Ki Tissa
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher, Rebecca Schisler:
"In parshat Ki Tissa, Moshe receives stone tablets of the covenant, `engraved with the finger of God.` The Jerusalem Talmud teaches that this Torah given from God to Moshe was `white fire inscribed with black fire; fire mixed with fire, cleaved from fire and given by fire` (Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1-2). Our parsha describes Moshe's face as radiant as he descends from the mountain, as if illumined by the flames of this black and white fire. What is the meaning of this mysterious and evocative image?
A common explanation is that the black fire refers to words of Torah, and white fire refers to its parchment. But perhaps black fire is all that is said in the story, and white fire is what we must discover or imagine. Perhaps black fire is what can be seen, and white fire is what must be felt. Black fire is the yesh, the being, of our manifest, dynamic, abundant world, and white fire is the ein sof, the incomprehensible nothingness from which everything arises.
What's clear from this metaphor is that both the letters and the space are fire - both are Torah, both are important, and the white fire is not merely space upon which black fire can take form. The Talmud teaches that letters in a Torah scroll must be completely encircled by blank parchment on all of their sides in order to be kosher. Similarly, the white fire of Shabbat, with its invitation to cease our business and simply rest, encircles and gives holiness to our work week.
I think of meditation as a kind of white fire to the black fire of wisdom teachings or prayer. My prayers and words are deeper and more heartfelt after I've meditated, touched by the essence of the sacredness that can emerge when I make space to simply Be.
In the Zohar, white and black fire are compared to the divine attributes of lovingkindness and judgement. Dynamically merged like the letters engraved on their tablets, these qualities exist in symbiosis, requiring one another to create an actualized whole. The black fire of boundary and structure creates space to experience the white fire of inspiration, creativity, and beauty. And the white fire of life, in all its mystery and boundlessness, is what gives those structures their meaning.
After Moshe receives those tablets, we are commanded to observe the sabbath, as `on the seventh day, the divine ceased and was renewed.` This shabbat, may we too relax into the white fire of rest, of simply being, and allow it to renew our souls.”