Rav Chaim Ibn Attar, the Ohr HaChaim
“This is the Torah of the Ola, the burnt offering that stays on the flame on the Altar all night until morning...The Kohen shall dress himself in his linen tunic and linen pants shall be on his flesh; he shall separate the ash from what the fire consumed from the ola on the Altar” (6:2–3).
The Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh sees in these pesukim hints to Hashem’s message through the Novi to console us in our long and bitter exile. We have a harder time being comforted in this last and final Golus, explains the Ohr HaChaim, because, for example, Golus Mitzrayim was to last four hundred years, Golus Bovel seventy years – and even combined they only reach the sum of 470 years, whereas we are suffering in an exile extending thousands of years! (When the Ohr HaChaim wrote this, he recorded 1,672 years of exile.)
The Ohr HaChaim now rereads our pesukim to comfort us in Golus. Hashem needs to console us and so He says, “This is the Torah of the Ola” – Ola means an aliya – this will be our final aliya, when we will finally be uplifted and redeemed in a manner unlike any previous aliyos. “On the flame on the Altar” – the Ohr HaChaim reads this as a reference to two reasons why we will be redeemed: for the sake of our Torah and for the sake of our suffering. The fire refers to the Torah, which is compared to fiery flames, as Chazal say (Taanis 4): when a Talmid Chochom is angry it is the fire of Torah that is causing him to boil over. We alone among the nations possess Torah, and in its merit, explains the Ohr HaChaim, we will be redeemed. Furthermore, the Altar here hints at the suffering that we undergo in exile; this pain and suffering is called by Chazal an Altar of atonement – a mizbach kapora, because just as offerings on the Altar atone for our misdeeds, so do pain and suffering atone for us (Berochos 5). These two components, Torah and suffering, will ensure an uplifting redemption, the likes of which have never been and never will be again! If you ask how long these two components operate, the answer, says the pasuk, is all night long – the Golus is compared to night. “All night until morning” – for the length of the dark night of Golus we will suffer and atone and study Torah and be redeemed – until the morning. There have been several opportunities for morning, writes the Ohr HaChaim, when we could have had a morning end the night and been redeemed – but we were unworthy.
The Ohr HaChaim continues to compare the fiery flames of the altar to Akeidas Yitzchok, whose merit shields us in Golus, and says that the garments of the Kohen Godol in the next pasuk refer to an amazing garment that Hashem Himself will don as He metes out justice against our enemies at the end of days. Hashem is referred to as the Kohen because the Kohen always alludes to loving-kindness; in the end, even the attribute of chessed will agree to take revenge against evil! They are called linen garments – in Loshon Kodesh, bad. Bad comes from the root levad (alone). We are the nation that always stands alone – am levodod yishkon (Bolok 23:9), separate from the other nations, safeguarding Torah and truth and sanctifying Hashem’s name. All those Yidden murdered al Kiddush Hashem by the nations of the world will be memorialized in this garment. The Ohr HaChaim says Hashem will use their spilled holy blood to paint their likeness on His garment, which He will wear on the day He takes revenge on the nations.
At the same time, the word for linen, bad, also alludes to achdus (unity). For we die al Kiddush Hashem, unifying Hashem’s name, refusing to recognize any other false god, idol or other power. This is why Hashem, the Kohen, dons michnesei bad – linen pants. These pants “will be on his flesh” – this metaphor refers to just how close Hashem will keep the memory of those fallen, who died al Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying and unifying His Name. Michnas also means to bring in and draw close. They will be, so to speak, “on His flesh”, so close that nothing separates between them and Hashem.
Then Hashem will uplift the ashes – we are the downtrodden ashes from the fires of the anger of the nations who oppress us – of the Ola. In the end we are the nation called the Ola; we shall be uplifted and redeemed, Amen.
Praises for the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh
As If Heard From the Ohr HaChaim Himself
Rav Moshe Kobriner (Yahrzeit 29th of Nissan – see more stories below) used to say that reciting the words of the holy Zohar even without understanding them refines and purifies the part of the soul named Neshoma, and the study of the Ohr HaChaim refines the part of the soul named Nefesh. He also used to say that the Ohr HaChaim placed his powers into his sefer and therefore a person who is moved to hispa’alus by studying the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh can be moved as if he heard the words coming straight from his own holy mouth [of the Ohr HaChaim himself], may his merit shield us. (Ohr Yeshorim p. 81)
