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Originally this lamp was supposed to portray the Hebrew letter mem (pronounced “m”, numerical value 40), representing what is revealed and what is hidden: Moses and the Messiah. The letter mem evokes the miracle of the oil that the Maccabees found in the Temple after it had been defiled by the Hellenes Greeks. Part of the letter remains in this final version; a curved bar rises from a thin sheet of painted iron, tracing the line of the letter “D”, meeting and crossing the nine vertical bars of the candle holders along its path. The two frogs on the base represent the second plague. The bar furthest to the left, taller than the others, symbolises the shamash.