利未記 24:3 註釋：Rashi, Sforno, Chizkuni & Siftei Chakhamim

לפרכת העדת [WITHOUT] THE PARTITION VAIL OF THE TESTIMONY — i. e. the Partition Vail which is before the Ark which on account of its contents (the Tablets, termed לחות העדות in Exodus 37:15) is called “Testimony”. Our Rabbis, however, explained it (the word העדות) as referring to the western light of the candlestick which was a testimony (עדות) to mankind that the Shechinah dwelt in Israel through the miracle wrought in connection with it; for he (the priest) put only as much oil into it as was the quantity put into the other lamps and yet he began the lighting of the other lamps in the evening by it and finished the work of cleaning with it [since it continued to burn miraculously until the following evening] (Sifra, Emor, Section 13 9; Shabbat 22b; Menachot 86b).

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.

מחוץ לפרוכת העדות באהל מועד, “outside of the curtain of testimony of the tent of Meeting.” The wording is to teach that the position of the Menorah inside the Sanctuary was relatively closer to the dividing curtain than to the entrance of the Sanctuary.

יערך אתו אהרן מערב עד בקר AARON SHALL SET IT IN ORDER FROM EVENING UNTO MORNING — The meaning is not that he shall occupy himself the whole night with setting the lights in order, but he shall arrange it in such a manner (lit., by such an arrangement) that will prove adequate for the length of the whole night. Our Rabbis by experiment (cf. Menachot 89a) fixed the quantity at a half log oil for each lamp, ascertaining that this would suffice also in the long nights of the Teveth quarter; and this quantity therefore became to them the fixed measure [for all the seasons of the year].