Halakhah su Esodo 27:78

You should know that sometimes commands appear in the Torah; yet those commands are not commandments, but rather preliminaries to the doing of the commandment - as if He is recounting how it is appropriate for you to do the commandment. An example of this is His saying, "You shall take fine flour and bake of it" (Leviticus 24:5). As it is inappropriate to count the taking of fine flour as a commandment or the making of bread as a commandment. Rather that which is counted is His saying, "And on the table you shall set the bread of display, to be before Me always" (Exodus 25:30). Behold the commandment is that the bread always be before the Lord. And afterwards, He explained how this bread should be, and from what it should be - and He said that it should be from fine flour and that it should be twelve loaves. And in this very same way is it inappropriate to count His saying, "to bring you clear oil of beaten olives" (Exodus 27:20); but rather "for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly" - which is the maintenance of the lamps, as is explained in Tamid 83a. And in this very same way does one not count, His saying, "Take the herbs to yourself" (Exodus 30:34); but rather the offering of the incense every day - as Scripture explains about it, "he shall burn it every morning when he tends the lamps. And when Aharon lights the lamps" (Exodus 30:7-8). And that is the commandment that is counted; whereas His saying, "Take the herbs to yourself," is only a preliminary of the command, to explain how you should do this commandment and what matter this incense should be from. And likewise should one not count, "Take choice spices for yourself"; but rather certainly count the command that He commanded that we anoint the high priest, the kings and the holy vessels with the anointing oil described. And apply this to all that is similar to it, such that you will not add what is inappropriate to count. And this is our intention about this principle, and it is a clear matter. However we mentioned it and it has come to our attention because many have erred also about this, and counted some of the preliminaries of the commandments with the commandments themselves as two commandments. This is clear to the one who understands the count of sections that Rabbi Shimon ben Kiara mentioned - he and all those who followed him - to mention the sections in their counts.

The commandment of arranging lights in the Temple: To prepare perpetual lights in front of God, may He be blessed, as it stated (Exodus 27:21), "Aharon and his sons will arrange it," meaning to say, he will set it up in front of God, may He be blessed. And this is the law of preparing the lights that is mentioned in the Gemara (Yoma 14b).