Parshat Tzav; Leviticus 6:1 –8:36 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Tzav opens with a command to Moses to explain to Aaron and the priesthood their duties in regard to the Altar and the sacrifices. Last week’s parasha highlighted the various offerings: sin, guilt, meal, and peace offering. This week’s portion continues discussing them but this time from the point of view of the priests. Tzav outlines how the priests shall receive it and how they shall actually make the offering on the altar.
The portion contains however some important information about the altar itself. Or more aptly, the flame on the altar. Aaron and his sons, the priests must keep the flame burning on the altar continuously. It is not to go out. Three times in the opening lines of the portion this is stressed. The torah says, “…the fire of the Altar should be kept alflame on it,” (Lev. 6:2) and again in verse 5, “ The fire on the Altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not be extinguished;” (Lev. 6:5). Then again in verse six it states, “ A permanent fire shall remain a flame on the altar; it shall not be extinguished,” (Lev. 6:6).
This fire consumes the offerings placed upon it. But this fire symbolizes much more. According to the tradition, the flame crouched on the altar like a lion but blazed like the sun. (Yoma 21 b). The fire of the altar was different –a holy fire—and this is why the priests had to attend to it and keep it burning…. It had unique properties—perhaps not unlike the finger of God that burned and etched the Ten Commandments in stone for Moses.
In the Talmud passage in Yoma the rabbis write: “Has it not been taught: Five things were reported about the fire of the pile of wood: It was laying like a lion, it was as clear as sunlight, its flame was of solid substance, it devoured wet wood like dry wood, and it caused no smoke to arise from it? …For it has been taught: And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar — although the fire comes down from heaven, it is a proper thing to bring fire from outside too.”
The Rabbinic reading understood that the fire on the altar was unique. Its properties were properly Divine hence it was low and strong, solid but clear. But by bringing in and mixing earthly fire with that sacred fire then and only then was the olah offering consumed.
It takes both the divine fire and the earthly fire combined to properly bring about a sacrificial offering!
Today we have no Temple. We make no sacrificial offering upon an altar. The flame we must tend to is the flame of our spirituality, the flame of our faith. It too is a combination from the heavens above and the human realm. When the heavenly realm and earthly realm meet inside of each of us we can bring about a sense of kedusha, a sense of holiness that fills our lives and fills up the emptiness that so pervades our age.
If we can tend to our own flame, and continue to stoke the flame of our faith and hope in a world redeemed, we can like the priest of old keep the Divine presence in our midst.
The altar today is the altar inside each of us. We can offer sacrifices of our time, energy, tzedakah. We can offer a commitment to living our lives with a pervasive sense of the sacred. That is the flame that should burn continually and we pray, will never be extinguished.
Posted by Lee at April 3, 2006 09:15 AM
