The Burning Flame
Now if we keep on going with this svara of being mafshit the tzurah of the Beis Hamikdash in order to uncover the ideals hidden underneath, we come to the Menorah and we’ll see that this also was for gratitude. Inside the Mishkan at night, everything was quiet—the avodah was not carried on. But there was one thing in particular that was evident; all night there were flames burning on the Menorah.
Now, I must say beforehand that whatever we are going to say — although it may be very important and very necessary — is going to be superficial. I am too little of a person to undertake to interpret such a big and splendid subject. However, we do have some clues.
The Flame of Life
There's a possuk םָ„ָ‡ ַ̇מ¿ׁ ̆ƒנ 'ה ר≈נ – the lamp of Hashem is a man's soul. It’s Hashem's light that is burning inside you, giving you life and we wouldn’t be mistaken if we said that the flame of the Menorah is intended to symbolize that flame burning inside you.
Now, without recourse to any other sources, we would think that it’s referring to the soul and we’re thanking for the gift of the neshama. But there's a queer statement in the Gemara that seems to be a contradiction to this. In Mesichta Shabbos a question is asked: Suppose it’s Friday night and a sick man is lying next to an oil lamp and it’s a matter of pikuach nefesh; to save his life, you have to put out the lamp. Is it mutar to put out a lamp for a sick man? That’s a question the Gemara asks.
And the answers is given as follows: בָטּמו – It’s better to extinguish the lamp created by a person, ‡ּהו¿ךּרוָּב ׁ ֹ̆ו„ָּ ַ̃ה ל∆ׁ ̆ ֹרו≈נ ה∆ּבַכ¿י לַ‡¿ו – and the lamp of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, a Jewish life, shouldn’t be extinguished. And the Gemara brings this possuk, that a man’s living soul is compared to a lamp.
The Flame Extinguished
But there’s a big question here because how can the Gemara compare the death of a person to the lamp of Hashem going out? If the Jew would chalilah die, does the lamp go out? Chas v’shalom! After a man's days are over and he takes off his old overcoat, his worn out flesh and bones, his soul goes marching on; the light burns on and on. It burns brightly — even more brightly. Death means only that you move on; the word ̇∆וָמ is the same word as ׁ ֹ̆מו, to move away. You move out of the world. You change your place – that’s all. But the light of your neshama still burns.
But the Gemara here says that when he dies his lamp, the ner Elokim, is extinguished! And so we learn from this Gemara a big chiddush about this possuk; we learn a different meaning in the words “lamp of Hashem.” Ner Elokim does not mean the soul in general; it means a man’s life in this world. And a Jewish life in this Olam Hazeh is actually extinguished forever when he dies. Because what is the life of a Jew in this world? It’s bechira, free will, the opportunity to choose, and that lamp will never again be re-lit.
What he’ll do in the Next World is a different story. That’s schar Olam Haba, that’s reward; but the ability to achieve in this life is an especial form of light included in the lamp of Hashem, the neshama, and this goes out when a man dies never to be rekindled again even at the revival of the dead. It's only while your flame is burning in Olam Hazeh, this one time, that you have the opportunity to utilize the free will to achieve. And that's called the light of the soul; life in this world! That’s the chiddush of the Gemara.
And therefore while we have it there’s no greater happiness. The happiness of life means not running around on Caribbean cruises, no! I always tell you that there’s nothing better in the Caribbean islands. Only bigger cockroaches they have there, that’s all. Also, Caribbean diseases; that’s also a specialty of the islands. That’s not enjoying life. Enjoying life means, “Ah! Baruch Hashem, I’m alive! Right here in good old Brooklyn I’m alive!”
The Perpetual Mazel Tov
I’ll tell you a story. I told it many times.
In Lomza, the mashgiach once saw a sad-faced yeshiva bachur. So he went over to him and he took him by both lapels. “Mazel Tov,” he said to him.
