Weekly Message

10 April 2025

This week’s parashah, Tzav, begins with the laws of the olah, the whole burnt offering that was sacrificed twice daily when the Temple stood. When the priests removed the ashes of the olah from the altar, they were not permitted to dispose of them just anywhere. They had to bring them to a place that was ritually pure.  Even the ashes remained holy.

Rabbi Yaakov of Ishbitza explained that those ashes are a metaphor for people who seem to have no spark of holiness left burning in them.  No matter how far from God we drift, the possibility of return is always there.  As images of God, we have a holiness that never leaves us.  We must never give up on the possibility that the embers can re-ignite. Or, to say the same thing in the language of Pesah: No matter how deeply we have descended into exile in Egypt, we still have the capacity to hear God’s call.

A true spiritual community is a place where even those who feel farthest from God can find a home, and perhaps renew the spark of holiness inside them. By training our eyes and hearts to recognize the sacred potential in others — and ourselves — we keep the embers warm.