad.
I tend to think it was only a schematic diagram or the result of Rambam’s poor drafting skills or whoever helped Rambam with the sketch. Or a note to self to make sense of the decorations without the benefit of seeing the model.
Firstly, it fails in the most important task, the oil cups are tilted to spill the oil.
In Rambam’s sketch, the arms are approximately of equal length. Later “corrected” in the “official model”, where the arms meet the same horizontal line on top and the cups correctly point upwards. Also corrected, the middle arms are drastically shorter (they had to add two arms).
What is the most significant feature of the menorah? Of course, the arms. If you draw the menorah, you start with the arms. In Rambam’s sketch, the arms are barely visible lines. He was mostly interested in details, the decorations. I think the digram serves this purpose only.
The Circles
You would also notice that all circles and the base are drawn using some tool. Either a compass or a template. The outline of the circles is drawn with a tool and then ink filled inside the circles.
Above a “modern” circle template. Maybe Rambam used a small coin to draw the circles. The circles are equal in size. It appears that the cups, the triangular bells, are drawn by hand.
I am only bringing up circles because the author of the sketch needed an assist tool for the circles, which illustrates a very basic drafting skill. Making me think this is only a digram rather than a representation of the shape of the menorah.
The Triangular Bells
The author of the sketch had poor drafting skills, and it would have been much more challenging to draw the “bells” on a curved line.
In theory, you can use a compass to draw the concentric curved arms of the menorah (below). But stringing the triangular bells on the curved arms is unique challenge for a poor drafter, especially becase you need to draw each bell at a separate angle, especially on the short arms of the menorah where the “bells” are bunched-up.
To sum up, Rambam’s menorah likely only a schematic digram to make sense of the decorations. Or Rambam didn’t have the internet to visualize the original and did the best his imagination and drafting skill allowed. The recommendation by Rambam’s son, who also lined in Cairo, Egypt, is just laughable. It’s more than a stretch for the Rebbe to hang his hat on R. Avraham’s endorsement and vandalize the traditional shape of the iconic image to create a new Chabad logo distinct from the Jewish people.
Previously on mentalblog: