The Purpose of a Fire | Parshas Vayekhel-Pekudei

welcome to the weekly parsha share to our class on the weekly Torah portion today's class is a little bit different because I'm speaking to an empty room nobody's here I'm telling you that so that you don't think my jokes are bombing so we are joining together not in physical proximity because of the situation right now with taking precautions about coronavirus but through the wonders of modern technology many thousands are virtually here for this class and we welcome you all there was once in the alte Haim in the old country there was a guy who used to go from town to town from shtetl to shtetl and begging with a sob story he said that in his town where he came from there was a fire and his his house burnt down he became penniless so he came to this town and he said his said his story lost everything in a fire and they said wow that's a rough story we'd like to help you out but you know we want to make sure that this is legitimate do you have a letter from your rabbi from your town that corroborates that this is indeed what happened he says yes I do have such a letter however unfortunately that was one of the things that was lost in the fire this week Pasha's vehicle the yahko means he gathered moisture gathered the Jewish people to tell them about what primarily the building of the Michigan D sanctuary which the Jews brought with them for forty years in the desert however before Moshe speaks about the building of the Mishkan there's just a couple of lines where Moshe speaks about the Mitzvah of Shabbos of observing the Sabbath and when Masha relates to the Jewish people the mitzvah of keeping Shabbos he tells them specifically about one of the forbidden labors the third verse of this week's parsha lay Saavedra Shh they shall not there you shall not plural kindle fire behold my vay save him in all of your dwelling places became a Shabbos and day of Shabbos on the day of rest you shall not kindle fire you shall not make a flame to burn to the candle flame so it's interesting what is this prohibition what is the labor of making a fire the llevaba cherubim on the first short sight of his Rebbetzin Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka in the year tuff shin mem tests the rabbits in' was was nostalgic torsion mem cat's first short sight was the following mm test 1989 and on the yard site of Besh wat the rambam for that day their ever instituted a cycle of studying the rabbim every day three chapters or at least one chapter in order to finish once every three years but three chapters to finish the Rambam at once every year the cycle of daily random that year on the yard site was hillcrist Shabbos in the Mishnah Tyra and in the laws of Shabbos in the roms loss of Shabbos chapter 12 he begins by explaining the parameters of the prohibition of kindling a flame on Shabbos what does that album tell us that album tells us how Martha Kolko somebody who Kindles even the smallest flame kyuf he is he is obligated meaning he has transgressed against the prohibition however with with a stipulation woohoo she hates her sonica a fir but it is only if he needed the ash in other words it is not if the kindling was done banana haahah saw in a destructive manner if he was burning just to destroy things because Shabbos Labor's have to be productive or constructive not destructive so in order for the kindling of the flame to be considered in a a prohibition it has to have some constructive value now what's the classic scenario if you light a flame for heat or for warmth that's obviously productive but what if it's not for heater for warmth then the way that it can still be constructive is if he needs the afer the ash he's burning something not to get rid of it but to turn it into the form that he needs that he needs the ash so it's an interesting concept that in order for kindling the flame on Shabbos to be considered a form of constructive labor it has to be that the person is trying to produce ash he wants the ash now what does he want it for I don't know maybe he wants to make charcoal toothpaste maybe he's making a tint or a die well it doesn't matter the point is that Labor's on Shabbos must be productive and constructive not destructive and therefore in the case of kindling the flame he needs to want the ash that it produces in order for it to be considered the labor now what can we learn from this we know that all of the labors that are forbidden on Shabbos all thirty-nine forms of labour are derived from the fact that those were acts entailed in building the michigan building sanctuary that's in microcosm in macrocosm what that means is that as we make the entire world into a great sanctuary a dwelling place a-doodle is about it a dwelling place for hashem in this world so the acts the productive acts that we don't do on Shabbos they are acts of refining the physical world of interfacing and integrating with physicality as souls in bodies interacting with the world around us and refining it six days you shall work and the seventh you shall rest it's not just the resting in the seventh day that's the Mitzvah the six days you shall work is also the Mitzvah and this is the same in the timeline of history six millennia we're refining the world were engaged in the world and the seventh millennium them the the game should cool a Shabbos the Messianic era is a time when we stop engaging in the world because the world has already been perfected so there's this idea of work or labor being an act of refining the world to make the world a dwelling place for a sham that we do six days a week and then the seventh day we let it go we just let the world be as it is and so to in history there is the the time of Gullah s-- of exile when we're in the world still working with the world still refining it and then there's the long Shabbos of the Messianic arrow and Messiah comes when the world is as it needs to be and where we're no longer refining it so the idea here is that an act which is prohibited on Shabbos is prohibited precisely because it is something that refines the world so we have to sort of switch our thinking here a little bit because normally when we when we talk about a prohibited act on Shabbos we think about it as a negative thing but that's only negative if you're doing it on Shabbos the rest of the six days of the week a melaka a laborer a constructive act is actually something that makes the world more refined and brings it closer to its purpose of being a dwelling place fresh em in this world okay so now here's the question what constitutes a productive or constructive form of lighting fire on the personal level in terms of a Veda session one's personal service of God Almighty what does it mean to be Mafia H to Kindle a flame and what does it mean maava ish culture who to Kindle a flame even a minimal one even if even the tiniest bit the flame refers to inspiration as we all know however inspiration is fleeting it's not about getting inspired it's about what you do with your inspiration it's what you do or decide to do while you're inspired so the question is is there any value to being a little inspired maybe you're inspired for a moment so it's just limited in time or maybe you're inspired about a particular Mitzvah in Yiddish Kyte so it's really only about a particular thing about it's limited in its in its focus is there any value to that and what's the answer sure there's value provided you need the app provided you need the ash what does that mean when fire consumes something you know that there's the the principle of the conservation of