Hammered Work and the Praise of Moses Who Built As He Was Told

"Hammered." "Hammered" means only a hard substance, the work of a craftsman, the work of a hammer. "To its base, to its flower" (Numbers 8:4). I have only its base and its flower; whence its cups and its knobs? Scripture says, "and you shall make a lampstand," and so on. Or one might make it limb by limb; Scripture says, "of one piece shall they be." "It is hammered" (Numbers 8:4), why is this said? Was it not already said, "hammered gold"? What does "it is hammered" teach? Because we find regarding the vessels of the Eternal House that when they have no hammered piece they make them from scrap, one might hear that so too with the lampstand; Scripture says, "it is hammered," the verse repeats it to disqualify [scrap]. From here they said: when there is no gold, one makes it of silver, and so on, which is not the case with the trumpets: when there is no silver they do not make them of gold, but if they have no hard substance they make them from scrap. It comes out that what is fit for the lampstand is unfit for the trumpets, and what is fit for the trumpets is unfit for the lampstand. "According to the vision that the LORD showed Moses" (Numbers 8:4). This is to make known the praise of Moses, that just as the Omnipresent told him, so he did. Rabbi Natan says: it is not needed, for it already says, "and see and make"; the verse tells us that the Omnipresent showed Moses vessels already made and a lampstand already made, and it was made, as it is said, "according to the vision that the LORD showed Moses."