For the last year, I have been doing what I can to keep my habits and surroundings as normal as possible. I have been coming to the office daily, with normal hours, except for the initial lockdown last March. I visit stores while following their rules to protect those around me. We have even had a small pod of families that we have been isolating with to make sure we don’t go completely batty from lack of human contact. It’s been challenging but I knew that staying home wouldn’t work for me. I would have lost my marbles long ago. I know that many of you have been much more cautious than me, not even leaving the confines of your home.
I bring up this experience because it got me thinking about this week’s parsha, Tzav. Tzav continues Torah’s journey through the ancient rituals of sacrifice; for guilt and sin, healing, love of God, and installation of priests. The parsha also speaks of the fire that will be kept constantly going on the altar. Synagogues today restore the altar’s flame with the ner tamid, the eternal light hanging over the Ark that houses the Torah scroll. Prayer, learning, and acts of service long ago replaced the Israelite sacrificial system. The Ark replaced the altar. The ner tamid of the synagogue reminds worshipers of God’s presence in their midst.
Now thinking about the energy I have put into keeping my life normal in these uncertain times, consider what it took in ancient days to keep this flame burning. A flame was a source of life, giving heat, protection, and the ability to prepare food. These, in turn, were the fuel and focus of the community. It took community to keep the flame burning. It took collective effort to build the altar, gather wood, tend the flame, remove the ashes and make the “pure olive oil” that was the fire’s fuel. Like the mishkan, the ner tamid burned because people kept it alive.
This is true with our congregation. It shines or darkens by the care and effort of its members. The ner tamid symbolically shines within each of us as long as we are connected to whatever excites us. Whatever “it” is that constitutes our internal ner tamid, it must be stoked as never before. As the Pew Research study has shown (again), the American Jewish community is declining in numbers and the institutions that support the community are declining as well. Fewer and fewer Jews are engaging as Jews in Jewish learning, ritual celebration, Jewish observance, tzedakah, tikkun olam, or those mitzvot requiring us to take care of our neighbors. And without Jews “doing Jewish,” it is impossible for us as Jews to do the sacred work of making God’s presence manifest in our world. Without a passion for Jewish life, it is impossible for us to keep the ner tamid lit for future generations.
I am happy to say this is not the trend at Jeremiah. As I log onto the various online offerings, I feel the energy radiating from our community. It is my sincere hope that we will act as an example to the greater community and not “let the light go out”.
May we each rededicate ourselves to keeping the fire within each of us and within our community alive perpetually.