The bachur wanted to hear the good news. The mashgiach says, “Mazel tov! Mazel Tov! Mazel tov!”
The bachur was looking at him; what’s the mazel tov? Finally after many mazel tovs, the mashgiach said, “Mazel tov! You’re alive!”
That’s the biggest mazel tov! If you’re alive, there’s hope! You can accomplish everything. ̇≈ּמַה ה≈י¿רַ‡ָה≈מ בֹטו ‡ּהו יַח ב∆ל∆כ¿ל יƒּכ – A living dog is better than a dead lion. Even if you’re like a dog, you’re a low person who didn’t accomplish yet, but you’re still alive! You can choose to do mitzvos! You can learn Torah! You could become a tzaddik gadol! Life is the most precious thing there is because you can still choose!
And therefore, how important it is for a person to learn to be grateful to Hashem that he’s alive. And that is symbolized by the lights of the Menorah in the Mikdash. They burn brightly all the time to remind us of that gift — just as the lights are burning there tamid, always, in our hearts also there should burn always a fiery hakaros hatov to Hashem that the lamp of life, of bechira and opportunity, is burning within us.
A Minute of Life
So when you’re home, when you’re in the street, when you’re shopping – wherever you are, if you stop for a moment and think that the menorah of light is burning, the ner Hashem is burning within you – you’re still alive! Ah! Chasdei Hashem! Every minute is so precious, more than י≈ּיַח לָּכ‡ָּבַה םָלֹעו!
And don’t think that only if you do big things with that minute. You might say, “Well, it’s only if I do big things, big mitzvos with my life.” No. Every minute, every little avodas Hashem is called utilizing your life for its purpose. If that minute you’re thinking of thanksgiving to Hashem, you’re grateful to Hashem, that itself is a tremendous achievement! Every little bit, every time you think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu — you’re thanking Him or you’re reminding yourself that He is watching you or you’re thinking that you love Him —whatever it is, that’s called living successfully. That’s what makes life worth living! And therefore when we think of the Menorah, let’s always be grateful for that gift of life, the great light of bechira, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows upon us every day.
Now, I wish I had the time to talk about the Menorah a little longer because it is a splendid subject that lends itself to many important lessons. I wanted to tell you that included in the remez of that burning flame in the heichal, included in that gift of life in Olam Hazeh, is the light of seichel.
Why is the light of the soul — it means our existence in this world — compared to a light? Why isn't it compared to water? It could be compared to the wind; other comparisons. Why a lamp? And the answer is that a lamp has as its chief function the ability to see, to discern. And that’s the purpose of being alive. Our functioning mind bestows the opportunity to see objects, to gain understanding, to accomplish wisdom.
Without the gift of seichel we couldn’t choose — it’s like being dead. Chas v’shalom, sometimes when someone gets old, so many good people are oiver u’batul, chas v’shalom. It’s like they’re dead. He can’t think, he can’t utilize his bechira.
Gratitude for Daas
Here’s a man, I was once walking in a street when I was a boy on the East Side. It was Asara b’Teves; an old rebbe, he had a shtibel, met me. He said to me, “Vu voin ich?” “Where do I live?” he asked me. Rachmanus; he forgot where he lives. And I had to take him by the hand, this old rebbe, and lead him to his house. He forgot his address.
And so we have to be grateful that the flame of the menorah, of seichel, of zikaron, of daas and machshava burns brightly in our brain. That was the purpose of the Menorah’s flame that burned tamid in the heichal; so we should be reminded tamid to be grateful for the gift of life, a life of seichel and bechira in this world, that gives us eternal life in the Next World forever.
On to the Mizbeiach
I would talk more about the Menorah but the time doesn’t allow it and so we’ll talk about the Mizbeyach. You know, the Mizbeyach to many people is really a quandary. It’s blood and entrails and burning flesh, and it’s a puzzle to some people what the purpose is. But it’s a mitzvah, it’s part of avodas Hashem, and therefore it pays to understand it. We should make
