Midras Bilangan 8:1: Midrash Tanchuma Buber & Vayikra Rabbah

(Numb. 8:1–2:) THEN THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES SAYING: SPEAK UNTO AARON AND SAY UNTO HIM: WHEN YOU SET UP THE LAMPS. Let our master instruct us. Is it legal to light <a Sabbath lamp> with oil for burning¹I.e. defiled oil from the terumah (the priestly tithe on produce). So Shab. 23b. on a festival?²Tanh. Numb. 3:1. Thus have our masters taught (in Shab. 2:2): ONE MAY NOT LIGHT <A SABBATH LAMP>³See Shab. 2:1 for the context. WITH OIL FOR BURNING ON A FESTIVAL. [R. ISHMAEL SAYS: ONE MAY NOT LIGHT <IT> WITH TAR] OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE SABBATH. BUT THE SAGES PERMIT ALL KINDS OF OIL: SESAME OIL, NUT OIL, RADISH OIL, [FISH OIL], COLOCYNTH OIL, TAR, OR MINERAL OIL. R. TARFON SAYS: ONE MAY ONLY MAKE A LIGHT WITH OLIVE OIL ALONE.⁴Similarly TShab. 2:1-4; Shab. 26a. R. Johanan ben Nuri rose to his feet and said: What will the people of Babylon do, who have nothing but sesame oil? What will the people of Media do, who have nothing but nut oil? [What will the people of Alexandria do, who have nothing but radish oil?] And what will the people of Cappadocia do, who have neither the one or the other but only mineral oil? R. Tarafon said to them: See we have found that the Holy One loves olive oil in a lamp more than all the other oils and more than all the gifts which are offered. You know that <it is so>: See, with reference to all the <other> gifts it is only said of them (as in Lev. 2:15): AND YOU SHALL PUT OIL UPON IT;⁵Cf. Lev. 2:1, 6 where the same command is expressed with a different verb i.e. POUR. but with reference to the lighting of the lamp, it is written (in Exod. 27:20): CLEAR OIL OF <BEATEN> OLIVES. [Therefore R. Tarafon said: ONE MAY ONLY MAKE A LIGHT WITH OLIVE OIL ALONE.] We also find that in several places the Holy One warned about lighting the lamps WITH CLEAR OIL OF < BEATEN > OLIVES and so it says (in Exod. 27:20): <AND YOU SHALL COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL> TO BRING UNTO YOU CLEAR OIL OF <BEATEN> OLIVES. So also it says (in Lev. 24:2, 4): [<COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL> TO BRING UNTO YOU CLEAR OIL OF <BEATEN OLIVES….:] HE SHALL SET UP THE LAMPS UPON THE UNALLOYED LAMPSTAND. And here also it warns about the lamps. Where? From what we have read about the matter (in Numb. 8:2): <SPEAK UNTO AARON AND SAY UNTO HIM:> WHEN YOU SET UP THE LAMPS….

Rabbi Yitzḥak began: “Your saying is exceedingly pure, and Your servant loves it” (Psalms 119:140) – like the goldsmith who inserts the gold into the crucible two or three times until he purifies it, so this portion was stated, repeated, and repeated a third time.²The mitzva to light the lamps in the Tabernacle or Temple was taught in Exodus (27:20–21), Leviticus (24:1–4), and Numbers (8:1–4). This is in order to clarify all the details of the mitzva and help the people remember it (see Maharzu). The matters can be inferred a fortiori: If this small portion in the Torah is stated, repeated, and repeated a third time, the rest of the portions in the Torah, all the more so.³Other passages, which are far more extensive, must have also been repeated to the people. The mitzvot were taught at Sinai, repeated at the Tent of Meeting, and repeated a third time on the plains of Moav (Maharzu).