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צו את בני ישראל COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL [THAT THEY BRING UNTO THEE CLEAR OLIVE OIL, BEATEN, FOR THE LIGHT] — This is the section containing the commandment concerning the lamps, whilst the section beginning with ואתה תצוה (Exodus 27:20 ff.) which also deals with the lamp is only mentioned there for the sake of giving an orderly account of the work of the Tabernacle, to explain what the purpose of the candlestick was — for thus do those words ואתה תצוה imply: “and thou wilt at some future time command the Children of Israel” about this.

COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. “This is the section containing the [actual] commandment of lighting the lamps. And the section of V’atah Tetzaveh (And thou shalt command)⁵⁰⁸Exodus 27:20. [where the same subject is mentioned], is stated only for the sake of giving an orderly account of the work of the Tabernacle, explaining what the purpose of the candelabrum is, and the sense of the verse there is as follows: ‘and thou wilt at some future time command the children of Israel on this matter.’” This is Rashi’s language.
But it does not appear to me to be correct, for that section [there in Exodus 27:20] is not in fact adjoined to the section of the candelabrum [which is mentioned previously in Exodus 25:31-40]; and [also] it has already been stated, And he lighted the lamps before the Eternal, as the Eternal commanded Moses,⁵⁰⁹Ibid., 40:25. thus both the commandment and fulfillment were already mentioned and kept! Rather, the need for [restatement of] this section is for two purposes. For there He commanded that they bring you a donation on the behalf of the children of Israel,⁵¹⁰Ibid., 27:21. that is to say, from every man with whom was found pure olive oil [beaten] for the light,⁵⁰⁸Exodus 27:20. together with the other donations for the Tabernacle. And so they did, as it is said, And the princes brought etc. and the spice, and the oil, for the light.⁵¹¹Ibid., 35:27-28. And although it says there, it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations,⁵¹⁰Ibid., 27:21. this refers to the lighting of the lamps. But now the oil which the princes brought as a donation was used up, and therefore He commanded that the children of Israel take from the public treasury throughout the generations⁵¹²Verse 3 here. pure olive oil beaten for the light, as was the first oil [of the princes]. This is similar to the expression, that they bring thee a Red Heifer,⁵¹³Numbers 19:2. meaning that they should seek it and it is to be brought from the public treasury. Also, there [in the section of V’atah Tetzaveh]⁵⁰⁸Exodus 27:20. He stated only, Aaron and his sons shall set it in order etc.,⁵¹⁰Ibid., 27:21. which might mean [set it in order] on the candelabrum, or without the candelabrum if it is broken or lost, as happened when they returned from the [Babylonian] exile.⁵¹⁴Bamidbar Rabbah 15:7: “Therefore when the [First] Sanctuary was destroyed the candelabrum was hidden. And this was one of the five things that were hidden: the ark, the candelabrum, etc.” Therefore now He stated clearly, He shall order the lamps upon the pure candelabrum,⁵¹⁵Verse 4. teaching that they should only light the lamps upon the pure candelabrum. And the interpretation of our Rabbis is as follows:⁵¹⁶Torath Kohanim, Emor 13:12. “Upon the pure candelabrum.⁵¹⁵Verse 4. This means upon the very candelabrum itself, that he is not to support them [i.e., the lamps] with pieces of wood or pebbles [but the lamps are to be upon the candelabrum itself, with nothing intervening between them]. He shall set the lamps before the Eternal.⁵¹⁵Verse 4. This teaches that he is not to set them outside the Sanctuary and bring them inside. Continually,⁵¹⁵Verse 4. even on the Sabbath; continually, even in impurity.”⁵¹⁷If all the priests have been rendered impure, they may yet proceed to minister the Service.

'צו את בני ישראל ויקחו אליך שמן וגו, after the oil which had been donated before the Tabernacle had been built and erected, G’d commanded that the Israelites for all future generations should provide this oil as their contribution.

צו את בני ישראל, "command the children of Israel, etc." Why is this the appropriate place in the Torah to acquaint us with the rules of the oil for the Candlestick and the manner in which it is to be lit? We also need to explain why the procedures involving the Table have to be written at this juncture. After all, the Torah has dealt with those subjects when it described the construction of the Tabernacle! We shall leave aside Rashi's comment as we do not consider his words as adequate to answer the problem we have raised. Nachmanides wrote that at that time the olive oil which the princes had donated when the materials for the Tabernacle were being collected had come to an end. This is mere speculation, there is no supporting evidence for this assumption.

