The Rambam’s Tenth Principle: Necessary Preparations are Not Separate Mitzvos

Certain statements in the Torah are introductory statements to the fulfillment of mitzvos, not actual mitzvos themselves. For example, Leviticus 24:5 says to take flour and to bake it into loaves in order to make the lechem hapanim (“showbread”), which was kept on the shulchan (table) in the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and, later, the Temple. The taking of the flour and the baking of it into loaves are not mitzvos, they’re just necessary precursors to the placement of the lechem hapanim, which is a mitzvah (Exodus 25:30). Similarly, taking oil isn’t a mitzvah (Exodus 27:20), it’s just a prerequisite to lighting the menorah, which is a mitzvah (in the same verse).