Sunday, January 10, 2021

Tefillah #160: Constant Fire

אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח לא תכבה.

 A constant fire will be kept burning on the Altar, it may not be extinguished.

When talking about the Avoda of removing the ashes and placing them next to the Mizbeach and taking them out of the camp, it says that the fire will burn on it - ואש המזבח תוקד בו. But it doesn't say EXPLICITLY that this fire will be constant. Here, in the context of the mention of the עולה and שלמים it says explicitly that the fire will be constant. This is b/c the fire of Avodas Hashem that relates to the outside world [represented by the taking of the ashes outside the camp] must at times be suspended. In contrast, the fire of Avodas Hashem represented by the עולה and שלמים [which parallel the ashes placed next to the Mizbeach (more pnimiyus-dike) and the ashes taken outside the camp (more chitzoniyus-dike, oriented toward nature), respectively] will be constant, b/c we find ourselves IN the holy. In that sacred place, even the fire of the שלמים, which sanctifies our involvement with nature and this world, remains a constant fire. The passion is uninterrupted.