Parashat-Tzav is not short of detail. In it we hear, lots of details. Details about the tabernacle, the garments of the Cohanim, how sacrifices are to be made and which can and which cannot be eaten.

Amid all that detail.

When describing the altar, one verse says.

אש תמיד תוקד על-המזבח לא תכבח:

A continuous fire shall burn on the altar; it shall not go out. (Leviticus 6:6)

There is a principle in Jewish exegesis of the Bible, called Ominisignficanse, that is that every word has meaning indeed any extra or missing letter has meaning. And here in our verse we have what might seem to be an unnecessary world. If a fire is burning continuously of course it will never go out.

The Jerusalem Talmud, Yoma 4:6, answers this question or at the very least makes a suggestion.

Constantly Burning means you make sure it carries on burning: even on shabbat, even if you’re ritual impure and even when travelling.

Starting with the last of these

Travelling: It goes without saying that it was more difficult more dangerous, and more time consuming to carry a continually burning fire with you whilst you were travelling with all your: Nation, Properties, Animals and in the case of the priest all the ritual paraphernalia of the Tabernacle a continuing burning fire might not be something that you would wish to take with you. Practically it would have been very difficult.

Ritual impurity, this might not mean a lot to us, but it certainly meant a lot to our ancestors, even more so the Cohanim. As a side note the Jerusalem Talmud seems to have been much more interested in questions of ritual purity than its counterpart from the Land of Israel.

Yet here we are told that the instruction was that even if you or the oil were ritually impure but there was no other way to keep the light burning you went ahead and kept it burning. To highlight quite how remarkable that this is, their tradition maintained that if you entered a part of the Temple you shouldn’t or when impure you stood a real chance of being struck down. But here you put that all aside and go in to keep the flames burning even if ritually impure. 

In a tradition which comes via the Zohar, the Bible’s description of the High Priest’s robes with its bells is so that you would know he was still moving around, and so alive. This Kabbalistic tradition also says that he would go in with a rope around his waist so that if he did die he could be pulled out.

It’s like entering a nuclear reactor for repairs. This is not something that you would do lightly, but then again at least according to the tradition nor is entering the Holy of Holies.

The final example they give is that you are required to break shabbat in order to keep this fire on the Altar burning.

This puts maintaining the ne’r tamid alongside saving life when it comes to violating shabbat.

Metaphorically at least I think we could draw lessons for our own lives and how important it is to maintain morality.

Even when travelling, so when it is inconvenient.  Even when it is difficult or unpleasant, so when as if ritually impure.  Even when things seem just too much so evn as if it is shabbat.

This is reflected in a profound quote by Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the founder of Aish HaTorah.

‘People often avoid making decisions out of fear of making the wrong choice.  But it is actually the choice not to make a decision which is one of life’s biggest mistakes.’

Shabbat shalom.