Parshat Tzav

(1) Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Command Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the burnt offering: The burnt offering itself shall remain where it is burned upon the altar all night until morning, while the fire on the altar is kept going on it. (3) The priest shall dress in linen raiment, with linen breeches next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar. (4) He shall then take off his vestments and put on other vestments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a pure place. (5) The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat parts of the offerings of well-being. (6) A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out.

(1) אש תמיד, “a perpetual fire;” it will be kept burning even on the Sabbath, even if for some reason it became ritually impure. (2) לא תכבה, “where it will not go out.” Even while the Israelites were journeying through the desert, G-d’s honour demanded that precautions be taken that this flame be kept going. According to Rabbi Yehudah in the Sifra. they used a kind of metal dome fixed above it to insure that it was kept going. [Seeing that the clouds of glory kept the people protected from rain, sandstorms and other inclemency of weather, this does not sound so exceptional. Ed.]

(7) And this is the ritual of the meal offering: Aaron’s sons shall present it before Hashem, in front of the altar. (8) A handful of the choice flour and oil of the meal offering shall be taken from it, with all the frankincense that is on the meal offering, and this token portion shall be turned into smoke on the altar as a pleasing odor to Hashem. (9) What is left of it shall be eaten by Aaron and his sons; it shall be eaten as unleavened cakes, in the sacred precinct; they shall eat it in the enclosure of the Tent of Meeting. (10) It shall not be baked with leaven; I have given it as their portion from My offerings by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. (11) Only the males among Aaron’s descendants may eat of it, as their due for all time throughout the ages from Hashem's offerings by fire. Anything that touches these shall become holy. (12) Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: (13) This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall offer to Hashem on the occasion of his anointment: a tenth of an ephah of choice flour as a regular meal offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening, (14) shall be prepared with oil on a griddle. You shall bring it well soaked, and offer it as a meal offering of baked slices, of pleasing odor to Hashem. (15) And so shall the priest, anointed from among his sons to succeed him, prepare it; it is Hashem's—a law for all time—to be turned entirely into smoke. (16) So, too, every meal offering of a priest shall be a whole offering: it shall not be eaten.

(6) In keeping with this, I have witnessed a worthy custom according to which the lulav branches are placed with the chametz in the fire. Although there is an esoteric reason for this, the one mentioned frequently by the authorities is that since they were used for one mitzvah, let them be used for another mitzvah. The point to remember is that the elimination of the chametz symbolizes liberation from the Sitra Achara. ...in the burning of chametz the evil inclination will be eliminated from the world, and we will [be] in holiness and all shells of evil will be eliminated from the world and God will be One and God's Name One.

R. Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover (18th c.)