“When you raise the candles.” It is as the writing says, “The Lord desires for the sake of His righteousness, He will make the Torah [law] great and glorious.”

The Creator said to Moses, “It is not because I need the candles that I warned you about them, but in order to cleanse you, as was said, ‘His light is a candle.’” It is written, “Even darkness will not make it dark for You, and the night will shine as day, the darkness as light.” This teaches you that He does not need flesh and blood candles, so why did He command you? To cleanse you. This is why it was said, “When you raise the candles,” the Lord desires for the sake of His righteousness (Midrash Rabbah).

We should understand this. Is there any fool in the world who would think that the candles of the Temple would shine to the Creator, to the point that it is necessary to bring proof from the Torah that He does not need our candles, and that only in order to cleanse us did He give us the Mitzva [commandment] of lighting candles?

We should interpret that this means that one should not think that the Creator cannot give us all the abundance that is concealed without work on our part, namely without labor. Rather, the Creator can bestow all of His abundance without any effort, since the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. However, by reception of pleasures, a person grows thicker with Aviut [thickness/will to receive] of disparity of form.

Hence, in order for man not to come to disparity of form, we were given Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] in order to cleanse us. This is called “candles.” That is, we must give the labor, but the Creator can give us even without an awakening from below, and He only gave us the Mitzvot in order to cleanse us from the Aviut.