Parashat Tzav: How Do You Keep Your Fire Burning?

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

SAN DIEGO — Each week we read of stories and learn messages in the Torah to offer us the strength and direction in how to serve Hashem, our Creator, in the best way possible, to live life most optimally. He is, in the words of “Yedid Nefesh” a piyyut first published in the Sefer Haḥaredim (1588) of Rabbi Elazar Moshe Azikri (1533-1600), the “Beloved of the soul, Compassionate Father,” Y’did nefesh av harachaman יְדִיד נֶֽפֶשׁ, אָב הָרַחְמָן.

This week, I’m left with a question. How do you keep your fire burning?

Peter Yarrow’s lyrics sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary in the song, “Light One Candle,” may come to mind:

Don’t let the light go out!
It’s lasted for so many years!
Don’t let the light go out!
Let it shine through our hope and our tears. 

We continually derive life lessons from the laws in the Torah that are always applicable. One example this week in Tzav, comes from the commandment, “The fire on the Altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be extinguished.” The Talmud in Yoma teaches us “af bemaso ‘ot,” also while they traveled.

We understand from the Midrash in Rabbah Vayikra that the Altar moved about for a period of about 116 years. The Talmud is indicating that even during this time, they did not let the light go out. One might say how one behaves with the flame at home and while out and about, was to be the same, “Don’t let the light go out!”

The Torah tells us that keeping kosher at home and eating treif out, preaching about the evils of loshon hara (gossip) while whispering about someone to the person sitting next to you in shul, dressing tzinius (modestly) in shul but another way the rest of the week, observing Torah meticulously except in business, are double standards to be avoided. There’s a difference between shomer Shabbos, and Show-mer Shabbos.

Look no further than the Shema we say every day, בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְת בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ “…and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road…” Sound familiar? “Don’t let the light go out!” At home, on the road, just don’t ever let it go out!

When it comes to the fire on the Altar, we are directed to keep it burning brightly always.

So, how do we keep this flame alive today? Sure, we see the “eternal flame” hovering over the ark in synagogues. That’s rather passive, though perhaps inspirational depending on how actively you see and think about it. When we bring active prayers, when we bring kindness, when we take time to savor the magnificence of Creation and of our Creator, we may be keeping that flame alive day and night as we are taught in the parasha.

As the priests tended to the fire of the sacrifice every morning and during the day, adding wood contributed by all to keep the fire burning, so too are we called to not let the light go out. It is up to us individually to bring daily prayer and action into our lives. From our mizbeach, our “altar” in our homes, our tables where we gather daily to eat and converse with family and friends, to the many opportunities we have to give tzedakah, charity, in a sincere and caring manner, to learning Torah from all the wise rabbis in our community, we can elevate our lives toward holiness through mitzvos. It requires that we sweep away the old and begin daily with a clean, freshened, grateful heart and mind, and doing, not just thinking about doing.

In another lesson we learn, the Kohanim were instructed to gather and clear the ashes, terumat ha-deshen, that were from the residue of the burnt offerings from the altar, and specifically were told where to place and transport the ashes outside the camp, and what to wear while doing so, their linen priestly vestments.

We can learn from this, if we pay close attention to the words, the benefit of elevating the most mundane activities in our lives such as cleaning, to a holy status. Deshen, the Hebrew word for “ash,” may also be seen as an acronym, davar shelo nechshav, meaning “something without importance.”

When the Kohanim were told to put on their Shabbat clothes in a sense, to “dress in linen raiment, with linen breeches next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar,” we see the message as to why it was such a ritual: to learn that even cleaning ashes can be elevated, “lifted up,” to the holy. By directing the priests to put on their finest clothing for something as seemingly mundane as removing ashes from the altar, the Torah makes clear the need for the priests to be quite focused and attentive to what might appear to be the most trivial and negligible details of their distinctive work.

Imagine if you infused holiness into cleaning up after Shabbat dinner? Imagine if you de-cluttered your thinking of “negative ashes” to make room for elevated thoughts? Imagine if you considered how fortunate you are to have trash to take out and how blessed you are to be able to physically do so? Imagine if you became an example by cleaning out “shmutz,” including “shmutzik” behavior, wherever you went?

As we approach Passover in a little over a month, celebrating our freedom, our renewal, let us begin striving to be more mindful of how we can go beyond what we feel, and focus on how we can change our actual behavior, especially towards each other, and elevate our world to include more holiness. This is the lesson of parashah Tzav. Leftover ashes? They’re a big deal… if we learn from them to transform the mundane into the holy in our daily lives…another way to keep the flame burning brightly and to “Let it shine through our hope and our tears.”

And in these times when it may be difficult to put on our best and keep the flame alive, let us sing together,

הִגָּלֶה־נָא וּפְרֹשׂ, חָבִיב, עָלַי אֶת־סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמָךְ

תָּאִיר אֶֽרֶץ מִכְּבוֹדָךְ, נָגִֽילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בָּךְ

“Pleas​​​e, my beloved, reveal yourself and spread over me the shelter of Your peace.
Fill the world with the light of your glory, so that we may rejoice and be happy in You.”

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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com