The kohen shall kindle wood upon it every morning.[2]
The pasuk’s instruction seems pretty straightforward. Keep the fire going. Except that sometimes, it isn’t.
Take the two sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu.[3] After witnessing a fire miraculously descend from Heaven, they reasoned that the commandment to add wood applied nonetheless. Now, they were punished for this – but not because they were incorrect. They were punished only because they effectively decided a halachic issue without consulting with their rabbeim.[4] Their failure was in their lack of respect and honor for talmidei chachamim. When they reasoned, however, that they needed to introduce an earthly, human fire to the Altar, they were right on the money. But why? What could be insufficient about a Heaven-sent fire?
A fire from Above, notes the Arizal, is entirely spiritual. It can’t consume, because it shares nothing in common with the purely physical. The olah that was on the Altar would not have been burnt up by it alone. The avodah of the olah therefore required an earthly fire, of the kind introduced by Nadav and Avihu.
This is alluded to in an earlier pasuk:[5] “It is the olah that stays of the flame on the Altar all night until the morning.” In other words, if not for the kohen adding earthly fuel to the flame in the morning, the olah could spend the entire night in the presence of the Heavenly flame without being consumed!
The Yerushalmi[6] describes Dovid HaMelech as arousing the morning, rather than the morning waking him from his slumber. The Taz[7] explains that isra’usa del’sasa – a human effort to arouse Hashem’s reaction – must precede isra’usa d’leyala – arousal and inspiration sent to us from Above.
Korbanos demonstrate Hashem’s closeness to us. For that relationship to be received and felt by us, we must contribute to the process. We offer isra’usa del’sasa, in the form of our confession upon the korban.
Even a fire from Heaven cannot sustain the process. There will always be a mitzvah of adding a fire from below. There must always be the isra’usa del’sasa.
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Shoel U-Meishiv ↑
- Vayikra 6:5 ↑
- Vayikra 10:1 ↑
- Eruvin 63a ↑
- Vayikra 6:2 ↑
- Berachos 1:1 ↑
- Orach Chaim 1:2 ↑