Jewish Life Digital Edition November 2013 | Page 20

the Temple to demonstrate to the people
the renewed connection best illustrated by
the Menorah’s sparkling lights.

THE UNIFYING POWER OF FIRE

18 JEWISH LIFE

ISSUE 68

HOMOGENEOUS IN ITS CORE NATURE, IT IS THE
ONLY SUBSTANCE THAT AUTOMATICALLY
TRANSFORMS WHATEVER IS PLACED WITHIN IT TO
ITSELF – WHATEVER IS THROWN INTO FIRE SOON
BECOMES FIRE AS WELL. WHAT BETTER
REPRESENTATION, THEREFORE, OF SHEER UNITY?
to connect and fuse somewhat with His
eternal Being.
The greatest prophet ever, in fact, first
connected to G-d as He revealed Himself to
Moses through the conduit of a burning
bush, and Elijah the prophet ascends heavenward specifically in a chariot of fire. In addition, at Mount Sinai we read: “All of
Mount Sinai was smoking because G-d had
descended upon it in the fire” (Exodus,
19:18). G-d establishes His firmest bonds
through the means of His creation called
fire, using the symbol of unifying power to
highlight the impregnable ties between Him
and His chosen people. The Torah was thus
given specifically in a fire-filled surrounding.
Hence, those who subsequently unite themselves entirely with G-d through His Torah,
can merit a display of fire intended to accent
the close proximity of G-d’s Divine Presence
to them – as witnessed, for example, in the
case of the renowned early sage, Yonatan
ben Uziel, who was surrounded by fire in
the midst of his learning, a fire that even
consumed the birds flying overhead (see
Talmud, Tractate Succah, 28a).
The paradigm of ultimate closeness in our
physical world is the holy union of man and
wife, the merging of ish and isha, represented by the joining of two Hebrew words each
containing within it the Hebrew word aish,

meaning fire. To produce offspring, they
need the third “partner” in creation, G-d –
the most instrumental of them all – Who is
represented by the additional letters ‘yud’
and ‘hei’ (that together comprise one of G-d’s
many names) added respectively to the Hebrew labels for man and woman. It is thus,
once again, G-d appearing in the midst of
aish, fire, at a moment when we connect with
Him on the highest plane. And if by misfortune, the bond is dissolved and there is need
for a divorce, our sages (Talmud, Tractate
Gittin, 90b) tell us that it is none other than
the mizbeiach, the sacrificial altar, that sheds
tears – the unifier of celestial and human fire
is pained most, as its fire is extinguished!

THE UNIQUENESS OF THE MENORAH
Although the sacrificial altar thus also
demonstrated this aspect, there was, of
course, the natural need to light a regular
fire on the altar. The flames of the Menorah, however, were completely unnecessary
from a natural standpoint, and thus it is
specifically the light of the Menorah that is
to serve as the primary testimony to the
Divine Presence resting within the Jewish
camp (Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, 22b). The
unique connection between the Jewish
people and G-d is best highlighted by
something specifically characteristic of His

PHOTOGRAPH: BIGSTOCJPHOTO.COM

Let us now delve a bit deeper and extend
the correlation of fire to shalom, why it is
that the sense of peace and unity is encompassed specifically in the vehicle of fire.
Let’s ponder for a moment the uniqueness
of fire. Homogeneous in its core nature, it
is the only substance that automatically
transforms whatever is placed within it to
itself – whatever is thrown into fire soon
becomes fire as well. What better representation, therefore, of sheer unity? Anything
thrown into a flame will soon become an
intrinsic part of the fire itself.
Furthermore, until it reaches a dangerous
level, the inherent warmth of a calm fire
lures a person to bask in its proximity – it
naturally pulls one closer. And the symbols
continue: the tip of the flame is white, the
colour that encompasses all the diverse colours of the spectrum and can thus be referred to as their unifier. Even the Menorah,
the vessel which contained the fiery lights,
was to be carved from one solid piece, highlighting this notion of unification and harmony. All the lights of the Menorah were to
face one single direction, indicative of the
shalom – peace, harmony and unity – which
the Menorah manifested daily.
The overt connection with G-d was witnessed daily in the Temple through the medium of fire. When the sacrifices were being
consumed on the altar, a miraculous fire descended from the heavens above and joined
together in a unique partnership with the
manmade fire already burning on the sacrificial altar. Hence, it was through the conduit of fire that the Jewish pe