Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 40:38

And does He require its light? Didn’t all those forty years: It is a wonder: Why did it mention forty years? The whole world always walks by the light of the Omnipresent! And some explain it as, "Did Aharon need its light when he went inside?" [Accordingly,] didn't the pillar of cloud give light to them in all the places those forty years? It is as we say in the Baraita of the Work of the Tabernacle, "He would look inside a pitcher and know what is inside it; in a barrel and know what is inside it." And it so implied in Torat Kohanim - that it is referring to the priests. As there, it teaches the version, "And did they need the lamp? And didn't all of those forty years they not require the lamp? As it is stated (Exodus 40:38), 'For the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle.'" However at the end of [the chapter entitled] Kol Korbanot (Menachot 26b), it is implied that it is referring to the Divine Presence. As it cites it regarding that which Rabbi Elazar said, "I do not require [it] for eating and I do not require it for its light." And there it also said, "'To the curtain of the testimony' (Leviticus 24:3) - it is testimony to all who come to the world that the Divine Presence rests among Israel. But perhaps you will say (ask), 'Do I require its light,' Didn't all those forty years [etc.]?"

יערוך אותו אהרן, even though the procedure of lighting the Menorah, as well as the presentation of the daily incense offering was permitted to be carried out by any priest of the roster during future generations as per the sages’ tradition (Sifrey Behaalotcha 60), this procedure is linked to Aaron, seeing that all the time the Jews were in the desert the procedures involving the Temple service were on a “Day of Atonement” footing because the Torah linked the procedure to the line (17,2) “for I will manifest Myself above the kapporet by day and the column of fire will be visible at night,” a condition which ceased when the Jewish people settled in the land of Israel. It followed that procedures which took place inside the sanctuary would be the exclusive prerogative of the High Priest during those years. These procedures would be performed in the future by the High Priest on the day of Atonement.

Bahya also writes. The Holy One said: I have allowed My Shekhinah to rest among you. Your sins cause Me to take My Shekhinah away from you, but in the end, My Shekhinah will rest among you and will not depart from you. Now you see the Shekhinah through fire, but in the future, in the days of the Messiah, you will see the Holy One explicitly, as the verse says, “for every eye shall behold the Lord’s return to Zion” [Isaiah, 52:8].¹⁵Bahya, Exodus, 40:38.