How does the fact that it was Aharon who lit the lamps elevate their importance?

(8,2) Speak to Aharon and say to him: When you light the lamps, towards the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast their light.

The letter beis at the beginning of the word ‘beha’alosecha’, when you light, is seemingly superfluous - the Torah should have rather used an expression of command, “light the lamps”. Another difficulty, is that the word literally means “when you raise up”, and it should have written “behadlokosecha” instead, which does mean “when you light”.

It seems to me that these difficulties are what the Midrash is coming to answer. Says the Midrash: “when you light the lamps” - we find that there were twelve tribes who brought offerings for the inauguration of the altar, but the tribe of Levi did not offer anything, and they were distressed and said: Why were we distanced from making an offering for the inauguration of the altar. After the inauguration, Hashem said to Aharon and his sons: All the tribes made an inauguration, but your tribe did not. Therefore, “speak to Aharon and say to him, when you light”.

It is evident from this Midrash that the lighting of the lamps was Aharon’s act of inauguration, but this itself is difficult - why did Hashem wait until now, and cause Aharon so much distress. He should have commanded Aharon to also bring an offering at the inauguration in order to avoid his being distressed. Why instead did He wait, and only afterwards give him the task of lighting of the lamps.

It seems to me that this was in order to give honour to the lamps, to demonstrate that they were something very great and important, and not have Yisrael think that they are a small, insignificant thing, just to give light to Hashem’s dwelling. And so too it is brought in the Midrash explicitly: “towards the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast their light” - so that they should not disparage the menorah. We see from this that there was a concern that they would disparage the menorah, and consider it a small thing, and therefore Hashem wanted to show them that on the contrary, the menorah was more beloved to Him than everything, and therefore He commanded Aharon specifically to light the lamps.

We can illustrate this with a parable about a king who distributed valuable gifts to all his ministers and friends. To one of his special friends whom he loved more than all of them he also gave a gift, but they don’t understand what it is, nor do they know whether it is worth a large or small amount. But since they see that he gave to all the others gifts worth a large amount, they can guess that the gift that he gave to his beloved friend is worth much more, but because of its great worth they do not understand what it is.

Here too, the analogy is that everyone knew that Aharon and his sons were more beloved to Hashem than all the tribes, since they had been chosen to be the priests. So when the tribes saw how very important were the things which they had merited to give for the inauguration of the altar, and they saw that Hashem had allocated to Aharon the lighting of the lamps, it was evident how greatly superior and important were the lamps, because Aharon certainly must have been chosen for something much more important than them. Thus we see that Hashem’s commanding to Aharon to light the lamps was an honour and an elevation for the lamps, because from this Yisrael would see their great importance to Hashem.

This explains why Hashem told Aharon not to be distressed because his tribe had been pushed off from bringing offerings to the inauguration, and that He was giving him the job of lighting the lamps. And that one should not think that it would have been better to have brought offerings together with the other tribes rather than suffering distress and then afterwards being given the lighting of the lamps. Because, as we saw from the parable, and as the Midrash explained, it was from the very fact that all the tribes had brought offerings but he had not demonstrated the importance of the lamps, and that it was an honour for the lamps if Aharon would light them.

This is what it means “when you light (elevate) the lamps” - by you lighting the lamps you will elevate them. When they see that Hashem allocated the lighting to Aharon, they will be made very important in the eyes of the observers.

What was so praiseworthy about Aharon doing what he was commanded to do?

(8,3) And Aharon did so; he lit the lamps towards the face of the menorah, as Hashem had commanded Moshe.

With what we explained above, we can understand the conclusion, that “Aharon did so”. Rashi brings the Yalkut, that this is to relate Aharon’s praise, that he did not deviate from what he was commanded. But this is a wonder - why would I think that Aharon would deviate from Hashem’s word, G-d forbid, and why specifically here?

But behold, the passive language of the posuk, “towards the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps cast their light”, is difficult - it should have used an active expression of command, “towards the face of the menorah you shall light its lamps”, similar to what it wrote in posuk 3, “towards the face of the menorah he lit its lamps”. The passive expression implies that Aharon was not commanded to set the lamps like this, but rather it happened automatically.

But it is clear from the Midrash that the intention of having the lamps casting their light towards the face of the menorah was to demonstrate that the light was not because Hashem needed it, to light up the enclosure of the Mishkan or the Mikdash. Rather, they cast light on the menorah - which alludes to the whole of Klal Yisrael - to allude that this was to bestow upon them wisdom, and for this reason the menorah was on the south side of the enclosure, as is well known.

Therefore it is possible to explain that it was not Hashem’s intention to command Aharon that he should set the lamps thusly, but rather the intention was to inform Aharon what would come from his lighting the menorah. And that is, that through him the lamps will be seen to be important, as we explained, and everyone will understand that the casting of the lamps’ light towards the face of the menorah was a great matter, and that the menorah was not coming to light up the Mishkan, but rather to cast light, wisdom, on Klal Yisrael, and thus its benefit to them was very great.

Now, if Aharon had let himself think that the truth of the matter was that through him would come honour to the lamps, and that the benefit of the menorah would become known, then he would not have needed to light the lamps towards the face of the menorah, since Hashem had not intended that he do this, but that it would happen by itself. But Aharon was extremely humble, and therefore he could not explain that the intention was that his important status would give honour to the lamps, and that this was the intention of towards etc, and so he had to explain it according to the simple understanding, that it was a command to him to actually set the lamps to face the centre.

Therefore it says, “and Aharon did so, he lit the lamps towards the face of the menorah, as Hashem had commanded Moshe”, and thus the Yalkut explained that this tells the praise of Aharon, that is, his great humility, that he did not deviate from the simple explanation of the language of the posuk, which is that he had been commanded to do so.