The Small Flame

This week’s Torah portion is Tzav, the second portion in the Book of Leviticus. Tzav means command. In this portion the major categories of sacrifice are continued from last week’s portion. We hear about the unleavened meal offering, the sin, and guilt offerings, and the offering of thanksgiving for good fortune and unexpected blessings. The beginning of the portion reads, “God spoke to Moses saying, command Aaron and his sons. This is the law of the elevation offering, to be on the flame on the altar all night until morning; and the fire on the altar should be kept aflame on it.” The word flame, mok-da is printed with a small letter, a smaller than usual mem, to begin the word. When there is a smaller or larger letter in the Torah text, which is rare, it is an invitation to have a closer look at the meaning of the verse, to see what it might be trying to say on a deeper level. The elevation offering was also called the burnt offering. Its purpose was to allow us to draw near to God by making a voluntary offering for in atonement for our human sins. The Baal Shem Tov said that the altar is the heart. The flame on this altar that should not go out is the inner spiritual fire about which the S’fat Emet says, “In the soul of every person there lies a hidden point that is aflame with love of God, a fire that cannot be put out.” This ecstatic impulse for God is not what we usually experience. Instead we often experience the small mem of the flame, the embers that are barely burning, which is our dissatisfaction. There is a lack that we feel, a hole in our hearts that nothing can permanently fill. Possessions don’t do it. Infatuation: falling in love; is a taste of spiritual ecstasy that quenches our longing temporarily, but infatuation is not permanent: it never lasts. The story of the Garden of Eden describes the feelings we have in the form of a parable: by exchanging ignorance for consciousness, we exiled ourselves from the state of nature where we were at one with all existence. Now, fully conscious; we are outside the Garden and have the feeling that we used to be smarter, we used to be happier, we used to have union with God. There is a vague feeling that something is missing. Dissatisfaction is a permanent part of the human condition, but far from being a punishment, it is a marvelous blessing, put there to lead us to re-union with the Divine Presence at a new level of synthesis. The small mem urges us forward toward God. King Solomon wrote about this. He had it all: hundreds of wives, untold possessions, fabulous wealth, kingly power. “Vanity of vanities,: he wrote. “All is vanity.” We can believe him because he experienced it all and he was the one person who really did know. “Have awe of God and keep the commandments,” he writes at the end of Ecclesiastes. King Solomon knew. The dissatisfaction is there in us to lead us to the ecstasy of spiritual fulfillment, the flame that burns continually on the altar of our hearts. It is the soul’s pure love of God. This spiritual fire, the sages said, burns the impurities of our souls, atones for sin, and finally turns our transgressions to merits (Yoma 86b). The desire for union, the spiritual fire, never goes out. It is part of our being. The low burning embers can be fanned into the warmth of God’s love and the light of true understanding, culminating in the joy of union and service. May our dissatisfactions melt before God’s healing power and be transmuted into unconditional love. May the love of our souls for God raise us up until we again feel reunited with the Oneness of all Being.