Oil for the Lampstand (Exo 27:20)
20 “And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you clear [without lees] oil of pressed [in a mortar and not ground in a mill, so that there be no lees] olives for the light [but the olives may be ground in a mill for the (oil of the) grain offering], to make a lamp burn [the flame rising of itself] continually [i.e., each night].
Rashi’s Commentary
Clear—Without lees; and this was effected not by straining the oil but as we learn in Treatise Menachot 86a “He lets it (the olive) ripen on the top of the olive-tree etc.”
Pressed—He pounds the olives in a mortar and must not grind them in a mill, so that there may be no lees; and after he has thus extracted the first drop of oil he may bring them into the mill and grind them. The second oil (that obtained by grinding) is unfitted for use in the lampstand but is permissible for the grain offerings (which had to be mingled with oil) since it is said here, “pressed olives for the light,” and hence it is not essential that it should be pressed for the grain offerings (Menachot 86a; cf. Rashi on Exo 29:40).
To make a lamp burn (lit., to ascend) continually—He must enkindle it until the flame ascends by itself (Shabbat 21a).
Shabbat 21a:9
Rami bar Ḥama taught a baraita: Those wicks and oils, which the Sages said one may not light with them on the Sabbath, one may not light with them in the temple either because it is stated with regard to the temple lampstand: “And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually” (Exo 27:20). Rami bar Ḥama taught that baraita and he also said its explanation: What is the proof from the verse? One may interpret the verse homiletically: The requirement is to light the lampstand so that the flame ascends of itself when it is kindled, and not that it ascends by means of something else, i.e., adjusting the wick after it was lit.
Rev 11:4
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These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
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21 In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order [so that it burn] before the Lord from evening until morning; it shall be a lasting ordinance for their generations, from the children of Israel.
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Rashi’s Commentary
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From evening until morning—Give it its due measure of oil so that it may burn from evening until morning. Our Rabbis estimated half a log of oil as sufficient for the nights of Teveth which are long, and they ordained a similar quantity for every night of the year, and if any were left over on the shorter nights it did not matter (Menachot 89a).
Mat 4:16
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
and for those living in the land and shadow of death
a light has dawned.
Luk 12:35
Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps burning,
Joh 5:35
He was a lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing for a time to enjoy in his light.
2Co 4:6
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2Pe 1:19
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So we have the prophetic message made more sure, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Rev 2:1
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1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
The Priestly Garments
1 “And you, draw near to yourself [after completing the work of the tabernacle] Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel to serve me as priests—Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron.
2 You shall make sacred garments for Aaron your brother, for dignity and for honor.
3 And you shall speak to all the skilled workers whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make the garments of Aaron to sanctify him, so that he may serve me as [a ministering] priest to me.
4 These are the garments which they shall make: a breastpiece [an ornament worn on the heart], an ephod [a kind of apron], a robe [an outer robe], a tunic [an inner robe worn on the skin] with checkered indentations, a turban [a dome-like hat] and a sash [the belt over the tunic]. They shall make sacred [i.e., from the contribution that has been consecrated for my name] garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, that he may serve me as priests.
People, Man, Woman by Jens Johnsson is licensed under CC0 1.0
The work of a skilled weaver—I have already explained (Exo 26:1) that this was weaving on both sides: that is, that the designs on both sides were not similar one to the other.
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7 It [the ephod] shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two corners [to the corners of the width of the ephod, which is the width of the priest’s back], that it [the ephod with the two shoulder pieces] can be fastened [to the waistband (8) (by needle, and not woven together with it)].
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Rashi’s Commentary
Two shoulder pieces, etc.—The apron was below and the חשב of the ephod was the belt, and this was joined to it on its top edge similar to the apron of ladies who ride on horseback. On the priest’s back there were joined to the belt two pieces like two wide straps, one opposite each shoulder. He lifted these up upon his two shoulders so that they hung down in front of him before his breast, and because they were joined to the rings in the breastpiece they were held fast in front of him upon his heart so that they could not fall off his shoulders backwards, just as is explained in this section. Thus they lay on his back in an erect position
and then passed over his shoulders and the two onyx stones were fixed on them, one stone upon each shoulder-piece.
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To its two corners—On the width of the ephod; for its width was equal only to that of the priest’s back (and did not go entirely round his body, so that one may well speak of the two extremities of the ephod), and its height was up to the elbows—which they call coudes in old French—and not higher, because it is said (Eze 44:18) “they must not gird themselves with anything that makes them perspire,” i. e. they must not gird themselves in the place where one perspires namely, not higher than their elbows and not lower than their loins, but only by their elbows (Zevachim 18b).
8 And its skillfully woven waistband [the belt] which is above it [i.e., which is on the upper edge of the ephod], shall be like its workmanship [i.e., the work of a skilled weaver, of the five varieties (of material)], emanating from it [i.e., woven together with the ephod]: gold, blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and twisted linen.
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Exo 26:1
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Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains consisting of fine twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn. A cherubim design of the work of a skilled worker you shall make them.
