The Menorah in the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple)
Midrash Rabbah on parshath B'Haalotcha ("In your going up [to light the candles of the Menorah]") asks the following question:
In Tehillim (Psalms) it says: "Darkness is like Light to you [God]." God has no need of the light of the Menorah which was lit in the Beit HaMikdash, so why do we light it for him?
In answer, as is often the case in Midrash, a parable is offered:
There was a blind man and a sighted man who were walking together along the road. The sighted man was leading the blind man. When they got to the house, it was dark inside. The sighted man asked the blind man if he would go in and bring out a candle and light it so the sighted man would be able to see in the house.
Now, if the blind man could find his way through the house, so could the sighted man, the Midrash explains, it isn't that the sighted man needed to wait outside for the candle. Instead, he asked the blind man to help him so the blind man would feel less indebted to the sighted man for guiding him along the road.
It was a pure act of kindness.

This has much greater implications and hints than simply explaining why the Menorah was lit in the Beit HaMikdash. The great Hassidic Rebbes explained that this world was given to us in order to make us appreciate the coming world. Not in the simple sense (This world is difficult and you must work, and in the next world no work is required and we appreciate the rest.) but rather in a much greater sense. They explain that God wanted to give us the next world, but without the ability to feel like we earned our place there, we could never truly enjoy it. We would feel unworthy, indebted, and ultimately shamed at our own lowly stature. Instead, God gives us first this world in which he asks us to "work", and only afterwards he gives us the world to come as a "reward".1

In this way, God's kindness is even greater in the giving of this world. Not only does he want to give us peace and happiness, but he doesn't want us to feel like he gave it to us. He doesn't want gratitude, only our unhindered appreciation of his gift.

This is the essence of the Menorah. Recognising the deeper kindness God does in giving us the darkness to begin with, we fulfill his wishes and bring light into the world as if it were we who brought the light. The reality is emphasized in the design of the Holy Temple, the House of God. The windows, the Midrash says, were the opposite of normal windows, rather than being designed to let light in, they were designed (by Shlomo HaMelech) to let light out. This shows our recognition that it is ultimately from God that everything emanates like light.


1. In this context the quotation marks are meant sarcastically or ironically, because in Judaism we believe that the "work" God asks of us is a kindness in that it is only through this work that a person feels fulfillment and true happiness. (especially in this world)