ויקחו אליך שמן זית זך, this paragraph has been repeated seeing that the Torah here deals with the lamp stand, מנורה, which is located opposite the table in the Sanctuary on which the show breads are placed every week. All that is mentioned here refers to the ritual involving the table and its paraphernalia, i.e. the oil for lighting and the bread

צו את בני ישראל, “command the Children of Israel, etc.” Rashi explains that the paragraph following as well as the portion commencing with Exodus 27,20-21 both pertain only to the chapters dealing with the building of the Tabernacle, even though it deals with the lighting of the lights in the menorah. The paragraph dealing with the construction of the menorah in Exodus 27 was mentioned there only as it was needed to list the furnishings of the Tabernacle. Nachmanides writes that this interpretation does not appear appropriate to him, as the portion is not linked to a paragraph dealing with the menorah at all. Moreover, the Torah had already reported that Moses placed the lights in the menorah in Exodus 40,25, just as he placed the remainder of the furnishings inside the Tabernacle. In other words, both the commandment and the execution of it were mentioned already in the Book of Exodus. Therefore, in Nachmanides’ view the need for the present paragraph is twofold. 1) In Exodus the matter is related in conjunction with the commandment to the Israelites to supply the fuel for the menorah just as they were invited to supply all the building materials for the Tabernacle. The princes are reported as having supplied the initial quantities of the spices for the incense as well as the initial amount of olive oil for the menorah. However, in the Book of Exodus no mention is made of the supply of materials that were being used up on a daily basis. This is so in spite of the fact that the composition of the materials is described as חקת עולם, as a law of unlimited duration. (Exodus 27,21) Those words referred to the manner in which the menorah was to be lit. By now the initial supply had been exhausted and new arrangements had to be made. 2) In Exodus the instructions had been limited for either Aaron or his sons to perform the task of lighting the menorah, nothing having been said about what procedure to follow if the original menorah were to become defunct, or lost, as when the Israelites went into exile, etc. In Exodus the word תמיד, permanently, has not been mentioned in connection with the lighting of the menorah, whereas here mention is made specifically of regulations pertaining to the “pure menorah.”

ויקחו אליך שמן זית, “that they will bring you olive oil;” the reason that this verse, i.e. the instructions it contains, was repeated is that in this Book of the five Books of Moses, the one containing most of the instructions connected with the service of the priests in the Temple, was that the time had come to list in the appropriate order the rules surrounding the function of the Lampstand, Menorah, and the Table, which are interdependent on one another. The incense had already been dealt with at length in Leviticus chapter 17,12-13. By rights we could have expected to read about the presentation of the showbreads before reading about the function of the Menorah which was not a sacrificial act, and was subservient to the presentation of the show breads as had been made plain by the words: ואת המנורה נוכח השלחן, “and the Lampstand opposite the Table,” (Exodus 26,35). The reason that the Torah did not write matters in that order was that it wanted to write the report about the blasphemer next to the portion of the showbreads, as Rashi has explained. Rashi quoted a sage as saying that the blasphemer had made fun of the showbreads ridiculing a law that offered the Lord bread that was on occasion a whole week old, as these breads were only exchanged for new ones every Sabbath.

שמן זית זך CLEAR OLIVE OIL — Three different qualities of oil come forth (are extracted) from the olive tree, the first of which is called זך, “clear”. They are all fully explained in Treatise Menachot 86a and in Torath Cohanim (Sifra, Emor, Section 13 1-3).

Perhaps the fact that the Torah here deals with commandments whose common denominator is the number seven, i.e. 7 days of Passover, 7 days of Tabernacles, the New Year and Day of Atonement which occur in the 7th month, prompted the Torah to add laws about the 7-armed Candlestick. The procedures involving the Table also have a mystical dimension involving the number seven, seeing the Torah speaks about two rows of six breads (verse 6). When you add the table itself to the respective rows of 6 showbreads you have the number seven. The number seven is always considered as completing a cycle. You also had the legislation of the Omer in this portion; that commandment also involved the counting of seven times seven days, i.e. seven weeks. You have a reference to the commandment of the Sabbath, another commandment which features the number seven. We may therefore assume that the Torah was interested in mentioning all the commandments featuring the number seven in one portion.

להעלות נר תמיד, “to kindle a lamp to burn continually;” it was kept burning also on the Sabbath, and even if it had become ritually contaminated.

תמיד (continually not continuously) here implies from night to night. It has the same meaning as in עולת תמיד a “continual” burnt offering which was only sacrificed from day to day (cf. Rashi on Exodus 27:20).

It is also possible that the laws pertaining to the Candlestick were written adjoining the legislation about the festival of Tabernacles to teach us some lessons about the difference between physical and spiritual light. G'd neither needs the light of the Candlestick to illuminate the Tabernacle for Him, nor did the Jewish people travel through the desert for 40 years using physical light (compare Torat Kohanim on the words מחוץ לפרוכת in verse 3). The ענני הכבוד, the clouds of glory i.e. the שכינה, illuminated the way for the Jewish people and the shade they provided actually screened out the sunlight during all those years (compare Tossaphot on Shabbat. 22,B). It follows that the commandment to light the Candlestick daily was only for the sake of the dividing curtain which was so called as it provided testimony for the nations of the world that G'd's presence resided within the camp of the Jewish people.