Musar zu Owadjah 1:18

Let us return to the statement “ה' אחד ושמו אחד.” The mystery of G–d's Unity, and the Oneness of His name, is compared in the Sefer Yetzirah and all other Kabbalistic texts to the relationship between a flame and a glowing ember. The same relationship exists between Jacob and Joseph; Jacob is the glowing ember, the fire attached to the coal, whereas Joseph is the (disembodied) flame. Scriptural proof for this idea is found in Ovadiah 1,18 where the prophet describes בית יעקב אש ובית יוסף להבה, "the house of Jacob as fire and the house of Joseph as flame." The letters of the word אש, are also the respective first letters of אמת and שלום, which are the attributes of Jacob and Joseph respectively.

לא תגנובו, "Do not steal," alludes to Adam who was a thief. נטע רבעי, the legislation of sanctifying the fruit of a tree in its fourth year, alludes to Noach who was drunk on a Wednesday. When a stranger (convert to Judaism) takes up residence among you, etc.," is an allusion to the first convert, Abraham. The prohibition of offering one's children as a sacrifice to the Moloch (20,2) is not part of the general prohibition to worship idols, but concerns itself specifically with the worship of fire. There are two kinds of fire. There is the fire described by the prophet Ovadiah 1,18 in the words: והיה בית יעקב אש, "The house of Jacob will turn into fire." This is a sacred fire, because the Lord your G–d is also called "fire." Also the fire in the Temple (Deut. 4,24) was sacred fire. However, there is another kind of fire, the fire of Esau, the fire of purgatory, a destructive fire emanating from the קליפה. When discussing the Moloch, the Torah adds (20,3) למען טמא את מקדשי ולחלל את שם קדשי, "and he so defiled My Temple and profaned My holy Name." How does the Temple feature in this paragraph? What does a fire-offering to the Moloch have to do with the Temple? The Torah wishes to point out that though fire-offerings to the Moloch are an abomination, there are fire- offerings such as the ones brought by Jacob which reflect the highest level of sanctity. When the Torah writes: והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים, it is an instruction to sanctify את קדוש יעקב, the G–d considered as the personification of holiness by Jacob. This is merely another way of saying: קודש ישראל לה', or that His name is called ישראל, the concept known as ישראל סבא, the first manifestation of G–d when He commenced creating the universe as a יש מאין by means of the first נקודה, as we explained above.

Immediately Moses had heard all this he understood that all the exiles the Jewish people would have to suffer in the course of their history can be traced back to the original sin committed by Adam. This has been explained in the opening passage of Midrash Eichah Rabbah on Hosea 6,7: והמה כאדם עברו ברית בגדו בי, "They transgressed the covenant just like Adam, they betrayed Me." This is the reason why G–d Himself grieved over Adam and is quoted as saying איכה about his downfall (Genesis 3,9). Jeremiah simply paraphrased G–d when he commenced his famous elegy with the words איכה ישבה בדד. We can extend this allegory even further: Consider that immediately after the passage dealing with the בן סורר ומורה the Torah continues (21,22) that the body of a person found guilty of a capital offence who has been executed is to be hung on a tree. The verse is an allusion to Adam who had eaten from the tree of knowledge and thereupon experienced the death penalty. However, the Torah goes on in 22,1 that in the future the "ox of your brother who has broken down" will not remain outcast forever, that it is Israel's task to assist in the rehabilitation of Adam by keeping the Torah's commandments.

The common denominator between these allusions to Chanukah and our פרשיות, is that the whole purpose of exile is to achieve the physical and spiritual refinement which leads to ultimate redemption. All vestiges of the influence of the original serpent and subsequent Samael must be eliminated before "the house of Jacob will become fire and the house of Joseph a flame, whereas the house of Esau will become straw." (Ovadiah 1,18).