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Exo 39:3
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They hammered out the plates of gold and cut [from the thin plate] strands from them to work the gold in with the blue [i.e., one thread of gold intertwined with six of blue yarn, etc.] and the purple and the scarlet yarn, and into the fine linen—the work of a skilled weaver.
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Eze 44:18
They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments shall be upon their waists. They must not gird themselves with anything that makes them perspire.
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5 And they [the skilled workers] shall take [from the donors] the gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen [whereof to make the garments].
The Ephod
6 “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine twisted linen—the work of a skilled weaver.
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Rashi’s Commentary
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And they shall make the ephod—If I set myself to explain the making of the ephod and the breastpiece in the order of the verses, the description of them would be fragmentary and the reader might err in piecing the details together: therefore I shall write down how they were made, just as each of them was, in order that “he who runs may read” (may have a comprehensive idea of them in their entirety), and afterwards I shall explain it in the order of the verses. The ephod was made like that kind of apron of women who ride on horse-back. He (the priest) tied it on behind him opposite (at the height of) his heart below his elbows. Its breadth was equal to the measure of a man’s back and somewhat more (cf. Rashi, end of v. 26), and it reached to his
heels. The belt was attached to its top edge along the whole of its width, being of weaver’s work (i. e. woven in one piece with the ephod) and it extended on both sides beyond the width of the ephod in order that it might go right round the body and gird on the ephod by means of it. The shoulder-pieces were attached to the belt, one on the right and one the left, behind the priest, at the two ends of the width of the apron, and when they were lifted up they stood (we should say “they lay”) upon his two shoulders, so that they were like two straps made of the same material as the ephod itself, and sufficiently long to lift them up to reach to his neck on both sides, and they hung over in front of him a little below his shoulders. The onyx stones were fixed in them, one on his right shoulder and one on his left shoulder, and the settings were placed in their ends in front of his shoulders on his breast. Two cords of gold were inserted through two rings which were on the breastpiece at the two ends of its upper width (edge), one on the right and one on the left, and the two ends of the chain (or cord) were fixed in the setting on the right, and similarly the two ends of the left chain were fixed in the setting which was on the left shoulder. Consequently, the breastpiece hung in front of him over his
heart from the settings of the ephod. Further, there were two rings at the two ends of the breastpiece on its lower edge, and opposite them two rings below on the two shoulder pieces of the ephod on the lower edge of each where this was joined to the belt. The under two rings on the breastpiece were opposite the rings on the ephod, lying one upon the other, and they fastened them (each pair of rings) together by a blue purple thread which was inserted through the rings in the ephod and breastpiece, so that the lower edge of the breastpiece should lie close to the belt of the ephod and should not move about and come apart from it, swinging to and fro.
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Of gold, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine twisted linen—The five materials were intertwined in every strand: they beat out the gold into the form of thin plates and from them they cut threads, and they wove that gold thread together with six threads of blue yarn and a gold thread with six threads of purple yarn, and similarly with the scarlet and similarly with the fine linen; because all the materials had their threads sixfold and there was a gold thread with each of them. Then they intertwined them all into one thread; it followed, therefore, that their thread was 28-fold. This is how it is explained in Treatise Yoma 72a and it is derived from the following verse: (Exo 39:3) “They flattened out the plates of gold and he cut cords out of them, to work the gold cords in with the blue and the purple, etc.”—this tells us that a gold thread was intertwined with each material.
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3 Speak [today, on the first of the month] to the whole community of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month [the “taking” of the Passover sacrifice of Egypt was on the tenth, but not that of future generations] each man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father [and, in the event that the family is large and one lamb will not suffice for it], a lamb for each household [i.e., for each household within that family].
Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:3:2
Speak to the whole community of Israel—R. Achai b. R. Yoshiyah says: Now did they both speak? Is it not written (Ibid. 7:2) “You (Moses) shall speak all that I command you?” Moses accorded honor to Aaron and said “Teach me,” and Aaron did likewise with Moses, and the speech emanated from both as if both were speaking.
Pesachim 96a:7
The Gemara discusses the meaning of this difficult phrase, as obviously, the Passover sacrifice is slaughtered on the fourteenth and eaten on the evening of the fifteenth. GEMARA: The Gemara asks: From where do we conclude that the requirements of the Passover sacrifice sacrificed in Egypt do not apply to later generations? As it is written: “Speak to the whole community of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month each man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for each household” (Exo 12:3); and we derive from the superfluous word “this” that this Passover sacrifice offered in Egypt had to be taken from the tenth of Nisan, and the Passover sacrifice of later generations is not taken from the tenth of Nisan.
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Rashi’s Commentary
Speak to the whole community—But did Aaron speak? Has it not already been stated, “You shall speak” (Exo 7:2)? But the explanation is: they paid respect one to the other, saying to each other, “Instruct me what to say” and the divine communication in question issued
from both of them, so that it was as though they were both speaking (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 12:3:2).
This work "Oil for the Lampstand" is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0