matter and energy the matter and energy can't be created or destroyed so matter can become energy it transforms into energy when you burn something you turn the matter into energy you turn it into heat and into light heat and light are intangible they're spiritual you can't touch them what's left behind after that transformation is the ash the ash is the stuff that stays physical in other words after the fire after the inspiration has gone what physical remnants are left behind in other words how valuable is fire meaning inspiration only as valuable or we should say how productive how much refining power does it have in making the world dwelling place for em only as much as it leaves behind ash a physical remnant you see in Judaism it's not about feeling it's about what you do with the feeling it's about physical action it's about souls and bodies I mentioned that the debe gave this teaching on the York site of his of his rabbits him never spoke about this specifically in connection to the idea of a yard site that on a York site were commemorating that a soul finished its work in the body and moved into higher realms but we who are left here in this physical world who still have our bodies we have a chance to do something on behalf of the soul that no longer has its body the focus of Judaism is in the physical world not the fire the energy the excitement of Judaism so much as the ash the physical remnant what the physical results that are left behind through the act the alte rabba when he came to meza ditch was paired with his rabba the maggots own son asked of Rosa the the maggot had a son Reb of ROM and they called him the mala the angel and he was angelic it was a very very spiritual person he was totally divorced from things of the physical world he barely ate barely slept in fact he was in a trance-like state most of the time to the extent that when he was learning with the alto Abba when the outer Deborah was enjoying the lesson they used to trade off when the outer epic came to misery she was already an expert in the revealed aspects of Torah in the legalistic in the Talmudic in the hollow ik areas of Torah so they used to trade off the alte debe would teach niggler he would teach the Talmudic law to the Malek and the mala the the maggot son would teach him the mystical the spiritual the Exodus the the mister of Tara so when the owl Trevor was particularly enjoying a mystical lesson from the mala it was very simple to get the lesson to continue he would just get up and he would set the clock back and the the the Moloch was oblivious and he would continue teaching you would think that her time hadn't passed there was one time when they were studying and they were both very deeply moved by what they were learning and the Alta rebus saw that the Moloch was actually in danger of having closed on a fish that's exploration of the soul that what he was learning was so spiritually enthralling that his soul was gonna just leave his body the outfit of it was prepared for this however and he had brought to the Carozza to the study session a buttered bagel a buttered bagel talking about in knezovich in those days a buttered bagel was a real delicacy a real indulgence not just a bagel a bagel put it with butter and the Altair ever slowly carefully he got up and he brought the mala over with him to the sink and they washed their hands in the Tila Co diam and made the bracha and came over and made I might see and ate the piece of bagel with butter why did why do they do that to draw themselves back into physicality so that they won't lose themselves what do we see from this we see that inspiration that excitement that spiritual bliss and and having this otherworldly experience heightened states of consciousness it's all well and good but it's not the point of Judaism it's not an attainment there's nothing to brag about ultimately it's not about the fire it's about the ash it's not about the inspirations what you do is the physical remnant that's left behind after the inspiration and that means practical mitzvos things that engage the physical world so we have to be very exceedingly careful to remember the importance of physicality the importance of our bodies it's sad to mention but des mala passed away at a very young age he was 47 years old when he passed away and all of his life his father the maggot used to beg him to take care of his health is a famous Kosilek saying many people are aware of the saying they might not know the origins it's actually something that the Magen used to tell his son above Ramla mala he used to tell him that a cleaner laughing good a little hole in the body is a grace a lock in Denis Toma is a big hole in the soul a little hole in the body when you cause yourself health problems by neglect that's not just a physical issue because the jus ultimately is a soul married to a body and Torah was given to us in the physical world to do mitzvahs which are physical actions with our bodies and when somebody neglects the physical aspect of of life this isn't something this isn't spirituality it's not true spirituality to the to the contrary it's a steerer it's in contradiction to true spirituality because he undercuts his ability to be truly spiritual which what does that mean to be truly spiritual to do something here in this world something productive that makes the world a more refined place that makes the world a dwelling place for a shaman I think this is especially important to remember right now the alt herbicide Madoff lamb at that site you have to live with the time living with the time means to find within our Torah portion each week something relevant that speaks to us in our day and age the base I my dear friends this is not a joke whatever we're told to do for the sake of our health or the health of others if you don't care about yourself at least care about others is not a joke and it's not something that we do instead of regular Judaism this is Judaism in fact it's the ultimate form of Judaism take care of your body a small role in the body makes a big hole in the soul the Moloch the maggot begged Amala to pay attention to his body now tell you when the outer Deborah had children he named his son one of his sons after the the maggot he named the the mitla Deborah his eventual successor was named I've there another son was named Masha but this sought one son he named after the maliki named him I am Avram he didn't name him Alvaro the Malik's name was Al Rami named hiam of rock why because of ROM the mouth passed away at a young age kaya means life the alte Debora wanted that he should have the spirituality of the malla of his of his father OSA his beloved friend but he wanted it to be high in the high bow hem life in the physical world with a robust and healthy physical body not spurning and ignoring physicality as if that were some type of spiritual attainment no because to the contrary the ultimate spirituality is in the body and this is what we learned that what is fire when is fire productive when it is a when is it a melaka a constructive labor that refines the world when you need the ash when it produces something physical when it leaves something physical behind all the spiritual in the world is garnished that it's worthless if it doesn't leave behind something physical and that means the physical acts that we perform with our bodies with healthy robust impact bodies that we take care of everyone should stay safe and be careful and remember the most spiritual thing you can do is to take care of your body so that you can do your mission here in this physical world