Beth HaDerech; Messianic Jewish Congregation, Toronto, Canada

Black Fire on White Fire

אֵשׁ דָּת The last portion of the Torah includes one of its more esoteric phrases -”eish da’at, the fiery law.” (Deuteronomy 33:2) The Midrash concludes that this phrase is a description of the Torah. In its words: “eish shahor al gabei eish lavan.” The Torah is written “black fire on white fire.” (Midrash Tanhuma, Genesis 1) What exactly does this mean? On the simplest level, black fire refers to the letters of Torah, the actual words, which are written in the scroll. The white refers to the spaces between the letters. Together the black letters and white spaces between them constitute the “whole” of the Torah. On another level, the black fire represents the p’shat, the literal meaning of the text. The rabbis point to the importance of p’shat when stating “the text cannot be taken out of its literal meaning.” The white fire, however, represents ideas that [...]