Ner Tamid

You are also aware that the reason the incense offering is known as קטרת is that its fragrance attaches itself to the various attributes (character traits) and when these attributes rejoice this elevates the person offering the incense to an even higher spiritual level. Also, this joy increases further through the bounty of G’d which man (the inhabitants of earth) receives. The oil which was being offered at about the same time as the incense was made from olives seeing that the olive is the symbol of what provides light in our world. This is a mystical dimension of Genesis 8,11 that “when the dove returned to the ark it had a leaf of an olive tree in its beak.” This is the reason that only olive oil had to be used to burn in the lamps of the Menorah.

ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל ויקחו אליך שמן זית זך כתית למאור להעלות נר תמיד, “As for you, you are to command the Children of Israel that they take for you pure, pressed olive oil for illumination, to kindle the lamp to burn constantly.” The words “they shall take for you,” mean that this instruction even applied immediately. It was necessary to write these words as we might have misunderstood, seeing that at the end of verse 21 this commandment is described as חקת עולם, “an ongoing statute,” not subject to change or relaxation. The Torah mentioned the words “olive oil” to exclude any other kind of oil. The reason the Torah specifies the grade of olive oil, i.e. זית זך, was to let us know it was to be from the first part of the oil extracted from the olives. The word כתית, pressed, was to tell us that the olives were to be squeezed, i.e. crushed, to extract the oil. Any oil which simply oozed out of the olives without their having been crushed first was not acceptable. The word למאור, “for illumination,” indicates that only for illumination did all the aforementioned restrictions apply. The olive oil used in the preparation of certain Minchah-offerings did not have to conform to similarly stringent conditions. The second category of oil, the one which is one grade below that of oil fit for the Tabernacle/Temple was good enough for the offerings. Normally, people who possess two different qualities of oil, use the inferior type for burning in lamps and the superior kind for their food. (Tanchuma Tetzaveh 6). In this instance, the Torah legislates exactly the reverse.

Perhaps the Midrash was concerned only with the Temples whose function was limited in time, whereas the third Temple which will endure indefinitely did not concern the author as the word כתית, another word for “destroyed,” most certainly would not apply to the third Temple. Perhaps the third Temple is alluded to in the word למאור, “as illumination,” seeing that the redemption and what follows have been characterised by the prophet Isaiah 60,1 as אור, light, when he wrote: “Arise, shine, for your light has dawned, etc.” There are more such verses such as Psalms 27,1: “G’d is my light and my salvation,” or Psalms 118,27: “the Lord is G’d and He lights up for me.” These verses are implied assurances that there will be a third Temple and that it will endure.

Similarly here; the Torah means that there must never be a time when not at least a single light burns in the Tabernacle. Anyone who thinks in terms of the “eternal flame,” errs. An alternative meaning of the word נר תמיד could be that it is indeed a reference to what is known in Talmudic parlance as the נר מערבי, the “western light,” the one lamp out of the seven on the Menorah which was kept burning around the clock and was never allowed to be out except when its wick or its oil were being replaced. It was the light in the centre of the Menorah, hence its name as the “western” light. All the other lamps faced either north or south, only this light pointed straight up.

להעלות נר תמיד, “to kindle on a permanent basis.” According to Rashi when a light burns all night long, it is considered as burning תמיד, i.e. all the time that there is a need for it. Rashi’s proof is derived from the expression עולת תמיד in Numbers 28,7 which cannot mean that such a burnt offering was being burned up on the altar on an ongoing basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but meant that it was a regular sacrifice, offered on a daily basis, one in the morning and one in the evening. Other commentators understand the word תמיד as meaning that the other lamps on the six arms of the menorah were to be kindled by drawing on the already kindled נר מערבי, the lamp on the central shaft of the menorah. That particular lamp was kept alight around the clock.

Another interpretation (of Exod. 27:20): AND YOU SHALL COMMAND <THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TO BRING UNTO YOU CLEAR OIL OF BEATEN OLIVES FOR THE LIGHT >…, not because I need light but in order to give you light. R. Johanan said: The eye is white with black in the middle.¹⁴Numb. R. 15:7. From where must it see? Not from the white? But that is not so. One only sees from the midst of the black. Now you are not able to comprehend the light of the eyes; yet you seek to comprehend my ways. Is it not because your <evil> drive misleads you, saying: Perhaps he (the Holy One) needs light? R. Abbin the Levite said: {You desire that whoever wants} [You find that whoever desires] to make windows for himself, makes them wider on the inside and narrower on the outside. Why? So that they will attract the light. But the windows of the Temple were wider on the outside and narrower on the inside.¹⁵Below, Numb. 3:2; also Lev. R. 31:7; cf. PRK 21:5, which deduces this assertion from I Kings 6:4. Why? So that the light would go forth from the Temple and light up the world. The light goes forth from the midst of my house; so do I have need of light? But you may say: Why does he need a lamp? In order to give us light. (Exod. 27:20:) TO BRING UNTO YOU CLEAR OIL OF BEATEN OLIVES…, in order to light up an eternal lamp so that your light may be constantly before me. David said (in Ps. 97:11:) LIGHT IS SOWN FOR THE RIGHTEOUS.