A Thought on Parshas Vayikra

"..v'archu eitzim..." "...and you will arrange the firewood..." (1:7) The fire altar was arranged daily with wood to keep the flames ongoing. Our sages state that virtually any tree could be used in providing that firewood. The two exceptions were olive wood and grapevine wood. What made those trees unfit for usage in the Temple? Both are able to burn and can fuel a good fire. What was the reason to exclude them? Rabbeinu Avigdor offers that we have a principle called "ma'alin ba'kodesh" which means that we aim for the highest possible utilization of a substance or object when employing it in the service of HaShem. Once we dedicate something for sacred use, we cannot utilize it for a lower purpose, even in the service of HaShem. I will offer an example. Let's say that the paroches - the curtain on the Torah ark - is worn and frayed, so a new one is purchased. You might think that we can take the old one and cut it up and stitch the pieces together into a bunch of tallis bags. After all, a tallis is used in helping a man perform the mitzvah of serving HaShem through prayer, so why not appropriate the old cloth and recycle it? The answer is that we move up in matters of kedusha, and not down. A tallis bag is important yet it serves a relatively lesser function than a paroches. The halacha is ma'alin ba'kodesh. Now how does Rabbeinu Avigdor relate this to excluding grape and olive trees from firewood on the sacred Altar? He explains that grapevines produce grapes, which yield wine, which was used in the sacrificial service (nechasim or libations). Olive trees produce olives which yield oil which was for use in the mincha offerings. Hence, we dedicate those trees to filling those higher purposes, not to a lower purpose of providing wood for fire. This is the halachic perspective. Now Rabbeinu Avigdor enters into a mystical midrashic perspective. The products of the olive and grape "save" their respective trees from being burned. The higher functions of wine and oil allow the wood to be spared from incineration. From this he now sees a mystical halacha: children who live righteous lives can redeem their wicked parents from suffering Divine consequences. He notes that Avraham our Patriarch saved his father Terach from gehinom as is implied in the verse (Bereishis 15:15) where HaShem pledges that Avraham will join his father in the eternal life. Furthermore, we find a verse in Koheles (4:1) which laments the tears of the oppressed "with none to comfort them" and how those who once oppressed them now also find none to comfort them. The verse is difficult to decipher yet Rabbeinu Avigdor cites a midrashic teaching which explains that pure children succeed at comforting their troubled parents in the eternal life. The oppressed child who had no spiritual succor at home, yet finds the Torah path, will ultimately soothe the oppressive parent through that child having led a better life than the parent. That is how a product with a higher function can spare its source from a lesser fate. Rabbeinu Avigdor asserts his psak - his ruling - that righteous children can bank on their merits to rescue their parents from a harsh decree. And this is learned from his analysis of how grape and olive wood is not burned on the altar. Good Shabbos. D Fox