Fire Burning

We have recently begun reading the book of Vayikra, also known as Leviticus. While Breishit and Shmot, the past two books of the Torah, have been mostly narrative and stories, this one, simply put, is not.

How can we make sense of and relate to a book that discusses the duties of the priests when most of us aren't priests and we don't (YET) have the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple?


In the beginning of Tzav, the parsha that we just finished, the Cohanim are instructed to leave a fire burning on the mizbe'ach, the altar. This fire burns the sacrifice all night and they "clean up" (a bit more complicated than that) in the morning.
How can we even BEGIN to relate to this?
Well, each of us within us has a metaphoric mizbe'ach - although we don't live in the Beit HaMikdash times (YET), we are each able to access and utilize our own altar. On that altar, we have a fire that is always burning. That fire is the spark of Gd within every person. No matter what, that fire is never extinguished. That fire enables us to make our own sacrifices, whether that be taking on a new mitzvah, davening, learning, granting yourself the permission to feel or do what you aren't accustomed to. The goal of the korbanot, the sacrifices, was to become closer to Gd (Korbanot comes from the root of karov, to come close!). We, too, are able to come closer to Gd if we recognize and appreciate that fire that always burns within each and every one of us. Often we feel as though we need to look outside of ourselves for the resources to change when in fact, more often than that, Gd has already given us the resources and tools that we need!