Tzav
How can we shine our light into the world?
Reflection by Or HaLev Teacher Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama:
"The instruction about the aish tamid, the eternal flame, is one of the first instructions given to the Kohanim about their work with the korbanot, the offerings to be brought to the Temple.
While we have not literally been following these Temple instructions for a couple thousand years, this one sentence always speaks to my heart:
אֵ֗שׁ תָּמִ֛יד תּוּקַ֥ד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַ לֹ֥א תִכְבֶּֽה
`The fire must be always kindled on the altar, it shall not go out` (Lev 6:6)
What makes the flame eternal? What makes the fire, an ephemeral element that needs to consume to exist, something that can burn continuously?
It’s us. We won’t let it go out.
This is love. And just like love, fire is precious.
While we tend to see fire only as the most powerful, if not scary, element, there is actually something quite vulnerable to it.
Just like a plant that needs to be watered everyday, the fire, if it isn’t nourished each day with new wood, fresh coals and constant attention, can easily go out.
The fire that needs to be taken care of first, before we attend to all the beautiful flames in our lives, is the one in our own soul. As it says the Zohar about the ner tamid:
`This is surely the light of the divine, the light that shines within the soul of every person. Come, light it within her.` (Tikkunei Zohar 73a:2)
נֵר יהו''ה אִתְקְרִיאַת וַדַּאי, אוֹר דְּנָהִיר בֵּיהּ נִשְׁמַת אָדָם, קוּם אַדְלֵיק בָּהּ
Too easily, as we spend our lives focused on the next thing - the upcoming deadline, yesterday’s problems or tomorrow’s worries - we can forget that within us shines this magical, powerful, luminous light: the divine light.
Mindfulness practice invites us to pause, each day, and simply meet what is. When we stop doing, stop speaking, and simply sit as we are for a while, we attend to our own fire.
We help it keep living, enlightening us from within, an act of love shining our unique light into the world."