זוהר ויקרא — דף כז ע”א

The verse "Command Aaron and his sons" carries a double secret: "Command" (tzav) alludes to idolatry, to the spirit of impurity, while "saying" (leimor) alludes to the wife, called the fear of the Lord (as in "saying, if a man sends away his wife," Jeremiah 3). From this the priest is given the task of repairing everything through the secret of man and beast, and of separating the spirit of impurity from the holy place through the smoke and the fats that are burned.<br />
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Happy is the portion of the righteous who know the ways of the Torah and walk in it in truth, of whom it is said (Isaiah 31), "The Lord, through them, they shall live" — they shall endure in this world and in the world to come.<br />
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Rabbi Chiya explains "This is the law of the burnt offering": "this" is the Assembly of Israel, and "the burnt offering" is that evil thought which rises against man's will to turn him from the path of truth and accuse him; it must be burned in fire so that it is given no place to accuse.<br />
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"Upon its hearth, upon the altar, all night" — the "night" is the Assembly of Israel that comes to purify man from that evil will; the "hearth" is the River of Fire, a place to burn those who do not stand in their own endurance and to remove their dominion from the world; therefore the fire must remain burning all night so that the other side is subdued and does not rule. When that power is subdued and separated, the Assembly of Israel — the holy spirit — rises and is crowned above; therefore the secret of the offering requires separating that side from the holy spirit and giving it its portion, so that the holy spirit may ascend.<br />
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Rabbi Acha asks: "And the fire shall burn on the altar... and the priest shall kindle wood upon it every morning" — yet fire, everywhere, is judgment, and the priest comes from the right side, far from judgment; why then is it placed upon him to kindle a fire of judgment? The answer: a person who comes to sin before his Master burns himself in the flame of the evil inclination, which comes from the side of the spirit of impurity, which thus dwells within him. At times offerings arising from that side become known, and one must offer upon the altar something resembling it; and that spirit of impurity is neither consumed nor nullified — neither from the person nor from the side from which it comes — except by the fire of the altar, which burns away the spirit of impurity and the evil species from the world. The priest's intention in this is to establish a fire that will burn away the evil species from the world.