This week's Torah portion is called Tetzaveh. It follows Terumah which provides the Israelites with detailed instructions for building the mishkan, the tabernacle in which God will dwell as the Israelites wander in the wilderness. Instead of ending the previous portion at the end of the chapter, this portion, Tetzaveh, starts with the last two verses of Exodus 27:20-21.
I will first note the reason for the position of this Torah portion. After God finished enumerating all the holy utensils, the veil, the tabernacle, the tent, the cover, the altar of the burnt offering, the courtyard, and the screen, God commenced to deal with those who ministered in the tabernacle. God explained the service which they alone were to perform. No stranger was permitted to perform the service alongside them. God opened with the command that they cause a lamp to burn using pure olive oil. They were not to employ any other oil. It is only fitting that those who ministered in the tabernacle were to be distinguished and set apart, both in family and in dress....
In the Midrash: "You command"... "Adonai named you verdant olive tree, fair, with choice fruit" (Jer. 11:16). There is a hidden point within the souls of Israel, of which Scripture says: "If you seek it as you do silver and search for it as for treasures..." (Prov. 2:4). This inwardness reveals itself as a result of great effort, a struggle of the soul and the body, to purify the physical. Thus we are like the verdant olive tree: what an effort it is to bring forth that oil!
....Set aside one quality, or one special mitzvah, about which you take fabulous care. Through this you will be able to draw light and redemption to all your qualities. "From them shall come tent-pegs"--the choosing of Aaron set firm grounding for Israel's tent....
Sefat Emet was written by Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib (AKA the Sefat Emet).( 1847-1905. ) It is a part of the Mussar tradition, a practice in which a person focuses one character traits as a means for improving one's life.
Perhaps the expression תצוה tetzaveh in our verse alludes to a thought expressed in the Zohar, section one page 83 that we find a spark of Moses' soul within the soul of every Torah scholar. This is why we have an instance in Sukkah 39 where the scholars called each other "Moses." This was because Moses personified the soul that is immersed in Torah-study. When the Torah uses the expression ואתה תצוה, v'atah tetzaveh, this may also be parallel to Psalms 91:11 in which the Psalmist... describes God as dispatching God's angels to keep company with deserving Jews as they are of equal status. There is no worthier pursuit than the study of Torah which supplies all enlightenment for the world.
The Torah continues: להעלות נר תמיד, l'halot ner tamid, "to cause a lamp to burn continually." The expression תמיד tamid denotes that the burning will be of unlimited duration. The homiletical meaning is that Israel should not ever again experience periods of spiritual darkness. Perhaps the expression למאור להעלות נר תמיד lamaor l'halot ner tamid, "for lighting, to cause a lamp to burn continually" means that this oil should light the great luminary in a manner similar to the period the prophet Isaiah 62:8 speaks about when he says: "I will not ever again give your grain to your enemies for food," i.e. "you will proceed to rise ever higher."