Tzav 5769: Fires, Bridges and Bottles

This week’s portion has near the beginning:

5. And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 6. The fire shall be burning always upon the altar; it shall never go out. [Leviticus 6]

This is one of two places we read of a fire not going out. The other is the lamp:

20. And you shall command the people of Israel, that they bring you pure beaten oil olive for the light, for the lamp to burn always. 21. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil, which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord; it shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the people of Israel. [Exodus 27]

Two fires burned continually in the Mishkan, one on the altar and one on the lamp. Even today all synagogues keep a lamp lit continually, a ner tamid. When last week it was pointed out to me the verses we read this week in the synagogue, I had a lot to think about continual burning, about having these fires there all the time.
Interestingly, the altar is tended to in the morning and the lamp in the evening. For the night the attention is to the lamp, in the day to the altar. Why all this light and fire, besides the use of keeping the sacrifices burning?
Once again I believe this is a case of communication with God. In the past week I overheard a few conversations in various places which made me pause to think. A week ago I was in a coffee shop listening to two of the counter help talk about their cel phone use. One describes how she calls her boyfriend, he then answers and they carry their cell phones around with an open connection all day even though they don't say anything to one another. They might even watch two different television shows at the same time, once in a while making a comment to the other. At the time I thought it was a bit of a waste.
When I bought my cell phone plan I never expected to use up 99 text messages. I never saw the point. I watch people much of the time texting away and truly wondering what was so important that they couldn’t dial the person, have a short conversation and hang up. Why spend the whole day going back and forth on text messages?
My first inkling of what was going on came with my use of the internet messaging system known as Twitter. Twitter is comprised of small messages of no more than 140 characters which are sent out to a huge pool of messages. People can filter those messages by “friending” the sender, and thus become part of the conversation. Most users of Twitter may have many people they have friended, and may continually get into conversation with them. The compact size of Twitter messages, or tweets, make them ideal for mobile platform like iPhones and Blackberries while allowing for quick, short interactions. Yet as I learned, it is way too easy to leave up the Twitter connection and listen and converse all day, every day, as I experienced over the last week of December being the only one in the office all week. Twitter was on nonstop all day so I could have a connection to someone else in the lonely office. I’ve thought about this as well looking at the volume of e-mails I’m sending out lately and where most of them are headed to. I’ve also lately been getting closer to that 99 per month text message limit. I’ve been having a need to connect with someone lately and often.
Human beings are not meant to be alone. However, John Donne was wrong, all men are islands. Every human being is isolated from everyone else. Yet these islands are close enough that we can build bridges or send messages in bottles. As the classic song Message in a Bottle by the Police describe it:

Seems I’m not alone at being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home

Bridges to other islands take many forms, as do message in bottles. Even if a bridge is not used, there is a sense of comfort in having the bridge always there. All that electronic communication by cell phone, text message or Twitter all points to the same thing: our need to connect off of our own little island. The bridge's importance is not in its use, but that the bridge is there to be used if we want to. A cell phone with silence, but the knowledge that some will talk to you if you speak into it is more of a comfort than many will be prepared to admit.
For humans of course there are more than electronic methods of communication. Nothing beats face to face contact. Sitting down by someone and merely looking at them is a far more powerful experience than anything done on an internet service. Being in the room makes a huge difference. Judaism often makes sure there is such contact, from the minyan required for the recitation of Kaddish, to the Passover Seder, to shiva calls and visiting the sick, to the debate of a hevruta. Face time is important and vital to our well being. Yet, what about God, who we cannot see face to face and live?
Like the electronic bridges and bottles of a cell phone or Twitter, just leaving the line open is a connection. One such connection is found in the eternal fire. It is the carrier signal, the sign that communication is open between the Divine and us. It is the hiss in the background of an open cell phone connection. Even if we are silent, there is connection and communication. In light and smoke, it is a statement that we want to communicate, if only we had something to say. In tending the fire and adding the firewood, the priesthood kept the connection going to God who is looking to us as a partner in creation and communication.
Yet today we have no altar. A continual fire is only in the ner tamid of the synagogue. Or is it? While it may not be continual in the sense of never going out, there may be something to replace the altar. One can remain on the internet non-stop, receiving information. Or at a specific time every day one can get on and check e-mail and chat. Just the act of that one daily ritual may accomplish the same thing as nonstop communication. Checking in with one regularly may indeed be even more powerful as we do not take the connection for granted, which we might for a nonstop connection. In my mind at least, the lighting of candles before Shabbat, Passover or any holiday is that periodic reconnection. By doing it under regular circumstances, we make the connection forever, yet we do not take it for granted. It becomes far more precious. The fires of Shabbat candles are as sacred as the altar. We connect with God and make those bridges with the lights of those candles. The eternal fire continues, not in one altar in one place, but candles everywhere at sacred times.