The Zohar-Book of Secret teaches that Moshe who received the Torah from the heavens and brought it down to the earth was confused by three things indicative of the three letters of his name: Mem-Menorah/Candelabra; Shin-Shekel/Coin; and Hey-HaKodesh/The Month. The Midrash-Book of Metaphor says that Moshe was so confused as to the form of what he was being commanded to build that God had to show him using fire to draw the picture of the Menorah and the Coin; the beginning of the The Month indicating the inception of the Jewish People required God to point at the moon at the exact moment when she became renewed.

In the Torah it is written that Moshe was the humblest of men; so humble was Moshe that all he possessed in ego was the three letters of his name—it was that thin veneer of ego which muddled the pure light to which he was a vessel. The inner part of the Mishchon/Tabernacle where stood four objects: Candelabra, Golden Table, Golden Altar for incense and Aron which held the Ten Commandments and was lined inside and out with gold was a way of redemption over having built the Golden Calf; these four objects in the Temple corresponded to the four spiritual worlds that surround the earth and were polluted with the act of worshipping the Golden Calf instead of God.

The four spirit worlds of Asiya/Action; Yitzira/Form; Briah/Creation; and Atzilut/Close comprise the heavens where the souls reside and the four implements of the inner sanctum of the Temple derived from the Mishchon/Tabernacle built by Moshe and his generation is directly related. The Ten Commandments inscribed with letters miraculously held in the vacuum of a cube of sapphire was opposite the Golden Altar where was offered up the incense; to the left was the Golden Table which held the bread and to the right was the Golden Candelabra whose seven staves of light represented the earth in the middle and the six outer planets that orbit the earth.

Each of the four implements are apparatus for conveying light through the continual lamps of oil, sustenance to through the bread on the Golden Table, breath of life through the incense and understanding through the word of God engraved in the Ten Commandments. The Candelabra with its intricate structure and the moment of the new moon were understandably confusing, but what was with the coin? The coin represents the most basic element of life on earth and was used by the Jewish People as a form of census.

In the beginning of each year in the spring just prior to Pesach/Passover each person would be required to give a half a shekel which would be counted up and then given to the Temple to purchase the daily sacrifice making all the population equal before God. On Passover, the middle of the three Matzot is broken and one half is hidden until the end of the meal and is called the Afikomen, an indistinct name with many possible implications and meanings. In the Agada/Story told during the meal of Pesach/Passover the wise son is cautioned about the Afikomin—nothing is eaten after the Afikomin.

The reason for the Afikomen and the half a shekel is the same; both represent the next world—the other half of the coin which is hidden until we die and pass on into the next world where the soul resides in the culmination of life’s endeavors. Perhaps Moshe thought that half a shekel might look like a half moon meaning together one’s spiritual and physical life comprise a whole, but instead he was shown that each is complete.

It was the circle of the coin, the orb of moon, and the six orbits around the earth which was beyond the comprehension of Moshe, our teacher. The circle in Cabala is patently female—the circle of light enveloped in the circle of time surrounding the circle of the earth.