[After338 the morning prayers,1 the Rebbe said to a bridegroom who had been called to the Reading of the Torah in preparation for his wedding a few days later:] In one of the maamarim2 that my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], issued for study on Beis Nissan,3 there is an exposition of the verse [addressed to Moshe Rabbeinu] with which today’s reading begins:4 “And you shall command the Children of Israel to bring to you oil... to kindle the lamp regularly.”5 He comments there: “This is remarkable. How is it possible that a lamp, which diffuses [merely] a reflected light,6 should be characterized by eternity, which relates only to the Luminary?”7

In resolution, he explains8 that this is the point of the words, Ve’atah tetzaveh — “And you [i.e., Moshe] shall command.” For “it is specifically Moshe who has the capacity to connect9 the souls of Israel with G‑d [...].The quality of essence [that infinitely transcends mere illumination]can then be revealed even in a lamp, whose light is secondary, so that it, too, can be described as eternal — for it is now bound with the eternity of the Infinite One.” The maamar concludes: “One may be helped towards this by cultivating a spiritual bond10 with ‘Moshe’ — with the heads of the multitudes of Israel,11 who are an ‘extension of Moshe.’ ”. In the original, ispashtusa deMoshe (Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 69, 112a and 114a; cf. Zohar III, 216b and 273a; see also Tanya, ch. 44).

This message is also relevant to building a Jewish home, “an everlasting edifice.”344

(Here, too, as in all matters, precedence is to be given to spiritual considerations — both with regard to the love and awe of G‑d, which are metaphorically called “son” and “daughter,”12 and likewise, too, on the material plane, with regard to sons and daughters, literally.)

The power that endows a Jewish home with eternity, making it “an everlasting edifice,” derives from Moshe. Hence, one may be helped in achieving this by means of a spiritual bond with Moshe, with “the extension of Moshe in every generation.”369