זוהר ויקרא — דף ל ע”א

Folio 30a completes the Tosefta opened at the end of 29b: "al moqdah" — because the River of Fire (Nehar Dinur) is the place where all who do not stand firm are burned, cast into that blazing fire which strips away their power over the world; so it shall not rule all night, but be subdued. The Zohar continues with Rabbi Yitzchak's teaching on Elijah's theophany at Horeb (1 Kings 19): "behold, the Lord passed by," a great and strong wind — the wind mentioned above, yet "the Lord was not in the wind." After the wind comes the earthquake (cf. Ezekiel: "a spirit lifted me and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing"), and after the earthquake, fire (cf. Daniel: "a river of fire went forth and flowed before Him"). Rabbi Yitzchak links this to Ezekiel's vision of the Chayot: "the appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches," the fire moving among the Chayot and flashing lightning, and after the fire — "a still, small voice." This voice is the final voice, a silence with no speech of its own, silent by itself; when they gather around it, it is heard in all the worlds and all tremble at it. It is "small/fine" because it is the smallest and most delicate of all. Rabbi Chiya expounds "fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar, it shall not go out" as the fire of Isaac, alluded to in "behold the fire and the wood" of the Akedah — the perpetual fire that always stands, the wood being Abraham's wood, per "the priest shall burn wood on it every morning." From Isaac's fire flowing to the altar, a coal goes out to each of the four directions — east, west, north, south — to the four corners of the altar, which the priest circles. On the altar is a ramp with known levels, the lowest level descending to the upper abyss; when the coals reach the four corners, a spirit awakens and descends to that abyss. In that place are found hosts upon hosts saying "Holy" in various voices — a loud, supreme voice on one side, a voice of supreme sweetness on another, further hosts on a third side — and so at the four corners, six hundred thousand myriads of hosts at each corner, all clothed in the ephod, standing to arrange the service of the altar opposite the lower worlds. Elsewhere are the waves of the sea that roar and descend by levels, where hosts praise in a sweet voice, "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place," unceasingly day and night. Elsewhere still, hosts stand in fear and trembling, gazing toward that altar above. When Isaac's fire reaches the altar, many sparks rise and fall in every direction, from which mighty heroes of the world blaze forth; and were it not for the priest standing at the altar arranging the wood, the world could not stand before them. From these coals and sparks the Chayot themselves also blaze, like the appearance of torches. From the right side of the Chayot a supernal spirit awakens, blowing and settling in the fire, blazing and becoming sweet, then subsiding into a precious radiance illuminating the hosts on the right; from the left side another mighty spirit awakens, breaking rocks, strengthening itself in the fire, and illuminating (blazing) the hosts on the left — so for all four sides and four camps, all becoming sweetened when the priest ascends the altar. The folio closes with Rabbi Abba's teaching on the two altars below and two above: one, the innermost of all, where the inner, fine incense is offered — the bond of faith — bound by the supreme priest through that bond of faith; this is the Golden Altar, from which the bond of faith is tied in a single knot. The other altar is the Bronze Altar, situated outside, on which Michael the great prince offers a pleasing sacrifice to the Holy One. And below — the Golden Altar and the Bronze Altar: on one, incense; on the other, fats and sacrificial portions.