In the Tabernacle in the desert, and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, the golden lamp stand was destined, according to the biblical phrase, to "burn from evening to morning before the Lord.”(Exodus 27:20.)
Fire and light have always symbolized the desire for elevation and a return to the supreme source that in Jewish thought is inscribed, and sometimes buried, in the world and in the individual.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Seven Lights by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz