In one of his addresses on our Torah portion, the Lubavitcher Rebbe focuses on one special verse, which concludes the portion of the removal of ashes (תְּרוּמַת הַדֶּשֶׁן), which we also recite every morning before Shacharit. The verse reads, “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, it shall not be extinguished.” He briefly mentions a teaching from the Maggid of Mezritch. This teaching is among those the Maggid conveyed in private to the Alter Rebbe. In it, the Maggid implies that he is designating the Alter Rebbe as his successor for the inner, spiritual leadership of the Chassidic movement.
The following is told about how this teaching was taught to the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe recounted: Among the teachings my teacher (the Maggid) shared with me in private was a teaching on the verse, “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, it shall not be extinguished.”
Even though the fire descends from above because of Divine arousal, it is required that we contribute fire from the mundane. A human arousal from below leads to a Divine arousal from above, or [in the language of the Zohar,] “a spirit begets a spirit and draws down a spirit” (רוּחַ אַיְתֵי רוּחַ וְאַמְּשִיךְ רוּחַ), meaning that as the spirit awakens below in man, it causes two reciprocal measures of awakening in the Divine above.
It is a positive commandment to kindle a fire on the altar. The altar is intended for, “When any of you brings an offering,” and the offering itself is not enough. We must kindle a fire, beyond the offering that comes from you, and this fire – “shall not be extinguished,” for it extinguishes the “not.”
My teacher said this teaching to me ten times to engrave it in the ten powers of my soul, and he said to me:
“You are my student, you are needed for the perpetual fire, because it is incumbent upon you to extinguish the “not” (the opposition of the opponents [of Chasidut]). You will extinguish the “not” and the Almighty will transform the “no” into a “yes.”
In the context in which the Maggid’s words were spoken, the intention was towards an external “no,” towards the power opposing the individual from without and the ways of dealing with them. However, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his talk, applies the same principle to the inner struggle and spiritual work happening within the individual. Everyone must struggle with the internal “no,” the internal negation.
The matter resembles the tradition passed down, according to which, Elijah the Prophet appeared to Rabbi Moses Cordovero (the Ramak) and told him that reciting this verse from our portion is a remedy for dispelling extraneous thoughts.
As explained by our teacher, the Ba’al Shem Tov:
Even when one goes about his business, he should fulfill the injunctions, “I set Havayah before me, always” and “In all your ways know Him,” and be attached to the blessed Creator with a minor thought... and then from that petty state, you will come to a munificent state. Just like with embers, if there is one spark remaining, it can be fanned into many until it becomes a great fire as at the beginning. Conversely, if there is no small spark, one cannot fan a fire. Thus, if one is not always attached to Him with a minor thought, his soul will be completely extinguished.
What the Ramak wrote about the verse, “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, it shall not be extinguished,” means that the cleaving [to God], symbolized by fire, burning coals, etc., shall be kindled on the altar by the tzaddik who sacrifices his cravings within himself, “it shall not be extinguished,” for otherwise, he would need to bring new fire.
Petty mindedness and high-mindedness alternate, tossing a person from below to above and back again. Certainly, every Jew desires to be always in a state of intellectual high-mindedness, to always recognize his Creator with intellectual comprehension, and to have a heart aflame with love and awe at every moment. This is the very essence of life, as written in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: “The true purpose of life is cleaving [to God]. When one cleaves to the blessed God, who is the Life of all lives—He is truly alive—and when he ceases from cleaving, he lives accidentally and without purpose.”
But the world does not run this way, and often God assigns us encounters with states of small-mindedness. It is then that He desires from us faith and to properly stand before Him even from within darkness and constriction.
Therefore, the art of walking in the ways of God centers on an understanding of how to maintain a backbone—how to maintain the very point that cleaves to God, which is not dependent on the greatness of attainment or on the emotional impact that comes in a tangible manner. How to be “soft as a reed” yet not break when the Divine light seems to be obscured for a while.
It should be well known to those who examine the words of the Baal Shem Tov carefully, that the difficult struggles occur when we find ourselves in a state of small-mindedness—a state of spiritual darkness—when we feel distant from God and find ourselves in a spiritual emptiness that invites all kinds of evil and impurity. But in fact, according to the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe here, the work of maintaining a perpetual fire is a necessary spiritual lifejacket in both states of small-mindedness and high-mindedness, equally.
Small-mindedness has its dangers, and states of largesse have their own challenges. In truth, neither type of spiritual state can testify to the state of our essential connection with the Almighty, only to the “revelations” the person has merited. We tend to confuse the essential state of our relationship with God with the revelations we experience, and hence the danger that when in small-mindedness, we think we have no connection at all to God, consequently allowing ourselves to despair and fall completely into evil.
And when we experience high-mindedness, we think we are surely completely connected to God and forget that our connection does not depend on our excitement or in our spiritual or emotional experiences, but in the true point of the heart whose strength is tested specifically in times of small-mindedness.
Someone who is in a state of high-mindedness might become self-satisfied and credit himself with his state, risking shifting his point of connection to a kind of love that is conditional (on success). Later, when the spiritual revelations and the light he has merited decrease, there is a great danger that he will not find the strength within himself to endure it.
The Jerusalem Talmud comments on our verse: “’Perpetual’—even on Shabbat. ‘Perpetual’—even in impurity.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains this the following way: You are never too exalted (Shabbat) or too lowly (impure), to engage in this service.
Symbolically, the altar mentioned in the verse represents the individual who is always engaged in sacrificing his cravings. And just like in the Temple, there are also two altars in the individual: the interior and the exterior. The interior altar is the one from which the smoke of the incense rises—the Aramaic word for “incense” also means connection—thus, implying a connection, an inner, superior attachment of high-mindedness described by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar as, “with one burning connection, I have been connected to the Holy Blessed One; with Him I have united, with Him I am on fire.”
The exterior altar is the one on which the daily service is performed, and on it, we are commanded to maintain a perpetual fire.
It could be said that if one merits and engages in the work of the interior altar placed in the Sanctuary, if one is immersed in high-mindedness in one’s Divine service and in the illuminating clarity of the light of Shabbat, described as a state of “delighting in God” (הוי' עַל תִּתְעַנַּג אָז), perhaps there is no need to leave from the Sanctuary to the courtyard and to engage in bringing fire from mundane actions. The mundane could very well be considered, “profane tasks,” that have no business mixing with the Shabbat! However, the words of the sages teach otherwise. Even from within a high-minded state, we are commanded to go out and ensure the kindling of the external ember, the one that sustains and stands us on our feet during more challenging times. One who does not do so, drops the foundation of his Divine service from under his feet.
In passing, let us note that this was the way of the Ba’al Shem Tov, who placed at the center of the stage the virtue of the simple Jew who connects at the core of his being with the Holy Blessed One, precisely because he does not fully comprehend the Torah and Divine service and lacks an emotional heartfelt experience.
The Ba’al Shem Tov was not merely defending simple Jews, but also believed that we should take a true lesson from them, a lesson that the Baal Shem Tov saw fit to teach to the Torah scholars, who are distinguished by many virtues and enjoy great revelations of Godliness in their lives. According to him, it is imperative that all virtues and levels a person attains should stem from the core of one’s being and not be something superimposed on the direct connection with God. It makes no difference whether one’s consciousness is distracted from God because of petty-mindedness or because of high-mindedness.
At the other extreme lies the Jerusalem Talmud’s statement that the mundane fire should be brought to the altar even in a state of impurity. Here it is simpler to understand that when a person feels that all the light that shone in him has been retracted as if it was never there, he comes to feel that he has no part or inheritance in the service of God at all. What does he have to do with a perpetual fire? After all, the fire within him has long been extinguished!
Indeed, this is exactly what the verse came to warn us of: do not let the fire be completely extinguished within yourself, for then it will be difficult for you to ignite it again. One should know that no matter where one has fallen to, even if it is very distant and low, it is always possible to maintain something of the original fire. A whispering ember or a flickering spark is all it takes to rekindle the flame, provided that the fire has not gone out completely.
Because a foreign, destructive thought enters a person only if his heart is empty, as stated in the Mishnah, “He who vacates his heart towards idleness, may pay with his soul.” This is also expounded upon regarding Joseph in the pit: “’The pit was empty, there was no water in it’—indeed there was no water, but there were snakes and scorpions in it.” Once the waters of Torah have left a person's heart, immediately the emptiness within him invites all the foreign and evil thoughts in the world. But as long as even something very small remains, impurity cannot enter.
A similar idea can be found in Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah, where he explains in a “Chasidic” manner the words of the mishnah “’ With all your heart’—with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination”: Meaning to say that he should fill his heart with the love of God and faith in Him even in moments when he feels rebellious, angry, and irritated, for these are all the work of the evil inclination, as stated by the sages, ‘Know Him [God] in all your ways—even in matters of sin.”
It is not only when everything is good that one can recognize and cleave to God, but also when things are at their worst. Even when the soul is full of bad traits and is currently burning with anger (and “once a person is angry, even the Divine Presence is unimportant in his eyes”). Still, one should know that all this is just superficial and external, and in truth, something of our connection to God always remains within us. By the power of this knowledge, the angry person will eventually be saved from his inclination, overcome it, and turn it to good, as stated: the “not,” [the opposition]—shall be extinguished.”
(from Lichyot Im HaZman, Vayikra, pp. 63-69.)
