Mar 26/05 — Shabbat Tzav

Commentary by Rabbi Alan Green

“The fire on the altar shall be kept burning by it (could also be “shall be kept burning in him”), not to go out. Every morning the priest shall place wood on it, arrange the burnt offering on it, and turn the fat of the well-being offerings into smoke. A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to be extinguished.” Leviticus 6:5-6

Why is it so important that the fire on the altar should never go out? If it were to go out, why not just light another one? This unusual instruction contains a hint that this fire is more than mere fire, and its burning, more than mere combustion. This emphasis on fires that shouldn’t go out also occurs in other places in the Torah. For example, “Have the Israelites bring the clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling a perpetual flame” (Exodus 27:20; Leviticus 24:2).

Now we hear that the fire on the altar, the fire which consumes the sacrificial offerings, should also be a perpetual flame. Why? Perhaps the answer is to be found in the alternative translation suggested above. “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning IN HIM, not to go out.” The Torah seems to be talking simultaneously about two different types of fire: one which burns on the altar of sacrifice, and one which burns within the priest. In the Bible, fire resembles God. Moses beholds God in the form of a burning bush—a bush that perpetually burns, but is never consumed. Also, “the Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

This is true all the more so for the interior fire of spiritual awareness that burns within each one of us. This is the spark of divinity that we carry inside, that ceaselessly begs to be fanned into brilliant flame. Even more than the external sacrificial fire, it is this internal fire that ought never to go out.

Today, there is no longer any Temple, or any sacrificial altar. But now we have another way to offer sacrifices to God: through the transformative, sacrificial fires of spiritual activity—the offering of the Self, to God, through the Mitzvot. Through these external sacrificial offerings—offerings of time, awareness, feeling, as well as actual, physical funds—the internal flame of spiritual awareness is sustained and kept bright.

Fire is the core symbol of transformation; a process in which matter is transmuted into energy, right before our eyes. In this same way, our destiny, our assignment from the Most High One, is to transmute the matter of our physical existence into a spiritual fire that will never be extinguished; and one that, God willing, will eventually illuminate the whole world.