Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

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).

It is from the roots of the commandment that God, may He be blessed, commanded us that there be a lit light in the Temple for the aggrandizement of the Temple, for [its] glory and splendor in the eyes of the seers. As it is the way of people to be glorified in their homes with lit lights. And the whole matter of its aggrandizement is in order that fear and humility enter a man’s heart when he sees it. And we have already said (Sefer HaMitzvot 16) that the soul is refined by good action. And all of this revolves around the principle established for us that everything is defined according to the side of the receivers (people); in that I truly believe that there is great wisdom and amazing secrets for the receivers in these matters. And notwithstanding, we will also write that which appears from the simple understanding of the words, everything for the sake of Heaven.

The laws of the commandment — for example, that which they said (Sifra, Emor, Section 13:11) [that] the lighting of the lights pushes off Shabbat like the sacrifices, since they have a set time, as it is stated about it, “always”; that (Menachot 89a) half a log of oil was placed in each and every light, as it states, “from evening until morning,” and the Sages estimated that this is the amount that would suffice for the nights of Tevet (in the winter), and so [too], was it given on all of the nights, and if there would be a surplus, there is nothing [wrong] in that; about the matter of arrangement, [that] it is the cleaning; [that] cleaning the menorah and setting it up is a positive commandment in the morning and in the afternoon; [that] the cleaning is, that [with] each light that became extinguished, he removes the wick and all of the oil that was extinguished, cleans [the bowl] and places another wick and other oil in it, but he [only] fixes a light that has not become extinguished; [that] if the middle (eastern) light becomes extinguished, he lights it from fire that is in the outer altar, but the others he lights one from another by pulling the wick and inclining it until it catches on fire, since it is not [fit] the honor of the commandment to light it from another light; and the rest of its details — are [all] elucidated in the eighth chapter of Menachot and in places in Tamid.

This is the opinion of Rambam, may his memory be blessed, (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Daily Offerings and Additional Offerings 3) — that in this commandment, the arrangement of the lights is the lighting, as we have explained. However, the opinion of other commentators (Rashi on Exodus 30:7) is that the arranging is the removal of the ashes, the cleaning, and the fixing of the wicks; and that it is a commandment in of itself (besides the lighting). And so does it appear in the chapter [entitled] Hatekhelet in Tractate Menachot 49b-50a. (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Daily Offerings and Additional Offerings 3.)

And [it] is practiced at the time of the Temple by priests. And a priest that transgresses it and does not arrange the candles as is commanded, violates a positive commandment.